Rebel Ridge

Synopsis

A former Marine is working to bail out his cousin, but on his way to the courthouse to make the payment, a corrupt police force pulls him over for dubious reasons.

Review

So I need to get a couple of things out of the way. First off, MCMAP Instructor (pronounced mic-map) is not a primary MOS in the Marines. As a 0917, a E4 Corporal would not be able to elect to make that a career move. It has a 09XX designator which means that it falls into training like Drill Instructor and Combat Instructor which are billets and not a full-time MOS. Secondly, He enlisted in 2013 if he got out of 2017 which means that unless he served with an infantry unit for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), which was very few, he of course would not have deployed which is just a stupid comment to make by the police. They obviously have no idea so why the comment?

Ok, on to this otherwise outstanding movie. All the major players, Aaron Pierre, AnnaSophia Robb, Don Johnson, David Denman, are so good. Playing there characters with such dedication and religiousness to them. None of these people failed at making you believe they are who they are.

The story premise as far as the cause of the story is absolutely believable. Civil forfeiture is something that is crazy and should not be a thing that anyone can do. The quick and dirty of it is that if police "think" the money you are carrying is tied to drugs, they can seize it. Then the court will file a charge against the MONEY, not you, and then the money goes to the police that arrested you. For some more in-depth information, you can watch this video. The rest of the story is fine, the moves that Aaron Pierre does are accurate to MCMAP and I especially liked the wrist lock while driving. Solid move.

There are some emotional beats that I think just miss the mark. You don't have enough information or weight for it to make it have the impact I think they wanted. This wasn't that type of movie even with the exposition, it just didn't hit right.

The weirdest thing? There is no mention of "Rebel Ridge" other than once, and it doesn't play a part in the movie.

My Rating

I started watching this at around 11 pm thinking I was going to watch for 30 minutes and then turn it off, but it was so good I finished it at 1 am. It had excellent pacing and an easy-to-follow story beat with good action. It isn't perfect with some completely made up parts, but it works. Rebel Ridge is a nice change to see some less famous cast do outstanding work. Please find and watch this 8.

Parental Rating

There is light language, with some off camera drug use, and no sex. The violence is there, but it is mostly fist fight style with no profuse blood. There is one scene that does have some blood, but it doesn't stick around for a long time so it isn't bad. This movie is about doing the right thing, no matter the cost especially for family. With a side of revenge and justice. Approved by both.

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