Rebel Ridge Movie Review

Let me tell you how not even ten minutes into this movie, I was ticked all the way off. Because who the hell are these evil, small-town, backward-ass police officers to manhandle and malign this man, Terry Richmond, who was simply riding his bike while being black!

Rebel Ridge takes place in a small town, you know the Jason Aldean type small town, the sundown type small town, the small town that you drive carefully through, the small town that really should just be avoided driving through, of Shelby Springs where Terry Richmand, former Marine, is trying to post bail for his cousin. Unfortunately, before he can do that, he runs into a pair of bad-apple-cops that abuse him and steal the money he was going to use for bail. I thought, oh this is a Jason Statham movie where he now has to kick everyone’s ass to get revenge. 

Rebel Ridge stars not-so-newcomer Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond, AnnaSophia Robb as Summer McBride, Don Johnson as Cheif Sandy Burnne, and David Denman as Officer Evan Marston. This movie was in the making for quite some time and had some delays before being released one of which was losing their leading man, John Boyega. He ended up pulling out the movie which stirred some rumors but later released a statement that he had to leave the production due to family reasons. In comes Aaron Pierre, another British actor, to take over the role. All in all the acting was solid. 

Although the overarching theme is police brutality mixed with the good old dose of small-town prejudice, Rebel Ridge introduced an overlooked area of exploitation of “legal” seizure of assets during a police stop also known as civil assets forfeiture. In the movie, Summer revealed that they can keep the money even if the person is not charged with any crimes and to get it back one would have to go through a costly legal battle which is usually not worth it. This was another layer of messed up corrupt activity happening in this town. So plot-wise and storyline-wise they had a lot to work with because that was only the tip of the corruption happening in Shelby. I thought they did a good job of not-so-subtly but subtly enough weaving those themes in. 

My main issue with this movie was that it sorta kinda got boring at times. Which, weirdly enough, I cannot completely attribute to the pacing though. I thought the pacing was good because it allowed for some understanding and background building. I really wanted to see more well-placed action. Maybe I just wanted to see more of Terry kicking ass. I cannot quite figure out what the issue was but it needed a little umph where umph was not. Aaron Pierre and how they wrote him and how he carried out the character I thought was very well done and I would love to see more of Terry Richmond. My other issue was the ending. I don’t care for ambiguity and filling in the blanks. I like things to be tied up in a nice bow and clarified. It did not give me that. 

Again, I enjoyed the cast and their chemistry. The film definitely evoked emotions and Aaron as Terry Richmond did his thing. Is he the next big thing? I hope he doesn’t have any skeletons hidden anywhere because once a brother starts to rise there’s a target on his back. I am rooting for him though. I have not watched any of his other projects except Old and I don’t remember his character so I am going to have to revisit that. The others are mostly on my avoid list but I hear he does hold his own. So I am looking forward to what he will bring to the table. 

Rebel Ridge 7.5/10