One thing that many Netflix subscribers have become accustomed to over the years is the general mediocrity of most Netflix original movies. While the streaming service has some bangers when it comes to TV shows, the quality of the movies – especially in 2024 – has been mediocre at best.

Just think of the horrible things we have had to endure this year: Rebel Moon Part 2 was even worse than the first of Zack Snyder’s space opera flops. It scored a lousy 16% on Rotten Tomatoes. Jessica Alba’s Trigger warning was an action film that put most critics to sleep, and didn’t fare much better with a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. Jennifer Lopez played the lead role in the widely panned Atlas, which did even worse with 19%. None of these films were much more successful with audiences.

The only film that Netflix released that received really good reviews from audiences and critics was Glen Powell’s Killer, a film by Richard Linklater. It got 95% from critics and 91% from audiences, but it was a really mediocre film and those ratings are still a mystery to me. I really can’t understand why so many people liked it.

Even the spy film with Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry The Union failed to impress audiences and critics, receiving a critics’ score of 39% and an audience score of 21%. Netflix has struggled to land a hit all year.

Finally, 2024 has its Netflix original hit in the form of Rebel Crest (another film called Rebel, but not to be confused with Rebel Moon). At the time of writing, the Jeremy Saulnier-directed film has 95% from critics and 78% from audiences. I watched it last night and it satisfied my action movie cravings.

In many ways it is a throwback to older action movies of the 90s, but perhaps it is more of a Jack Reacher Film without Reacher. Instead, Aaron Pierre plays Terry Richmond, an ex-Marine who finds himself confronted with a corrupt police chief and a lot of trouble in the small southern town of Shelby Springs.

Pierre is very much a Reacher character (the joke “black Reacher” is certainly fitting) and Rebel Crest is very similar killing ground, the first by Lee Childs Gripper Novels and the basis for the first season of Amazon Prime Video’s Gripper series – the good season, not the terrible second season. If you don’t mind that it’s obviously pretty corny, and you want a good action movie with likable leads and a fun little plot, this is great Friday night popcorn entertainment. Pierre is perfect in the role: Huge, muscular, and just charming enough to pull it off, with piercing eyes that really show intelligence behind the muscular body.

Here is the trailer:

Richmond is no drifter, but like Reacher, he is a former soldier and highly trained and dangerous. Things take a turn for the worse when he is hit by a local cop while on his bike. The police search him and find $36,000 in his backpack – his life savings – which he planned to use partly to bail out his cousin and partly to open a business. They confiscate the money, citing civil asset forfeiture laws, which poses a problem for Richmond, as he must bail out his cousin before he ends up in prison, where his life is in grave danger.

From then on, things get worse and worse, as the local police force, led by police chief Sandy Burnne (perfectly played by Don Johnson), turns out to be deeply corrupt.

Like Reacher, Richmond must take matters into his own hands, with a little help from local court assistant Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb) – basically the Rosco equivalent – ​​a woman with a good heart and a dark backstory. There are a few little twists, but overall this is a straight-up action film. Also stars David Denman (The office) and the always great James Cromwell (LA Confidential).

Non-lethal weapon

One of the things that really sets this film apart from all others, Gripper Story and pretty much every action movie I’ve ever seen is that Richmond is not a killer. He uses non-lethal tactics throughout the movie and the body count at the end is shockingly low for a movie with so much violence. It’s actually quite refreshing.

Is it perfect? ​​Of course not. Although there are moments of humor, it remains a pretty serious affair and I think the best action films are those with a good sense of humor – think Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys and so on. Is it worth seeing? I definitely enjoyed it, but I am a big fan of the Gripper Books and that kind of popcorn action movie. And even though it’s about a black man wrongfully targeted by the police, it never comes across as too didactic. This isn’t a film that relies on current politics to work, which I appreciate. It does take on corrupt cops and our unjust justice system, but never at the expense of the story or entertainment value.

If you like this kind of movie, give it a try. I suspect – and hope – that there will be a sequel and that Pierre will turn it into a franchise. Netflix could definitely use some quality action movies, after all. (I liked the extraction Films with Chris Hemsworth, but no new film has been released on Netflix for several years).