Movie Monday: Another great movie and here comes another lawsuit.

Now that the It Ends With Us Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni dueling lawsuits have settled, I thought we’d catch a break from movie set drama.

But…..

Here comes another. This time Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are involved. They’re not suing each other, though. Instead, because their movie The Rip (2026) was advertised as “inspired by true events”, two Miami-Dade police sergeants have filed a federal lawsuit saying the film falsely portrays them as corrupt cops based on their real case in which the movie seems to mimic.

Two Miami police sergeants behind a historic $22 million drug bust have filed a federal lawsuit over the 2026 movie, saying the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck film falsely portrays them as corrupt cops based on their real case. Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana filed the lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida District Court. You can read the complaint here.

In the lawsuit, it names Artists Equity, a production company founded by Matt and Ben, as well as Falco Pictures, which was also involved in producing the movie. Interestingly Netflix is not named in the lawsuit, even though they were the distributor.

Much like the movie, It Ends With Us, I also recommended The Rip to you because it was really good! In the cop action movie thriller, The Rip, the plot involves how the narcotics unit found $21.9 million hidden behind a false wall in orange buckets. But, according to this lawsuit, the central plot about their criminal behavior is fabricated and thus, damages their reputations.

The officers are seeking damages exceeding $75,000 for allegations of defamation and emotional distress. The lawsuit also accuses Hollywood as a whole of negatively depicting police in their movies and shows, drawing attention to the fact that police departments around the country are struggling with hiring and retaining police officers.

The film’s producers countered that it was a fictionalized movie and it carried a disclaimer for that very reason- explaining that the characters are not real people.

According to court documents, lawyers for the officers have until tomorrow to file an amended complaint to satisfy the judge’s jurisdictional concerns. If they fail to meet the deadline, the case would be dismissed.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, this would not be the only case brought against an artist by members of a police force for allegedly damaging their reputations. You may have seen the case against rapper Afroman play out in an Ohio courtroom in March of this year. In that instance, the rapper won. The jury jury found that Afroman was not liable for defamation against the seven Ohio sheriff’s deputies who sued him over music videos in which he used home security footage to mock their raid of his home.

Different scenarios, sure. But how close can life imitate art or art imitate life before it lands you in court with a lawsuit? Therein lies the question.

Give your own movie review or just say hi by emailing anytime: [email protected]
And tune in weekdays starting at 10am to St. Croix Country & WCFW!