Go, team, go

In week one of Amazing Race, Team Houston lives to race again

Mike Wu, left, and Kevin Wu
Photo by John P. Filo/CBS
The participants in this season's "Amazing Race"
Photo by John P. Filo/CBS

The Texans may have disappointed us yesterday, but Houston’s other competing team, father and son Amazing Racers, Michael and Kevin Wu, did not. Team Houston, a.k.a. Team Jumba, finished in a respectable — we’ll call it lucky —seventh place.

Twenty minutes into the episode, it became apparent that our team would do well but not too well. The Amazing editors appeared to forget about the team for half the episode, signaling to anyone who has watched even a few competitive reality shows, that the team would not win, but would definitely be safe. In fact, Team Houston got the pleasant edit throughout the show, which depicted them as a nice, functional team, with a few weaknesses.

The race began in Gloucester, Mass., where the audience met the teams. In their introduction clip, Kevin talked a little about his online success and the guys are shown playing basketball and soccer on the mean streets of Sugar Land.

All the teams then received the Amazing ground rules, and their first destination was revealed: Stonehenge.

As we predicted, the race designers threw manual transmissions at the racers immediately upon their arrival in England, with the added challenge of a left-handed stick shift. Also as we predicted, Team Houston handled the situation with ease, unlike another parent/child team who ended up stalled on the motorway with a bunch of unhappy English drivers behind them.

So far Team Houston’s biggest weakness appears to be navigation, as they ended up in the back third of the pack on the trek from London to Stonehenge and then Stonehenge to Eastnor Castle. The challenges at the castle seemed less inspired by Medieval British history as a Monty Python movie. They had to storm the castle, climbing the castle walls while being pummeled with muddy water by some angry “serfs.” Close up shots of the peasants revealed that their anger no doubt sprang from the fact that the invading American racers probably had better dental care than they did.

One of the funniest moments of the episode occurred when Team Houston had to cross a moat in an ancient boat that looked like a giant turtle shell. Only after sinking four times and copying the technique of the father/daughter team, who passed them, did they manage to maintain their balance and pull themselves across the water. Watching their progress and their later recounting of the task gave the audience one of the best “Awwww” moments of the episode as both team members praised and encouraged the other.

After crossing the moat, teams had to hitch a ride with a knight on a horse, use a ballista to fire watermelons at a suit of armor, and finally deal with a cheeky juggler before getting their final clue to the pit stop.

Overall, Team Houston showed grace and made a better showing than our other beloved Houston team. Let’s just hope next week they can solve those navigation issues as they race around Ghana. That’s right, Ghana, because to the diabolical Amazing Race planners an England to Ghana route makes perfect sense.

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Movie Review

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck square off in Netflix crime thriller The Rip

Photo by Claire Folger/Netflix

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in The Rip.

For as closely tied together as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are, it might come as a surprise how few times they’ve led a movie together. They’ve appeared alongside each other in Good Will Hunting, The Last Duel, and Air, but the only time they were on equal footing in a story was Kevin Smith’s Dogma. So the fact that they are the two true stars of the new Netflix movie The Rip makes it a rare opportunity for the longtime friends to square off against each other.

Damon and Affleck play Lt. Dane Dumars and Detective Sgt. J.D Byrne, respectively, the two highest ranking members of a Miami police department squad that specializes in drug and drug money raids. A tragedy to begin the film already has the team — which includes Detectives Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), and Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandina Moreno) — on edge, with the FBI and DEA breathing down their neck.

Going off a tip, Dumars gathers the team to raid a house in nearby Hialeah that is supposed to have a stash of a relatively small amount of money. But when they get to the house occupied only by Desiree Molina (Sasha Calle), they discover close to $20 million. The team, required by law to count the money on site, must not only fight the urge to skim a little off the top for themselves, but also worry about the Cartel and other agencies that might want a slice of the pie.

Written and directed by Joe Carnahan, the film is a surprisingly effective crime thriller made even better by its high-quality cast, which also includes Kyle Chandler as a DEA agent. The story is designed for the audience to not know who’s trustworthy until the last possible second, and the various twists and turns it takes are well done, with barely a hint of narrative cheating.

Taking place entirely at night, the mood is set right from the start, with the only surprise being that Carnahan didn’t add in rain for extra effect. He keeps things tense with a number of subtle elements, including having the house located in a seemingly deserted cul-de-sac. This allows for the characters to remain on high alert at all times, with anything out of the ordinary — an unexpected noise, a flashing light, etc. — adding to the stress of the situation.

The only element that could have used a bit more of a punch-up is the characterization. The story is set up to cast suspicion on almost everybody, making it tougher to understand exactly what type of person each of them is. As the two leads, more time is spent with Dumars and Byrne, leaving everyone else with slightly underwhelming arcs. It’s to the credit of the actors that everyone else below Damon and Affleck is still compelling.

Damon and Affleck play their sometimes friendly, sometimes adversarial roles well, showing an ease together that’s a result of their friendship and the acting skills they’ve honed over 30+ years. Taylor, an Oscar hopeful for One Battle After Another, and Oscar nominee/Emmy winner Yeun have a pedigree that elevates their supporting roles. Chandler, Moreno, and Calle each get just enough to demonstrate why they were cast in their respective roles.

Damon and Affleck have had their individual ups and downs throughout their careers, but when they choose to work together, the results are usually good-to-great, as they are in The Rip. It’s a different take on a crime thriller that features a story that will keep viewers guessing until the very end.

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The Rip is now streaming on Netflix.

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