This looks like Netflix's best action film of the year

Netflix has dropped a new trailer for an upcoming action movie, and if it doesn't get your pulse racing, it may be time for a health check-up.

That movie is Rebel Ridge.

It stars Aaron Pierre as a former marine who encounters discrimination and corruption in the local police force, headed up by Chief Sandy Burnne, played by no less than Don Johnson.

Some of you may want to avoid the trailer below. But if you don't mind a sneaky peek at some of the film’s action sequences, it's worth soaking up.

Of course, trailer-craft is its own sort of art form. However, we have real faith Rebel Ridge is going to be something special.

Why? Jeremy Saulnier. He is writer and director of Rebel Ridge, and was behind two of the most satisfyingly brutal revenge-tinged movies of the last decade and change: Green Room and Blue Ruin.

Saulnier’s first Netflix-distributed movie, 2018’s Hold the Dark, wasn’t quite as strong as his two previous smashes. It was also not written by him, but by his long-term friend and collaborator Macon Blair, who also wrote and directed 2023's The Toxic Avenger.

Saulnier both writing and directing movies seems to be a good combo.

We don’t have too long to wait to see if Saulnier has managed to recreate the power of his A24-distributed films with Rebel Ridge. It's out on September 22.

It has attracted a whole heap of comparisons to Rambo: First Blood, in which Sylvester Stallone’s green beret veteran faces-off against a sheriff and his cronies. But the links to Green Room are just as prescient.

It’s a tale of generally decent folks against a host of awful racists. Green Room doesn't appear to be available to stream through any of the usual suspects in the US or UK at the moment, but it's well worth a rental.

According to Saulnier, Rebel Ridge was made with a production budget of around $40 million. That’s radically higher than the $5 million of Green Room or the $420,000 of Blue Ruin. It’s even far higher than Saulnier's first Netflix film Hold the Dark, which reportedly cost $15 million.

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