Rebel Ridge (2024) review

Former Marine Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) is riding his bicycle into the (fictitious) town of Shelby Springs, Louisiana with $36k in (legitimate) cash in order to bail out his cousin Michael (who was slapped with a misdemeanor possession charge) but is arrested by the police and has his thousands taken from him (they claim it's "drug money") - a little later, he receives much-needed guidance from law student Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb) and finds out about the misdeeds of the area authorities, led by corrupt Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson).  Although it has a promising beginning - with bad cops, a race against time, etc. - it falls apart from a logical point-of-view the longer it carries on, where Summer is repeatedly injected with drugs and eventually kidnapped, Terry is called back to rescue her and then he has to defend himself from heavily-armed hicks with only his martial arts skills and non-fatal "weapons."  Saulnier's taut direction helps mask some of the flaws of his script - which I initially thought was his take on the "Defund the Police" movement, but that required more development - and British actor Pierre (who was solid in Barry Jenkins' miniseries The Underground Railroad) emerges as a viable action hero.