Official Website

Director: Tim Story

Writers: Phil Hay, Matt Manfreidi

Runtime: 102 min

Main Cast:

• Ice Cube as James Payton
• Kevin Hart as Ben Barber
• Tika Sumpter as Angela Payton
• Benjamin Bratt as Antonio Pope
• Olivia Munn as Maya
• Ken Jeong as A.J.
• Bruce McGill as Lt. Brooks

Review: by The Superior-Spider Sam

So I watched the first Ride Along thinking that the funniest pieces were in trailer, and it turns out my thought was correct. Kevin Hart and Ice Cube have both made me laugh so a team up for a cop buddy film had to be GREAT right? Well actually, the first one fell a little flat for me but I had hope it might re-up and turn into a semi-decent series similar to Rush Hour. So, on comes Ride Along 2, and I must admit I was excited to see the screener for this. Was it superior to the first? Was it full of laughs? Was it a sign of good things to come?! Hell No! Free was too high a price for this piece of $#!&.

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What I Liked:

Literally (and I’m using this word in it’s correct form) Nothing.

What I Didn’t Like:

This section would be one of those articles you open and close because it has too many words if I were to vamp like I want. So, I will stick to pure film reasons as to why this movie is trash rather than insert (a lot of) my personal feelings, but seriously I haven’t hated a movie this much since Fast 5 (albeit for completely different reasons).

The Acting

This is immediately noticeable and therefore, the most unforgivable. These people ARE ACTORS WHO DON’T ACT. Dear lord, it was about halfway through I actually had to remember I’m watching a movie and not just people talking. There is no kind of effort given by a majority of the cast. Ice Cube and Olivia Munn do not want to be there- it’s just a paycheck for them. I know that sound unfair but if you watch the movie then you will see that the entire time you are very aware that these are people who are saying lines- you do not believe that these characters are real because the actors did not breathe enough life into them.

Tika Sumpter, Ken Jeong , and Benjamin Bratt round out the rest of the cast. Benjamin Bratt actually seemed to give a care to the role and he would have been included in ‘What I Liked’ except that he couldn’t escape the horrible aura with which this movie had him trapped. Ken Jeong, let’s face it, has become a bit of a typecast. He’s the loud Asian that yells- it failed after the first Hangover and continues to fail here. Oh, and poor Tika Sumpter (whom co-site owner Leanne and I know from Gossip Girl) is sadly just a pretty face in this mess. I really dislike her character because it is so unbelievable to me that she would put up with AND be so physically attracted to her fiancée- Kevin Hart’s character.

The Jokes

You’ll notice I left Kevin Hart out when speaking on the acting above. That is because this section is mostly for him. Kevin Hart’s stand up is quite hilarious as he has a unique energy he brings on stage. In this movie (and to be fair the first Ride Along as well) he speaks with the same energy but the delivery fails….badly. I’m no sure who is to blame here, which is why I left off Kevin Hart’s name in my critique of the acting. For you see, I believe that Kevin Hart might actually be trying; yet his tries result in epic failure either because most of his “funniness” relies on him bouncing lines off of an Ice Cube who doesn’t care or because that energy which lights up the stage for standup does not translate well to film.

After a while, I was just waiting to see how the story would end so ignored the jokes and banter; but, while I was still watching hoping for laughs I could see each joke’s set-up, delivery, and eventual downfall. There were hardly any unscripted funny moments or funny faces- this movie relied on scripted jokes delivered by a cast that was just not interested in performing. Good news is the jokes were way stupid anyway so a great performance by each actor wouldn’t have helped all that much.

The Plot

I want to be able to look past this since comedy films are meant to showcase a good plot as much as they are meant to show you a good time and a good laugh. However, since I could not have a good time or laugh I had to pay attention to the story, and my oh my is it horrible. This is another thing I could rant on in itself, but just trust that to call the plot and pacing sub-par would be a courtesy. Jump cuts were all over the place. For example, a “joke” would be delivered and then IMMEDIATELY after the final word of the joke we are in the next scene with no time to absorb the “hilarity.”

I want to say that the plot for this comedy does its job to get you from A to B, but it can’t even do that correctly. It’s like it goes A-C-D-B-C-B.

Images Courtesy of IMDB