Known for directing The Fantastic Four, Barbershop and Think Like a Man, director Tim Story’s latest is a generic buddy cop comedy that certainly suits its January theatrical release. His new film, titled Ride Along, follows a high school security guard named Ben (Kevin Hart) whose goal is to join the police academy and propose to his girlfriend, Angela (Tika Sumpter). The only problem is that his girlfriend won’t marry him without her brother James’ (Ice Cube) blessing. James is a dedicated, no nonsense Atlanta cop who trusts no one, is obsessed with finding one specific criminal, and is highly protective of his sister. On top of that, he doesn’t like Ben so he tells Ben to come on a ride along in order to prove his worth and, should he succeed, he’ll give him his blessing to marry Angela.
I went into Ride Along with very low expectations and without seeing one trailer for the film, and I’m very glad I did. The movie ended up being surprisingly funny so long as Kevin Hart was on screen. He’s the only reason to see the film. He and his Black Hammer persona make it worth your while but that’s only if you haven’t seen the trailers (or so I’m told). Apparently, this is one of those cases where a lot of the best comedic bits are given away in the trailer, so what was a surprise to me may be an old joke to you.
To be honest though, Ride Along feels kind of like the black version of The Other Guys just with a lot less humor. Both are buddy cop movies where at least one of the characters is seen as a sad excuse for a cop or, in Ride Along’s case, a wannabe cop and soon they are on the case of a big bust. The main reason The Other Guys works so much better than Ride Along is that both the hard-ass cop and the “soft” cop contribute a lot of laughs whereas in Ride Along it is very one sided. Ice Cube may have a funny line here and there but he really isn’t the one that gets people laughing, it’s always Kevin Hart and this unbalanced delivery of humor is what really throws Ride Along off course.
If you’re an avid first person shooter gamer then I think you’ll, at the very least, be mildly amused by Ride Along. Kevin Hart’s character Ben is a high ranking player who knows everything about guns and the sounds they make thanks to his obsessive playing of a Call of Duty type game. When he goes into the field he is clearly in over his head but he is able to show off his knowledge from time to time, hilariously putting James in his place thanks to his addiction to video games. Online he is known as the Black Hammer and there are a lot of great jokes that come from it.
While there are some good laughs throughout the film, Ride Along isn’t a movie that I would pay for at a theater at this point in my life. It certainly is a film that I’d see if I were still in high school or college and wanted to go to the movies during a crappy January. That being said, I’d have no problem watching Ride Along once it hits DVD, in fact, if I hadn’t seen it at a press screening I undoubtedly would have rented it once it hit the market if I wanted to have an easygoing night with a mindless comedy.
Rating: A generic and moderately funny buddy “cop” comedy best seen on your couch rather than in theaters (4.5/10)
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