Review - Ride Along (2014)

Starring Ice Cube, Kevin Hart and John Leguizamo.
Directed by Tim Story.

Ice Cube and Kevin Hart team up in this buddy cop knockoff. I always liked Cube's partnership with Mike Epps in previous films so I was hoping for a good time with him and Kevin in Ride Along. I didn't have high expectations for Ride Along but I did expect a few laughs but much to my dismay, Ride Along's humor fell absolutely flat.

So Kevin Hart plays the character Ben, a man yearning to be in the police force and also wants to prove himself to his girlfriend's brother James (Ice Cube) and for him to approve of her hand in marriage. James decides to take Ben on a police "ride along" with him in which they tackle various setups and that's pretty much the basis of the whole film. It is very familiar; it follows along your typical buddy cop trail and Kevin Hart's annoying performance made it a very miserable experience for me from start to finish. I didn't find any of his jokes or gimmicks the least bit funny (okay, maybe just one) -- but it got to a point where I even thought Ice Cube had a much more tolerable comic presence than Hart, despite being a much more serious character.

There isn't much to praise about Ride Along. There's not alot of action and the supporting cast were just there and worked with what was given to them (which isn't much by the way). Ice Cube is the only character worth mentioning (almost reminding me of his stern character in 21 Jump Street). There were moments when I thought the plot and humor were going to pick up but it never did. Ride Along just floated around in predictable territory and Kevin Hart's overly annoying presence and constant shouting made this pairing an epic fail. This movie might be killing it at the box office but it truly killed my braincells.

Rating: 3/10