Ride Along (2014)
For the past two years, high-school security guard Ben has been trying to show decorated APD detective James that he's more than just a video-game junkie who's unworthy of James' sister, Angela. When Ben finally gets accepted into the academy, he thinks he's earned the seasoned policeman's respect and asks for his blessing to marry Angela. Knowing that a ride along will demonstrate if Ben has what it takes to take care of his sister, James invites him on a shift designed to scare the hell out of the trainee. But when the wild night leads them to the most notorious criminal in the city, James will find that his new partner's rapid-fire mouth is just as dangerous as the bullets speeding at it.
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Boring
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
Ben "The Black Hammer" Barber (Kevin Hart) is living with Angela (Tika Sumpter) the sister of super cop James Payton (Ice Cube). Ben works as a school security guard and aspires to be a policeman like James. Ben plays video games and is not highly thought of by James. When Ben asks James permission to marry his sister, James wants Ben to prove himself by going on a "ride along." While James puts Ben through the comedy ringer, he is looking for the elusive Omar (Laurence Fishburne), a major crime boss in the city.The plot was fairly simple and didn't develop the complexity or irony I was hoping for, i.e. Omar being part of Ben's on-line gamers. The comedy was akin to skit comedy with scenes being almost unrelated and the comedy of one scene not building on another. Of course one shouldn't expect too much from the guy who brought us "Employee of the Month."The movie is a good popcorn film good for a few laughs.
Ride AlongIf not for Kevin the movie is flat out exhausting, predictable and mundane no matter how much they attempt to project it in a special or unique way.
Plot; Security guard Ben must prove himself to his girlfriend's brother, top police officer James. He rides along James on a 24-hour patrol of Atlanta.This is one of the top 5 worst buddy or buddy cop films ever made. Both Ice Cube and Kevin Hart have zero chemistry with each other, Cube looks like he is bored doing this and is only doing these films for the paycheck, Hart is annoying as hell trying to be a Chris Tucker wannabe and failing. The story is generic, uninteresting, and overall boring. The action is lackluster and unmemorable. The only positive thing I can say is Laurence Fishburne who actually tries to give a performance unlike everyone else in this film.This is easily one of the worst buddy or buddy cop films ever made, don't watch it if you haven't seen it, watch good ones like Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Bad Boys, Tango and Cash just to name a few.
Ride Along is one of those examples that some sequels shouldn't be made, if they're going to do a sequel it better be as good or even better than the first. Ride Along is a pretty good buddy action comedy flick, some of the dialogue could have been changed, some of it is crass and unnecessary, but other than that it's fine, when it comes to the comedy it isn't even funny, there's only two scenes that are humorous and that is the scene where "Ben" (Kevin Hart) mistakes a woman for a man and where "Ben" pretends to be "Omar", the movie overall is watchable.The twist is predictable and is barely even a twist, it's so cliché that that plot-twist is in 80% of cop-themed films.The pacing of the film is perfect and has a cool instrumental hip hop film score composed by Christopher Lennertz.The performances are natural, the scenery is not all that, "Ben's" apartment however is very nice although on his salary as a high school security guard i doubt he would be able to afford a place like that in reality and it is never established what his fiancé does for a living.Great chemistry between Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, the Trivia says this movie was originally going to star Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds - that would not have worked, they just seem like a wrong pairing.Ride Along 2 was slightly funny at times, but it was extremely boring, Ride Along 1 is more serious, the sequel was trying to be too much like the first one with basically the same plot.Hopefully Ride Along 3 will have a better story than the sequel and hopefully it'll be as good as or even better than the first one.If you like your buddy/comedy flicks, Ride Along is worth watching more than once.