Ride Along 2

Kevin Hart is one of the biggest stars today with the smallest stature I’ve seen in some time but his work in his new movie Ride Along 2 speaks volumes for how popular his particular brand of comedy is.  I love body cop movies when they are well executed but this film while competently crafted really has no business existing.  Ride Along 2 takes place shortly after Ben (Kevin Hart) has graduated from the police academy.  As usual Ben is trying to impress his soon to be brother in law James (Ice Cube) by tagging along on his investigations and providing input or help as best he can.  This time around James is trying to track down a computer hacker suspected of helping a crime lord named Antonio Pope (Benjamin Bratt) with his drug operation.  What follows is Ben accompanying James on his mission to stop Pope in Miami in hopes of finally being respected by his brother in law.

Ride Along 2 is not the kind of comedy I enjoy.  Kevin Hart while being a very likable person with plenty of charisma takes his antics of being loud and self-assured way too far.  His humor could legitimately be funny if he took it down a peg.  Ice Cube knows his range within humor and plays within it accordingly.  Cube does his best to balance Hart’s manic excitement but no matter what situation the characters find themselves in Cube’s cool as a cucumber persona does nothing to reign in the explosiveness of Hart’s actions.

One of the few positives I can give this film is that it is well lit and well shot by director Tim Story.  Nothing about this film feels excessively frantic despite the actions of Ben throughout the film.  Olivia Munn is a no nonsense supporting character that is entertaining and very easy to root for as she works well with James and Ben throughout the investigation into crime lord Antonio Pope.  I also thought that Ken Jeong as A.J. was particularly funny but unlike Kevin Hart his ability to be explosive and unpredictable is firmly set in his dialogue making his humor much more digestible for the average moviegoer.

The scenes that work best in Ride Along 2 are the ones that display the most subtlety by Hart.  An example of such restraint can be found half way through the film’s first act when both Ben and James are trying to locate A.J.  When James straight laced bad cop routine fails to get any useful information from his girlfriend about where A.J. may be located Hart asserts that A.J. has been cheating using particular ringtones to indicate how important she is in his life.  This in my mind is the type of humor that should have been on display as Hart performed.

The weakest part of the film aside from the utilization of the humor was the villain Antonio Pope.  While Benjamin Bratt as a television actor is quite strong I really didn’t find his villain to be all that compelling of an adversary.  As a comparison, if you look at the villain of Ted 2 Donny played by Giovanni Ribisi his character’s one note is being obsessed with Ted and that exceedingly well as Ribisi comes as creepy and menacing.  Bratt has none of that menace that would make Ride Along 2 exciting he’s just a means to an end much like the movie itself.

Ride Along 2 could have been a fun time at the movies if it had been properly performed by Hart and better written for Ice Cube and the supporting cast.  As such the film is below average and is a bottom of the barrel comedy despite being competently directed by Tim Story.  Skip this film as it only hurts comedy as a genre.