Director Tim Story
Genre Action | Comedy
Cast Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, Olivia Munn, Ken Jeong
Rating PG-13
Release Date January 15th, 2016
“As his wedding day approaches, Ben heads to Miami with his soon-to-be brother-in-law James to bring down a drug dealer who’s supplying the dealers of Atlanta with product.”
Ride Along released in theaters in 2014 to a collective yawn from critics but that didn’t slow down the comedy starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. The film had total domestic gross earnings of $134,938,200 with a budget of $25 million, according to Box Office Mojo. That is a ridiculous return on investment and all but guaranteed a sequel.
Let me just cut through the crap and say that as a fan of quality filmmaking of varying degrees, Ride Along 2 left me feeling somewhat cheated. I enjoyed the first film and felt that it was a quirky comedy that included a cast with solid chemistry, and it simply worked without trying to do too much. When I received word that they would be doing a sequel primarily due to the financial success of the first film I was excited especially considering the addition of Ken Jeong (The Hangover). I went to see Ride Along 2 a few days after its release and I felt like the cast basically did their best sleepwalking impression during the entire film just to collect a paycheck.
The first film had a formula that worked, taking advantage of a strained humorous relationship between Kevin Hart and Ice Cube. I enjoy Hart’s over the top brand of humor and to me Ice Cube sort of balances him out with his laid back demeanor. Ride Along 2 literally and figuratively took away all of the fun in the first film and replaced it with jokes that wouldn’t have landed in my local comedy club (and they charge $5 a ticket, think about that). The sequel finds itself in Miami, FL and I find it a bit concerning that the hit serial killer series Dexter gets me more excited about visiting the Sunshine State.
Ride Along 2 felt lazy, forced, and downright criminal given the abilities of its cast. I laughed a few times but I couldn’t overlook the fact that I was being spoon fed a bland storyline with next to no creativity involved. Director Tim Story has shown that he understands how to use Kevin Hart as an actor given the success of the film Think Like A Man, but that also had a crash landing of a sequel so maybe he should get out of the sequel business altogether. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.
