Details
Starring: Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, Tika Sumpter
Certificate: 12A
Runtime: 99 mins
Budget: $25,000,000 (estimated)
Review
Everything you need to know about Ride Along can be seen in the trailer. Ice Cube’s the hard-headed serious cop, and Kevin Hart’s his funny sidekick. Throw them into a comedy situation, see how it pans out, and then do it a few more times. Leave all of the character development stuff until the last ten minutes, during which time we’ll also set up a sequel so we can do it all over again. But this time, they’ll both be cops…
However Ride Along doesn't try to be something it’s not. What you see is what you get. And it’s that lack of expectation which leaves you thinking: ‘That was actually quite funny’. Mainly because it lets Kevin Hart be Kevin Hart, which subsequently makes the film half-decent. Hart hasn't had much screen time in recent years, but he has still been stealing scenes - Death at a Funeral, 40 Year Old Virgin, Scary Movie 4 (given, it wasn't the hardest job in the world to be the best thing in Scary Movie 4, but still…). Ride Along gives him reward for all that. Every joke is landed when he’s on screen, and he deflects the audience’s laughter away from how clumsy the action scenes really are.
Director Tim Story and the film’s five writers throw everything his way – from comedy pratfalls to rapid fire delivery, and he hits a home run every time. Should Ride Along 2 actually be given the go-ahead then it should feature 89 minutes of Hart, and just one minute of Ice Cube looking scornful and then saying ‘Damn!’.
But it’s Story giving him nothing to work with that lets him down. Ice Cube is basically playing a frown, which could quite possibly be bigger than Simon Cowell’s frown when he first laid eyes on Jedward. And the film’s big villain arrives so far along the line that he’s nothing more than an afterthought, a plot device to move us into the third act and the generic pay-off.
Verdict
By going in with little expectation looking for some cinematic junk food to fill a quiet evening in with your mates, Ride Along does the trick. Just don’t think it could be the next Bad Boys or Rush Hour…
Please feel free to comment below and let me know what you think of Ride Along!
