Ride Along

Cop buddy movies, this genre have been around for so long, i can´t remember all the titles. The formula may not be as popular today, as it was when Lethal Weapon became a box office hit in 1987, but there is still an audience for this type of action comedy. In the 80´s and 90´s, the cop comedies came in fast as a bullet, with all kinds of mixed actors. Some of them were good, while others turned out less good. One of the best films in this genre is without a doubt 48 Hours with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy from 1982. They had a great chemistry, and a good script to follow, that made 48 Hours a classic action comedy. Ice Cube is mostly known for his hip hop career, but he have been in many motion pictures for over 20 years. Kevin Hart is mostly known as a comedian, and have also been in many motion pictures. Both of them are ready to hit the streets, with Ride Along, an action comedy in the same pattern as Rush Hour, but without martial arts. With these 2 comedian actors, is Ride Along a fun ride, or a ride wasted for no reason at all ?

Detective James Playton ( Ice Cube ) is on an undercover operation, where fake passports are about to be smuggled inside of Atlanta. The man who is supposed to be running this smuggle shipment, is known as Omar ( Laurence Fishburne ). Suddenly a shootout takes place, and Detective James tries to sort this out. But his Lieutenant Brooks ( Bruce McGill ) does not like all the problems that James caused during this operation. So Brooks order James to drop the case, and do something else. James can not let this go, he feels that he can get this Omar guy, if he just get the right inside information. Jame´s sister Angela Payton ( Tika Sumpter ) is in love with her video game maniac boyfriend  Ben Barber ( Kevin Hart ), a high school security guard who tries to clean up school from bad influenced people. One day Ben recive a letter, he is accepted to begin his education at Atlanta City Police Academy. Angela is very pleased, and especially Ben, who belive he should be a police officer. James does not like Ben, but he have an idea. He can see if Ben is ready to work as a police officer, as they go on a ride along, on special chosen missions called 126 calls. Ben belive he is the right man for this, as he go along. He finds out that it is harder than what he thought. Ben finds out James set him up, only to do 126 calls, to test him to make a fool of himself. But Ben is not giving up, he will show that he can handle this, at the same time James is getting closer on the case of Omar. Suddenly things become more complicated than James expected.

Ride Along is a mixture of Rush Hour and Lethal Weapon, but there is a big difference. While Rush Hour and Lethal Weapon had some great comedy scenes, Ride Along tries too much to be funny. Kevin Hart and Ice Cube is not awful, but their comedy timing have some big problems, especially when Kevin Hart tries to be the next Eddie Murphy. I would say that Ride Along is a very predictable action comedy, it´s not hard to figure out the plot. The few times i did have some fun, is when Ice Cube get loud, since he is one of the few here who still knows how to make comedy films.  Remember his characters in Friday and Barbershop ? Ice Cube is a talented comedian, but here in Ride Along, he is the only reason i can have some fun moments. Director Tim Story worked with Ice Cube before, in the first Barbershop film. Since it worked so well that time around, it is a shame they could not bring the magic back on a screen. Ride Along is not the worst action comedy i have seen, but without any surprises and so little functional comedy, this falls pretty flat. Ride Along 2 is set for a 2016 release, i hope that they deliver next time, or they might as well leave this franchise alone.

Rating: DD