Ride Along

Starring: Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, John Leguizamo, Laurence Fishburne, Tika Sumpter, Bruce McGill, Bryan Callen, Jay Pharoah
Directed by: Tim Story
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Comedy
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A cowardly security guard (Kevin Hart) agrees to go on a ride along with his girlfriend's (Tika Sumpter) cop brother (Ice Cube) and quickly finds himself in over his head.

Review:

Tim: I was pretty excited to see Ride Along- the film made a ton of money at the box office, and Kevin Hart's star has rapidly risen in recent years. I was looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately, it's much ado about nothing. This film is your typical weak action comedy that never manages to be very funny or very thrilling. It's a by-the-book film that doesn't inspire for a second.

I was looking forward to seeing why Kevin Hart has had such a fuss made about him. I'm not sure if this film is any indicator, but I was really disappointed in his performance. He had a few very funny moments (his delivery of "You're white! You're white! You don't fight!" was perfect, but the rest of the movie, he was an overacting, annoying pest. He spent most of the film theatrically crying or yelling and I honestly don't know how anyone found him funny. His performance wasn't believable. He felt like a little bratty kid thrust on stage and he wanted to take advantage of the limelight to deliver an all-out performance. He desperately needed a little restraint and to make his character seem more believable. Hart really made a mess of this film.

Ice Cube wasn't much better. Cube (is that what you call him? I never know) certainly has the potential to be good, but he wasn't here. His character was completely one dimensional. The writing was absolutely awful- his one note character was a complete farce- a cardboard cutout of an actual human being. I was really disappointed in his performance here, but the writing is very much to blame as well. Laurence Fishburne shows up way too late and again is greatly hampered by poor writing. I always like seeing John Leguizamo, but he doesn't have much to do. I did think Tika Sumpter gave at least a decent performance. I've never seen her before, but I saw enough potential here to wonder what she could do with a halfway decent script.

The story just felt like a poor mishmash of dozens of other movies. The story was completely predictable. It offered no real surprises and telegraphed the next development far too much in advance. All these weak elements completely bog down the film. There wasn't anything that felt new or fresh. It felt like we had seen this all many times before and the execution was lacking here. So many of the film's jokes fall completely flat. I just kept shaking my head and wondering how this movie made so much money.

I really wanted to like Ride Along. It's been a while since we had a really good, entertaining action movie, buddy cop flick. This movie had a lot of potential, but none of it is realized. I admit this film isn't terrible, but man, it could have been so much better than the final project. Unfortunately, with the box office take, we're going to be seeing the inevitable sequel. Based on this film, I dread the next one.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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