Review of Ride Along 2 (2016) by Thequietgamer — 11 Jun 2016

Like most comedy sequels, "Ride Along 2" tries to give audiences more of what they enjoyed with the first movie, only bigger. The situations Hart and Ice Cube get themselves involved in are crazier and more absurd this time around, but the real laughs still come from watching Kevin Hart's motor mouthed character getting shutdown by Ice Cube again and again.

The biggest problem with most comedy sequels is that as they get more over-the-top, they lose touch with what worked in the first movie and end up being more stupid than funny. Ride Along 2 however is one of those rare cases where bigger actually is better. The reason for that is because of it's two leads.

Both actors are completely committed to their roles. It's their enthusiasm and ability to roll with whatever situation they are thrown into that makes it all so funny. Not every joke nails the landing, but I still found plenty of laughs to be had here.

The main area where this sequel stumbles is in the actual cop side of things. The crime, villain, and detective work are all too familiar. We've seen it all before which leads to a huge sense of predictability. The set up works in allowing there to be plenty of humorous situations for the duo to get involved in, but watching them hit road bumps in their investigation that everyone who watches it will see coming from miles away just makes the characters look really stupid. At least we get some nice explosions. The firefights that surround them aren't much to talk about.

When it comes to jokes Ride Along 2 delivers. Ken Jeong is a great addition and Hart and Ice Cube are great at using their personalities to keep bouncing (most) of the jokes off of each other. It stumbles where the police work is concerned due to familiarity and the not very exciting action, but this is a comedy so it's the jokes that matter most anyway. Ride Along 2 goes bigger than it's predecessor and in a rare turn for comedies ends up better. If they can keep the Hart, Cube, and now Jeong magic going I wouldn't actually mind seeing a third movie, as there are plenty of laughs to be found here and potential to keep things going.