Review of Ride Along 2 (2016) by Orlando O — 15 Jan 2016

Ride Along 2 does bring in the same humor from the first film and it does work but also fails at trying to carry the movie. The first film was not as memorable and neither as this one, but still entertaining with some laughs and a fun chemistry with Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. There are better buddy cop films like 21 Jump Street and Bad Boys movies. Ride Along 2 is a fair comedy film; it does have that redundant plot which is not the highlight of the movie. Basically, Ben (Kevin Hart) and James (Ice Cube) travel to Miami to solve a case about a drug lord Antonio (Benjamin Bratt). These type of films is not usually about having a stand out plot, just gives the two main stars a new setting for Kevin Hart and Ice Cube to argue about detective techniques from approaching different situations from questioning victims, being in a fun car chase, several shoot outs and yet again, having their Lieutenant suspend them again for losing the leads. Sure, we all can know how that would work out in the end, as Ben and James redeem themselves while tolerating each other as brother in laws. Ken Jeong and Olivia Munn are the new additions to this sequel. Jeong does deliver some fun roles and he does add some humor as a hacker who has a target after him from the bad guys. Munn, playing a Miami detective is also a fun addition, playing a stunning and a counterpart to James, as they try to work together.

The humor from the first film is still reused in the sequel, and it is not a bad thing but also not really adding anything new. Ben is still referencing a lot of his on the fieldwork from shootouts and car chases to video games. James, is still a rough and aggressive detective being hard on Ben, then again he still loses his car again in a explosion which happened before in the first film. Benjamin Bratt plays the bad guy, which his character is forgettable and clichà (C)d as the archetype, as a millionaire who pays the Miami police station for his charity. The sequence of him showing up and portraying as the nice guy does have that obvious villain sign over his head, which everyone else in the movie is blinded by it. Then again, this type of buddy cop comedy film follows all these checklist of clichà (C)d plot, new setting, and similar fun humor while bringing in Ice Cube and Kevin Hart for another round.