Review of Ride Along 2 (2016) by Sean H — 14 Jan 2016
Second verse, same as the first. Ice Cube is still the detective giving now rookie cops Kevin Hart grief for wanting to be a detective. Both actors phone in their performances as does pretty much everyone involved in the film. They added Ken Jeong as a hacker, Oliva Munn as a sexy homicide detective and Benjamin Bratt as the bad guy. Oh, and they moved it from Atlanta to Miami Beach. It's a tired formula that we see over and over again in sequels. Same cast, a couple new faces, different locale.
The biggest problem with this movie is the complacency of everyone involved. The first one cost $25 million and made over $150 million worldwide. We call that a green light for the sequel. Ice Cube is back because he produced it, Kevin Hart is back because he'll make anything that will get him paid. The entire movie has one redeeming sequence. That is definitely not worth your $11. Hart loves to play his Grand Theft Auto type game and a car chase ensues in the film whereupon Hart gets to play GTA for real on the streets of Miami Beach. Only the screen converts to the actual game and they get a little creative with it. The rest of the film is pointless.
Our "heroes" bust a dealer in Atlanta with a flash drive that leads them to Miami where they meet a hacker (Jeong) on the run from seemingly good guy but really bad guy (Bratt) and team up with the hot homicide detective (Munn). Instead of grisly underbelly of Atlanta its night clubs, beaches, bikinis and babes of Miami. There is an incredibly predictable plot about illegal smuggling that no one seems to really care about, except for the caricature of Hart playing himself.
If you loved the first one then by all means. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and go see one of the films nominated for Best Picture. I recommend The Big Short.
This Queen was bored out of her skull. 1 out of 5 rainbows.
1 rainbow - How did this get funded?
2 rainbows - You might find something of interest here but unlikely.
3 rainbows - Serves as a useful and entertaining enough distraction as a matinee.
4 rainbows - Stop reading this review and find a theater showing this film now!
5 rainbows - I'll need to find a spot for this in my Top 100 list. Absolutely flawless.
This review of Ride Along 2 (2016) was written by Sean H on 14 Jan 2016.
Ride Along 2 has generally received mixed reviews.
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