Review of Ride Along (2014) by Dawdlingpoet — 27 Nov 2021

This is an action comedy film, with themes including comararderie, vigiliantism and deception. It is fast paced and quick witted (read - fast talker). Ben comes across as quite comic, seeming to have an almost rubber-y face, a bit like Jim Carrey seemed in his '90s comedy films. His physical movements look quite exaggerated at times and the plot is relatively zany, so the combination is well suited. The film has a decent cast, in the form of Kevin Hart playing Ben Barber (said rubbery comic guy) who comes across as hyperactive, a bit like the Duracell bunny, buzzing and always on the move - he reminded me somewhat of Eddie Murphy in his 1980s action roles. Meanwhile Ice Cube plays the other main character, James Payton, who is more laidback and tries his best not to let Ben wind him up quite too much, as you can probably imagine. It is pretty much a typical good cop/bad cop type film, so as such it isn't particularly original, plot wise. Other cast members include Laurence Fishburne as Omar, Bruce McGill as Lt. Brooks and John Leguizamo as Santiago. This is an urban film which seems to try to be seen as urban and gritty, although I didn't feel there was a great deal of substance to it. Hence the soundtrack is pretty heavy with hip-hop tracks, such as Down the Road by C2C, Rolling & Tumbling Around by Studebaker John & The Hawks and Headband by B.o.B, alongside It Was A Good Day by Ice Cube himself. I felt that it was tried a bit too hard to be seen to be really 'cool' when it was pretty middle of the road overall, in my opinion.

The comedy is pretty juvenile (which is to be expected in this type of film I suppose), although I did laugh on a few ocassions. Its the sort of film which requires absolutely no brain power or effort to follow, with a basic plotline but it is fairly entertaining and mildly amusing, so if your mainly looking to spend an hour and a half with something to distract you and not needing a lot of concentration to follow, then you could perhaps do worse than to see this. Content wise, the film contains strong language, sex references and brief partial nudity, plus some violence with blood shown on ocassion, although nothing very gory. It carries a 12 rating to reflect this content.

There are some fairly intense action scenes, involving special effects, which are handled relatively well but for most of the film, it tends to be more dialogue heavy, with the two main characters batting insults against one another. The situations they find themselves in are pretty daft and unbelievable but it was a fun watch and I can't say it didn't entertain. Its hardly an original watch but it isn't the worst of its type either.

If you just want a basic, amusing and entertaining action/crime/comedy watch and don't mind cliches of its genre type (buddy action films), you may very well enjoy this and I'd recommend it. However, if your looking for something a bit different from the rest, then this will likely disappoint and thus I wouldn't recommend it.