Review of Ride Along (2014) by Chris O — 26 Aug 2016

Kevin Hart once again shows why he's one of the most loved comedians on the planet, but it's not enough to carry a movie that's better left for TV.

Kevin Hart plays Ben, a man with a low level job and an energetic, yet weaker figure. His girlfriend just so happens to be a cop, who happens to dislike Ben a lot. In order to get her brother's blessing to marry her, Ben goes on a ride along with James. Little does he know that the job may have more in store than what he was expecting.

Now, let me tell you the one and only good thing about this movie. Kevin Hart is one of the funniest dudes that I've ever seen and at this moment, I'm not tired of him yet. His energy, his personality, his child-like mannerism, his facial expressions, his emotions, his voice, his stature, his comedic timing, it's all perfect. Hart is truly one of the best comedians I know and he hasn't failed to make me laugh. I laughed plenty of times during this movie, solely because of him. He basically carries this movie and takes a screenplay that has nothing going for it, and gives us a reason to at least give this film a chance. Some people don't like Kevin Hart, but he's one of the best comedians I know.

As for the rest of this movie, well, yeah, you know. This movie doesn't really have much going for it. It's the most basic, generic, and not so interesting buddy cop movie that I've ever seen. Literally, if Kevin Hart wasn't in this, it would probably be a terrible film. The screenplay was so generic and ill paced that it was almost laughable. The dialogue wasn't necessarily smart, it was just the add-lip and improvisation from Hart that made it decent. There's nothing special about the story and I for sure won't remember what this movie is about.

On terms of buddy-cop films, I actually like the combination of Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. These two work really well together and their opposite physiques and personalities help them compliment each other. Now Cube isn't as funny as Hart, but they both manage to build off each other to make them an enjoyable pair.

The movie tried to go a bit deeper with its plot and its character development, but it wasn't done very well. The lack of character development really shines in this movie and although there was an attempt, their execution was poor. Not only did I not really care about the characters, but I didn't learn anything that I couldn't have learned from this film's Wikipedia page.

By the way, during the finale, when Hart was all up in the warehouse leveling out his monologues, I thought that scene went on for way too long. It brought the finale to a huge halt and got you so disconnected from the film that you couldn't wait for it to end. Then the movie went on for about 20 more unnecessary minutes that I didn't care about.

Look, there's nothing good about this film, really. But if you want to pop in a mindless, stupid comedy in the background and you love Kevin Hart, I would say go for it. I own this movie simply for the occasion where I need to watch something so stupid that I can put this in. A simple review for a simple movie.