Starring: Kevin Hart, Ice Cube, John Leguizamo, Bruce McGill, Laurence Fishburne, Tika Sumpter.
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 99 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2014
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Ride Along is an American term, perhaps universal, for someone accompanying a police officer in his rounds. This is what it means here in this very American comedy.
Ride Along was extremely successful at the American box office – perhaps the reason that it had featured release in other countries around the world. While it is specifically geared to the American audience, especially the African-American audience, it is much more accessible than some of the other comedies, especially some in the past which have featured Ice Cube.
One of the pluses (perhaps minuses) for the film is the presence of comedian Kevin Hart. For some audiences, he will be particularly irritating with his patter and his stupidities. For others, he will be being hilarious. And, for others, he may be an acquired taste. Since he is going to appear in the number of films in coming times, his reputation and appeal will be tested.
He is the comic figure in this rather odd couple, playing Ben, the comedian, to Ice Cube’s straight man. And Ice Cube plays it very straight indeed. His James is a straight arrow policeman in Atlanta, tends to go out on his own, trying to find and confront a big drug dealer, Omar. One entertaining piece of the film is that when Omar eventually turns up, he is played by Laurence Fishburne. James has a sister who is in love with Ben. James can’t believe it and says he will only give his blessing if Ben accompanies him on a ride along.
The ride along provides most of the comedy as Ben makes out that he is a top policeman and gets himself entangled with bikie’s, one of whom is woman whom he mistakes as a man; goes to a park to interrogate a boy about his criminal brother who gets the better of him; accosts a drunken man in the supermarket; and goes to a gun range and tries out guns beyond his capacities with kickback results.
When he discovers that he has been set up for jokes at his expense and destined to fail, he decides he will play along and goes to the next episode, ultimately finding out that it is real and that he was dealing with actual gangsters.
Of course, Ben is going to prove himself and this is the case when James confronts the drug gang and Ben steps in to handle the situation – which, whether we like Kevin Hart or not, is quite funny.
All’s well that ends well, except the final boo-boo that is typical of Ben.
Anyone for Ride Along 2 – more than probably. (Actually, it is already listed in the IMDB for 2016!)
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