We get it. Ice Cube is the stone-cold straight man and Kevin Hart is incapable of subtly. The first Ride Along was an occasionally fun romp; imperfect, but it knew what it was. As a sequel, Ride Along 2 follows that tried-and-true format by transplanting itself to an exotic location. Here our Atlanta-based heroes James Payton (Cube) and Ben Barber (Hart) are sent to Miami — cue a Pitbull song and a montage of beautiful women in bikinis on the beach. If you’re thinking, “Hey, that sounds like 22 Jump Street,” that’s where the sequel comparisons end.
As a consumer product made for the “Netflix and Chill” demographic verses an actual cinematic experience, Ride Along 2 offers more of the same with diminished returns. In Nicholas Ray’s In A Lonely Place one screenwriter insults another by calling him a “popcorn salesmen.” Here, all involved are less: they’ve created bland content to be consumed passively. Simply put, they’re data pushers. Save for a few action sequences that evoke the much better and often funnier Furious 7 (Tyrese Gibson even appears in a cameo), Ride Along 2 fails to entertain. Comedy relies upon the subversion of expectations, yet here Hart is similarly neurotic, dying for acceptance from both his wife Angela (Tika Sumpter) and his soon-to-be brother-in-law James.
Hot on the trail of a suspected drug dealer who holds a deadly flash drive, James — a seasoned detective — convinces his boss to let him lone wolf it to Miami. Ben, going crazy in the middle of his wedding planning, is sent along as a favor to Angela. Dying to prove his worthiness to both his boss and James, Ben dreams of making detective one day. Well meaning — as I’m sure the movie is — Ben can’t seem to do anything right. And neither can the film, leading to a serious of baffling moments that seem more confusing and disturbing. One involves Ben’s lack of understanding that police officers do wear bullet proof vests and another features the sexy, by-the-book detective Maya (Olivia Munn) whose computer apparently doesn’t have a password. In yet another retread we’ve seen one too many times, there’s also an obnoxious meet-cute that is involves Munn overpowering Hart.
Kevin Hart is a comedian I’ve been rough on in the past. Last year, two of his films (Get Hard and The Wedding Ringer) were among the worst of the year. Ride Along 2, unfortunately, is a candidate for that very same list. Seemingly in an awkward place, when he does what he does well (such as in 2014’s About Last Night), it works. It also helps that About Last Night, amongst its virtues, had a smart script and energetic direction.
Here, director Tim Story lets Cube and Hart be Cube and Hart, throwing a loose story involving an evil business man/drug dealer at them with a few action sequences that are fine for what they are. Hart, with a large fan base, hasn’t really branched out the way that other comedians like Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, or Chris Rock have. Where’s the incentive? It’s a shame that a guy who is quite talented when given the right material (I enjoyed his 2011 stand-up concert flick Laugh at My Pain) is pigeon-holed into the same damn thing. His fans have come to expect a certain kind of role from him as the self-aware short guy with a mouth on him, and he certainly isn’t changing that expectation up here.
Ride Along 2 progresses along with action sequences and little character development with a paint-by-numbers script by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. Ken Jeong appears as a hacker playing the same role he frequently plays, while Benjamin Bratt has a little fun with his villain, Miami business man Antonio Pope. A witty film might have insisted Mr. 305 himself, Pitbull, play the villain – but this is not that. While 22 Jump Street gave us more of the same, the filmmakers offered up some hilarious reflexivity. Maybe that’s Ride Along 2’s problem. It doesn’t quite take itself or its audience all that seriously to try something new.
Ride Along 2 is now in wide release.