I feel the need to watch a lot of comedies these days as my mood is often grumpier and more irritable than Ice Cube (in general, not just every character he plays). Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy stupid humor and low-brow comedy just as much as any genuinely moronic and slovenly mouth-breathing member of Joe Public, but Ride Along is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff.The "buddy cop" sub-genre is apparently alive and well, despite the 1980s being a distant memory. Kevin Hart is a feckless school security guard who dreams of being a real cop. In order to impress his girlfriend's overprotective big brother (the Cube) he agrees to a ride-along for a day, unaware that he's being set up for humiliation. But his convenient geekiness just so happens to help solve an important case involving a local crime boss. Honestly, the plot is so thin it could be written on the back of a postage stamp and Tim Story (an ironic surname, for sure) seems to have learned nothing since his days directing Taxi, allowing his stars to improvise to save the weak scripted material. It doesn't work.Set in the cheap, tax-break city of Atlanta, the movie looks ugly, not just because of the non-cinematic locations but because Tim Story has no idea how to use a 2.35:1 frame and photographer Larry Blanford uses the unfortunate modern aesthetic of hard contrast with oversaturated colors instead of creating an atmosphere in-camera. It's shot in amamorphic Panavision, but you'll never notice as it is so flat and nasty looking.Kevin Hart is funny but this is not a good vehicle for him. It made a lot of money, hence the sequel, but I honestly thought that this sub-genre died with the painfully unfunny Showtime back in 2002 (Remember that? No?). If you've seen one, you've seen the other, you've seen them all.Always, always, always be ex-treme-ly weary and cynical of movies that have outtakes over the end credits.I should have just watched Dragnet.

A strong and skilled cop is forced to work with an unskilled misfit who causes everything to go wrong. This has been done by mainstream Hollywood hundreds of times, this time passing on the torch to Kevin Hart. This is yet another laugh-less comedy with garbage writing from two unfunny actors. This is just a flat-out bad movie.

James Payton is a gruff Atlanta cop determined to bring down Omar, a crime boss who is so secretive that many doubt he really exists. Ben Barber is a school security guard who spends his free time playing video games... he is also living with Payton's sister and hopes to marry her. Barber successfully applies to the Police Academy so Payton invites him to spend a day with him learning what it means to be a cop... hoping that it will lead to him changing his mind. He asks the dispatcher to send him to the most annoying calls; asking bikers to move from a handicapped parking zone, dealing with a drunk in a market and asking a child to divulge the whereabouts of his criminal brother. A stop at a shooting range provides an unexpected lead to Omar. Before the day is over things are going to get far more dangerous than either man expected.This isn't the greatest of police comedies but it still provides a decent number of laughs and a solid enough central story. Ice T and Kevin Hart are fun as Payton and Barber; two very contrasting characters. It is very easy to believe that Payton really doesn't like his prospective brother in law... admittedly Barber is one of those characters who are amusing in a film but would be infuriating in real life. It is Hart who brings most of the laughs as Barber gets caught up in events that he doesn't really understand. The action is decent enough with a fun little car chase at the start and a good shootout and explosion at the end. There aren't too many surprises but that isn't really a problem as the hunt for Omar is there so we can see our protagonists in a dangerous situation rather than just the early 'Code 126' annoying callouts. Overall this certainly isn't up there with the likes of 'Beverly Hills Cop' or 'Lethal Weapon' but it is better than some of their sequels... not a must see but fun if you enjoy the genre.

Ride Along is one of those examples that some sequels shouldn't be made, if they're going to do a sequel it better be as good or even better than the first. Ride Along is a pretty good buddy action comedy flick, some of the dialogue could have been changed, some of it is crass and unnecessary, but other than that it's fine, when it comes to the comedy it isn't even funny, there's only two scenes that are humorous and that is the scene where "Ben" (Kevin Hart) mistakes a woman for a man and where "Ben" pretends to be "Omar", the movie overall is watchable.The twist is predictable and is barely even a twist, it's so cliché that that plot-twist is in 80% of cop-themed films.The pacing of the film is perfect and has a cool instrumental hip hop film score composed by Christopher Lennertz.The performances are natural, the scenery is not all that, "Ben's" apartment however is very nice although on his salary as a high school security guard i doubt he would be able to afford a place like that in reality and it is never established what his fiancé does for a living.Great chemistry between Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, the Trivia says this movie was originally going to star Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds - that would not have worked, they just seem like a wrong pairing.Ride Along 2 was slightly funny at times, but it was extremely boring, Ride Along 1 is more serious, the sequel was trying to be too much like the first one with basically the same plot.Hopefully Ride Along 3 will have a better story than the sequel and hopefully it'll be as good as or even better than the first one.If you like your buddy/comedy flicks, Ride Along is worth watching more than once.