Made Movies: Ride Along Review

Kevin Hart and Ice Cube together on screen for the first time ever in Ride Along.Too bad this ride has barely any gas in it.

The story centers on Ben Barber (Hart) a small time security guard, who joins police officer James Payton (Cube), on a patrol of Atlanta to show he is worthy of marrying his sister. They should have replaced the ”ride“ with ”drag” in the title.

The first half of the movie has Hart throwing line after line of jokes; that often miss their mark. Truthfully, it is just a platform for Kevin Hart…to play Kevin Hart.

Luckily, other stars make an appearance in the supporting cast such as comedians Gary Owens, Jay Pharoah and rapper David Banner. They provide some memorable highlights, like a naked man covered in honey wrestling in a supermarket. Enough said.

Ice Cube does not do much besides stand there, and scowl at Kevin Hart’s antics. There is a cringe worthy moment in the movie where Cube says, “Today was a good day”, a reference to his hit 90’s song. It would have been no surprise if Ice Cube took a mic out, then just rapped the rest of his record afterward .

There is an interesting subplot involving James looking to takedown a crime kingpin called Omar. The story picks up halfway with a hilarious scene involving Kevin Hart and a shotgun. The chuckles turn into laughs as Hart slips in his comfort zone with psychical comedy.

Cube plays the straight man throughout the film to Hart’s over-the-top performance, but their chemistry falls flat. Both actors felt as if they were in different movies or even reading different scripts. Chemistry is what carries these buddy cop films like Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys.

Laurence Fishburn pokes his head in to play the villainous Omar, giving a sense of danger for the two heroes throughout the film. There is a chilling aura as Fishburn commands the screen with the little time he has on it. Expect anyone named thug one and two not make it to the end of the story.

Ride Along does overstay its welcome, like a buddy’s stay on your couch for the night turning into months. Clocking in at 100 minutes, the film moves at a fast pace, yet feels like it is going nowhere even quicker.

A saving grace is that Hart’s improv skills are the real star, especially since his costars look like they are about to break character by laughing along with the viewers.

Ride Along is an entertaining movie for the most part, filled with bad sections that drag along at times. All of the films funniest scenes are in the trailer, which is disappointing considering it had so much promise. (Some of you) might want to miss this ride and wait until it comes to Netflix or television.

22 Will Have You Jumping Out The Seat

Everyone that watches 22 Jump Street is going to have to see it two times, mainly because the whole audience was laughing so loud; half the jokes are going to be missed. Walk off numb legs during a boring movie, been there done that, but I’ve never had to walk off a laugh to return to a movie!

The movie follows Schmidt(Jonah Hill) and Jenko(Channing Tatum) are relocated to across the street to 22 Jump Street and are tasked with going undercover as college students and who selling a dangerous new drug called WyFy.

If it sounds the same, that’s because it is and the movie acknowledges that it’s a sequel throughout the film. It’s self-aware to the point where they even have someone look directly in the camera and let the audience, it will be the same as the first.

Although, this street starts out paved the same as the one before it, it goes in a completely different direction. They take trope of sequels being bigger and poke fun at how some end up being a carbon copies of the first*cough* Hangover 2.

Tatum and Hill have a great kind of chemistry that hasn’t been seen since the buddy cop movies of the 80’s/90’s. There’s no question that this dynamic duo must be best friends off screen, because only a best friend will stick his hand down your pants to find a grenade (no it’s not a euphemism, it was an actual scene).

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, prove once again they can turn even the most questionable premises into gold, surpassing everyone’s expectations. Movie based on a children’s book? Done. Movie based on Lego’s? Done. Sequel to a movie based an obscure 80’s show…you get the point.

The movie is brilliant with taking stereotypes like Ice Cube’s angry police chief and using them to the fullest effect. The supporting characters are the stars in this, like Jillian Bell who plays the creepy sex watching roommate of Schmidt’s girlfriend that cracks jokes about his age like” you look really old…you were thrusting so hard I thought your hip popped out”.

Dave Franco and Rob Riggle come back from the last movie with them being in jail now and the look of despair on Franco’s face throughout the scene is priceless without having much lines. His misery is only intensified by Riggle’s gleeful comments to Tatum & Hill that he’s the woman of their jail cell.

The few negatives to be found is that there’s a scene or two where the movie calms down, but that is done for pacing. The movie is a bit long, with the run time a little under two hours, even though I was still having a fantastic time, one can’t help but sense the passage of time and wonder if there will be flying cars outside by the time they come out.

A great thing about the movie is the sight gags, because they don’t bash you over the head with them. They’re subtle, there will be a joke in a background that the camera doesn’t even focus on and the audience will still be laughing at something in the forefront.

22 Jump Street will go down as one of the few comedies that had a sequel as great if not better than the original, such heights that have been reached by films like Rush Hour 2 or Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me . Take of friends to the theater to watch this or buy it on Blu-Ray later in the year, even if you have to watch it through the window of a Best Buy, do whatever it takes to see this hysterical good time.