'Ride Along 2' is the sequel to the 2014 comedy 'Ride Along' also starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. Now i was one of the people who did not see the first Ride Along, but this being a comedy sequel, i had pretty low expectations going into it. And those low expectations worked in the films favour, i expected complete trash, and i ended up with a film that was just 'not good', so you could say it was better than i thought it was gonna be (if you want to be nice). The film is a very cliché, by the numbers buddy-cop comedy. It hits all the points you expect it to hit from start to finish, you already know how this film ends, so without that engagement in the story you need the humour to carry you through the film. And with Kevin Hart and Ice Cube teaming up, you expect to get a lot of back and forth jokes between these two complete opposites. There were quite a few times where the film genuinely had me laughing but most of the time it missed the mark and that was a shame.
A lot of the humour in the film did come from Cube and Hart clashing but Olivia Munn also put in her fair share. The film was very patchy in terms of its humour, it took a while for it to actually get funny, the first half of the film was pretty dry in terms of jokes and then it picks up with some laughs here and there, but especially with Kevin Hart bringing the laughs, you'd expect more than just a couple of gags. The back and forth as i mentioned, between Hart and Cube was definitely the star of the show, but i was incredibly surprised by Olivia Munn in this film. For me, she almost stole the show because she was so entertaining in the film, from an acting and comedic standpoint. Sometimes the film has her be the generic tough female cop / love interest but most of the time she was probably my favourite character in the film. Other than that, everything else was very generic and nothing you haven't seen before. I don't want to go so far as to say it was lazy film-making because i have a feeling they were trying to go for the same formula that made people love the first film but it didn't sit right with me.
Once i was able to completely shut off my brain, the last 20 minutes or so of the film was pretty entertaining. Not so entertaining that i was having the time of my life, but it gave me a little kick that allowed me to finish my experience with the film on a high note. Having not seen the first film, i would describe this film as being a tame, not so good version of 21/22 jump street, so if you just want a generic buddy-cop comedy that isn't as good as those two i just mentioned, you may enjoy this one. Also, i gotta mention, there is one scene in this film that was so completely unfunny it kinda did anger me. It involved Kevin Hart and an obviously CG Alligator, at this moment it got really really comical and so silly it felt out of place from the rest of the film. But there is another use of CG involving a car chase that was very clever, so credit where credit is due.
And yeh, thats it, nothing special here, just go watch Jump Street, also starring Ice Cube, a funnier Ice Cube.
4.7/10
