Ride Along was one of the more fun comedy films that came out in recent memory, it’s not particularly memorable, nor is it well made in any sense of the word, but it was fun above all else. However, it wasn’t the type of movie that you make a sequel to, even though there is a temptation to milk the success of the original film. In this case, that temptation to make a sequel turned out to be quite strong, but the film itself, Ride Along 2, turned out to be a genuine disaster.
How to Download Ride Along 2
You can download the film from a digital store. You can also stream it. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
Ride Along 2 follows security guard Ben Barber and detective James Payton as they travel to Miami to bring down a drug lord. Kevin Hart and Ice Cube reprise their roles as the dynamic duo, but this time they’re taking their crime-fighting skills to Miami. Joined by a quirky hacker and a beautiful detective, they set out to take down a drug lord. Will they succeed? Or will Miami’s sunny beaches distract them from the mission at hand?
The plot of Ride Along 2 is as simple as it is predictable, and that comes as a huge detriment to the film’s overall quality. The story is a predictable, formulaic action-comedy plot. To start off, the film’s pacing is all over the place.
There is just so much drag to this film’s length with longwinded dialogue exchanges that try to forcefully be funny, and then you have action scenes or intense moments that fly by without even letting you process things. There are scenes in the midst of all that add nothing to the film, they’re just there for comedic relief but they don’t really make you laugh at all.
The Humor
I loved the crude humor in the original film, the dialogue was much sharper and had so much more heart to it. Here, the script is weak and unoriginal, relying heavily on its crude humor and overused clichés without having any semblance of emotion to the words that the characters are saying.
The Dialogue
The dialogue is extremely lackluster, it falls flat no matter what is happening on screen, with many of the jokes being so forced that they fall into the realm of the ‘unfunny’. The writers seem to rely too much on Kevin Hart’s energy and charisma, but even he can’t save the script from being mediocre.
The Action
Then you have the action, which is even weaker than I could have imagined. The action sequences are poorly choreographed and lack excitement, they’re lacking imagination in every sense of the word, and feel so clumsily made compared to the previous film in the franchise.
They feel like a watered-down version of what you saw in the original Ride Along film. The movie feels like a series of disconnected scenes stitched together with no real sense of continuity. There are no real surprises, and the direction fails to build any suspense or tension.
The Characters
Despite the weak script and direction, the cast does their best to inject some life into the film. Ice Cube and Kevin Hart have decent chemistry and play well off each other. The supporting cast is also strong, with Olivia Munn and Ken Jeong delivering some of the funnier moments in the movie.
As much as I usually enjoy Ice Cube and Kevin Hart as comedy performers, other characters did take a lot of the spotlight away from them this time as well.
This was nice to see because even if their characters weren’t well developed, they were very fun to watch on screen as an ensemble.
The Visuals
Now, onto the topic of the presentation, which was not great. The presentation in this film was much worse than the original Ride Along movie, as it felt much blander and less full of that light-hearted personality that the original film had.
This one felt more basic to look at, it looked like it was shot in the same vein as any of the Jump Street movies, but those sometimes did have some fun camera work or moments that made them stand out. The music was fun, but it didn’t add anything to the film either, it was just there.
Verdict
It should be a breeze for the screenwriter and director of a comedy sequel to meet the audience’s low expectations.
The formula is set up for a win-win situation for both the studio and the audience. All the studio needs to do is recycle jokes in a fresh environment, and the audience will chuckle through a forgettable film while the studio rakes in the cash. However, Ride Along 2 misses the mark and succumbs to the common sequel traps, leaving Kevin Hart with little room to improvise. There’s not much to love here.
