Ride Along should be a good day at the box office for Ice Cube & Kevin Hart

Buddy cop movies aren’t usually my thing unless you count the old black-and-white television show Car 54, Where Are You? starring Fred Gwynne, Paul Reed and Al Lewis. Therefore, I didn’t know what to expect when reviewing Ride Along, the new action comedy from Cube Vision, LBI Entertainment and Rainforest Films. After laughing throughout the entire movie, I’ve decided that Kevin Hart and Ice Cube make an ideal comedy duo. The funny, fast-talking Hart is paired perfectly with straight man Ice Cube, who remains cool, calm and collected no matter how much Hart screws things up in the face of danger. Rounding out the cast are fan favorites John Leguizamo, Bruce McGill, Tika Sumpter, Bryan Callen and Laurence Fishburne.

In Ride Along, Kevin Hart plays Ben Barber, a high school security guard who dreams of graduating from the police academy and marrying the girl of his dreams – his girlfriend Angela. But there’s just one little obstacle standing in his way on both fronts and that is Ice Cube, who plays Angela’s overprotective older brother James Payton. James is a seasoned detective with the Atlanta Police Department who does not think Ben is good enough to date his sister, let alone marry her or join the force. Undeterred and determined to prove he has what it takes on both counts, Ben agrees to go with James on a 24-hour patrol of the mean streets of Atlanta. He quickly discovers there’s a lot more to police work than gets portrayed in the movies and on television. It also turns out handling weapons requires much more skill and training than he has exhibited in his online gaming world thus far.

What Ben doesn’t know is that James has purposely requested dispatch send them along on any annoying or fake emergency situation that gets called into the department during this 24 hours. Apparently, this is a common prank that seasoned officers often play on the new recruits. Thus, the duo ends up embarking upon one hilarious adventure after another, ranging from everything from telling a burly group of bikers they can’t loiter outside of a business to having to arrest a drunken, despondent man throwing items in a grocery store to a strip club incident that actually ends up being a real threat. The ante is continually upped as James also receives tips and news throughout the day about an elusive criminal mastermind named Omar who he’s been on the hunt for for a long time.

Although funny at times, Hart’s character can also be equally annoying and grate on your nerves at other pivotal moments. There are some things that come out of his mouth that I found to be almost too naïve and unbelievable. One really wouldn’t blame Ice Cube for bitchslapping him, although this regrettably never happens. You would think Ben would give up his dreams after discovering he isn’t good at handling people, questioning small children or using a firearm at the shooting range. While I’ve certainly never studied to become an officer of the law, I almost found his ideas about what a police officer actually does and how one acts to be almost insulting.

Another criticism I had with the movie was the plot was almost too predictable. It came as no surprise to me there would be some dirty cops in a police force as large as Atlanta’s and who those cops ended up being was also not really a surprise. Therefore, I found it a little far-fetched that someone as formidable and seemingly competent at his job as Ice Cube would be taken so completely by surprise. What I thought would have been a brilliant twist to the movie was if Ben actually turned out to be Omar. No one would have ever seen that one coming. Imagine if he got close to James’ sister just so he could observe his detective work up close and pretended to be an idiot just to throw him off the trail. That would have at least elevated the plot to a closer plane as the humor (not that that bar was set extremely high either).

As long as you don’t expect anything too serious out of Ride Along, you probably won’t be disappointed with the ride if you’re a big fan of either Kevin Hart or Ice Cube. I’m not sure there are many valuable lessons to be learned from this film other than no man is an island and that sometimes those you don’t expect to have your back are actually the ones who often do. I doubt I’ll ever see another movie in which a character named Assface ends up saving the day. However, despite its many flaws, I’m predicting it will still be a good day at the box office for Ice Cube, Kevin Hart and this comedy.