Ride Along 2: Movie Review

Director Tim Story seems to be getting by on a few popular franchises right now. He has two “Think Like a Man” films (and an upcoming television series based on the films), plus he is now on his second “Ride Along” film. All of this has been within the past four years. It’s just too bad none of those films are any good. Well, to be fair, I did like the first “Think Like a Man” but the sequel was trash and the two “Ride Along” films aren’t much better.

Set a couple years after the first film, “Ride Along 2” sees soon-to-be married Ben Barber (Heart) as a beat cop during his probation period. Ben’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, Detective James Payton (Ice Cube) has agreed to let Ben join him in Miami to question a computer hacker (Ken Jeong), who is connected to a drug crime in Atlanta.

Most of “Ride Along 2” isn’t much more than a serious of arguments between Ben and James. When they are not fighting, they find themselves in the dumbest of situations. One of them happens to be a fight between Ben and a pet alligator, which is owned by the generic drug lord villain, Antonio Pope (Benjamin Bratt). At least this time James gets his own love interest, who just so happens to be a tough Miami Detective (Olivia Munn).

Much like the first film, “Ride Along 2” is strung together using every tired buddy-cop-comedy cliché around. That would be forgivable if the comedy was actually funny. Instead we get way too much Kevin Heart. I won’t deny that Heart can be funny in doses, but 100 minutes of the guy is just way too much.

By: Marc Ferman