Video game obsessed high school security guard Ben Barber (Kevin Hart) has ambitions on becoming a police officer. When he's accepted in the academy, his girlfriend's brother James Payton (Ice Cube) decides that Ben must partake in a 'Ride Along' with him in order to prove that he is worthy to marry his sister. James initially makes life hell for Ben and deliberately tries to discourage Ben from joining the force. However, when James finds himself in danger it's down to Ben to really show what he's made of....
The opening credits for this film are shamelessly (and perhaps knowingly) over the top and ridiculous. The chase sequence at the start looks like it's come from Need For Speed or Burnout and in these sequences it feels like you're watching a mate playing a computer game. I'm sure it's no coincidence that the following scene shows Kevin Hart playing a video game. It's actually quite fun in a dumb way.
Ride Along has two strands to its plot; you have the main plot which basically sees Payton attending various 126 situations (which are police codes that they use to wind up rookies). We then have a sub plot involving a Serbian gang that are attempting to buy fire arms. The main plot does provide us with some laughs, but I suspect that how funny you'll find this aspect of the plot will really depend on whether you find Kevin Hart funny or not. I'll admit that he was occasionally funny here, but when watching him I can't help feel that I'm watching a poor man's Chris Tucker (no matter how much I try to shake this thought). I did find that he also got a bit annoying at times. The main plot does start to become a little repetitive and tiresome towards the end, but there are just about enough laughs here to make it tolerable. The sub plot involving the Serbians seems to merely act as a back drop for the majority of the running time till towards the end when the writers decide that it's time to wrap the film up. In some ways it didn't bother me as the sub plot is never as strong as the main plot.
One thing that needs to exist in order for these cop-buddy films to work is chemistry between the two leads and to my surprise the chemistry between Ice Cube and Kevin Hart was actually pretty good. Ice Cube is not the greatest of actors, but the writers play to his basic strengths by giving him the tough talking 'straight man' role. Likewise, Hart is the crazy one and again the writers play to his strengths by giving him the 'Chris Tucker' type role - sorry I've made the analogy again. Despite some of the annoyances, Ice Cube and Hart do make this film watchable and do make a winning combo. Laurence Fishburne arrives late in the game as the villain of the piece giving Ride Along that little bit extra class.
Ride Along is an OK film and is perfectly watchable (albeit Hart does get a little annoying from time to time). However it is just an OK film and is far from the best that the genre has to offer.
