zardoz-13 Review of Ride Along 2

Ride Along 2 (2016)

Along For The Ride But Not As Good As The First "Ride Along"

[7/10 · 30 January 2016]

Stand-up comic Kevin Hart still cracks me up. The 5-foot. 2-inch, bantamweight, motor-mouth, African-American comedian still reminds me of Chris Tucker standing in a hole two-feet deep. Hart's hyperactive verbosity, enormous impertinence, and infectious vitality make him riotous in movies. He could stand around, do nothing, and he would still be hilarious. He stole the show in the first "Ride Along" crime thriller comedy with Ice Cube, and he is still a scene-stealer in "Ride Along" director Tim Story's "Ride Along 2" with Ice still staring him down with his glacial glare. Unfortunately, the second "Ride Along" doesn't surpass the original. Hart has more than enough minutes to clown around in his usual routines, but "R.I.P.D" co-scribes Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, who rewrote the original "Ride Along," don't provide as many surprises. Remember the two dirty cops that surprised Cube at the end of "Ride Along?" Nothing like that happens in this superficial sequel. Like the original, "Ride Along 2" dutifully recycles every cliché from those 1980s era police procedurals, but producer Will Packer has anted up more Shekels and shifted the predictable, follow-the-dots action to Miami, Florida. If you've seen cop movies like "Rush Hour," "Fuzz," "48 HRS," "Training Day," and "Paul Blart, Mall Cop," you know what to expect at every turn. "Ride Along 2" sticks to the formula with slavish zeal, but the camaraderie between Kevin Hart and Ice Cube as polar opposites overshadows the film's sophomoric shenanigans. Indeed, "Ride Along 2" resembles one of director Tim Story's favorite crime comedies "Midnight Run" where a bounty hunter sought to shield a mob accountant long enough to get him into witness protection. Story changes the accountant into a computer hacker for "Ride Along 2," and zany "Hangover" actor Ken Jeong plays the hacker with unusual restraint.