Blu-ray Review: ‘Ride Along’ is Just Another Generic Buddy Cop Comedy

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CHICAGO – Few figures have had less of an exciting domination of the world than Kevin Hart. In the past few years, the comedian has skyrocketed to leading fixture in the comedy scene, creating hit scripts out of films like “Think Like A Man” and “About Last Night,” while taking victory laps in his lacking stand-up features like “Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain”. The big problem is that these projects don’t justify his comic potential. They don’t show, like his appearance in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” or his special “Seriously Funny,” why comedy benefits from having the hyperactive humor of Kevin Hart in its universe. Add another title to that list of disappointing successes with “Ride Along,” another box office hit (a sequel is due in January 2016), but one without a strong entertainment factor to really deserve it.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-ray rating: 2.0/5.0
Rating: 2.0/5.0

Aside from a twist that’s actually just a surprise cameo, “Ride Along” too readily services the non-surprising standards of the buddy cop movie. As the subgenre’s physics predetermines, Hart is the whipper-snapping rookie who has a fantastical impression of violence and of being a cop, both of which Ice Cube constantly reminds him is not actually like a video game. As Cube’s character takes Hart’s around sunny Atlanta on a pre-police academy ride along, Hart finds himself most of all the set-up for actual investigations, emasculating himself while Cube takes on more serious business. He makes a joke of himself to a group of bikers, and then to a little kid, etc. Cube mean-mugs through the whole script, and Hart’s screams surge up and down in their volume.

The question of chemistry between the two then becomes a non-issue, as they are placed as complete polar opposites from each other. The entire story of their cop camaraderie can be surmised by their glances on the DVD cover. One can imagine that these exchanged looks were decided before a script was written.

“Ride Along” plays out like a collection of Hart’s hyperactive bits informing a character the size of a two-sentence plot synopsis. And then in the second act, when Cube breaks the fourth wall “Annie Hall”-style and says the phrase, “Today was a good day,” there should be chiming of bells next to a symbol of the copyright logo. “Ride Along” is most of all a clash of the brands, as the two have a glance-off for heavily-tread territory with results that are neither amusing nor funny.

47 Ronin
Ride Along was released on Blu-ray on April 8, 2014
Photo credit: Courtesy of the Universal Pictures

Synopsis:
A security guard at a high school (Kevin Hart) gets accepted to police academy. His girlfriend’s brother (Ice Cube) takes him on a seemingly average day of police patrol, while also investigating the whereabouts of a top Atlanta villain.

Special Features:
• Alternate Ending
• Deleted Scenes
• Alternate Take
• Kev & Cube’s Wild Ride
• You Gonna Learn Today
• Anatomy of the Big Blast
• An Explosive Ride
• Digital Version of “Ride Along”
• Gag Reel
• It was a Good Day - On the set of “Ride Along”
• Atlanta: The Character
• Feature Commentary with Director Tim Story
DVD Version of “Ride Along”

“Ride Along” was released on Universal Blu-ray and DVD on April 8, 2014.

By Nick Allen
Contributor
HollywoodChicago.com

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