Ride Along-An Honest Review

The 2014 buddy cop movie was directed by Tim Story and written by four different writers. It’s the story of Ben ( Kevin Hart ) a security guard looking to marry his girlfriend Angela ( Tiki Sumpter ), whose police officer brother, James ( Ice Cube ) dissaproves. To show his worth, he takes him on a ride along.

PLOT:
Some spoilers ahead

James a tough, no BS solo police officer from Atalnta, is investigating a Serbian mob, whose leader has never been seen by anyone. All we know for a fact, is that his name is Omar. Ben, the jumpy, energetic school security guard gets accepted into police academy, he also wants to propose to his Angela, James’ sister. A thing he massively dissaproves of. He decides to give him a chance though, the next day he takes him along for a ride along. If he does a good job, he’ll get his blessing, along with some kind words to the police academy.

His first task, interrogate a kid named Runflat ( Jay Pharaoh ), who has information on Omar. It actually goes a lot worse than you’d expect actually. Ben blaming it on two things, 1), the kid is pure evil, 2) not having a weapon. So James takes Ben to a gun store, where they purchase him a glock. He takes him to a shooting range, showing how amateur Ben is in comparison to James. Claiming he’s a shotgun specialist, he tries his luck with one, which goes about as well as you’d expect.

The next task takes place in a grocery store, where a large man covers himself in maple syrup. Ben attempting to arrest him for what I assume would be public indecency. The man fighting back, James having to step in. After this Ben finds out what 1-26 means, it’s basically code for, “This is stupid, let the rookie handle it”. In fact, James told dispatching to send him every single 1-26 they get for that day.

Their next 1-26 is at a club, leading to a Mexican standoff. Ben taking taking the scenario as another joke 1-12, when in fact this one is genuine. Nobody gets hurt, they walk out. After getting a tip about the wherabouts of Omar’s men, James takes Ben to the most cliche crime place in cinema, a warehouse.

James leaves Ben behind, dealing with it himself. He gets captured and roped to a chair. Ben comes in posing as Omar. The men, who have never seen him in person, or even heard his voice, actually buy it. Everything looks great, he takes James out, spoils the deal-until Laurence Fishburne comes out, the real Omar. Who quickly gets the men on his side. He offers James a deal, to rule the city of Atlanta by his side, a deal he refuses.

Following an explosion from a grenade, Ice Cube and Kevin Hart make it out. Turns out though, Omar is still alive, and has captured Angela. The two go there to rescue her, sucessfully arresting Morphius in the process. The end.

CONCLUSION:
Ride Along was an enjoyable film, not amazing but I also can’t put in any major complaints either. If it were me, I wouldn’t have introduced Fishburne’s name in the opening credits, though I didn’t know it’d be him for a fact, by the time Kevin Hart impersonated Omar, I pretty much saw him coming. Yet, overall the film was enjoyable, and you could tell the filmmakers had a relatively good idea what they were doing. A sequel was released in 2016, I would be willing to make a review for it. I’d give this film a 6.5/10.

-The Screenwriter

PS, happy birthday to Bai Ling