Cinemazlowski Ice Cube and Kevin Hart rekindle comic chemistry in 'Ride Along 2'

Jan 15, 2016

"RIDE ALONG 2"

January usually is the deadliest month of the year for new movies, as studios focus on raking in extra cash and awards for their prestige pictures from the previous year. But over the last few years, there have been a few surprise hits at the top of the year, such as "Taken" and a couple of films starring super-hot comic Kevin Hart: "The Wedding Ringer" and "Ride Along."

"Ringer" had some truly funny moments and a lot of charm, but "Ride Along" was about as clichéd as a buddy cop comedy can be. But its stars Ice Cube and Hart had just enough chemistry and charisma to draw some laughs, and the mediocre movie managed to rake in nearly $135 million.

So, cue up the inevitable sequel, which comes out Friday and which I dreaded would be even more utterly predictable than the first. But I'm glad to report the new edition is vastly better than the first.

The movie reteams hard-charging veteran police detective James (Cube) with his sister's fiancé Ben (Hart), who was a security guard at the start of the first movie before saving the day and becoming a cop. The new movie takes place after Ben graduates from the police academy and is a rookie cop shadowing James on an undercover drug-sting operation to find the killer of Atlanta's port commissioner.

Ben's over-enthusiasm for action once again blows the operation. The cops not only lose $100,000 in money designated for use in a drug deal sting, but also lose track of a computer hacker named AJ (Ken Jeong), who works for a respected businessman named Antonio Pope (Benjamin Bratt) but flees to Miami after transferring large amounts of money from Pope's bank accounts to his own.

AJ had also heard Pope give the order to have a hitman shoot the port commissioner dead, so he is in double danger of being killed by the crime lord and his minions. The key to bringing Pope down for the murder and his smuggling plans is to find the decryption key for Pope's records, but they are on his personal laptop deep within his mansion.

The cops team up with AJ and a hard-charging female cop (Olivia Munn) to engage in a series of wild chases and disguises to find what they need. Indeed, it's a simple plot and has by-the-numbers twists that anyone familiar with the police comedy genre can see coming.

Yet "Ride Along 2" works much better than anticipated, and the reason for that is the ace comic chemistry between its stars, Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. They receive criticism from some African-Americans for being silly rather than serious movie heroes, but the humor has almost nothing to do with their race or anyone else's.

The interplay between them merely carries on the classic comedy tradition of Abbott and Costello and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and it is frankly refreshing to see such good-natured comedy from African-American performers, when so much of that comedy scene is often reliant on coarse language and humor to succeed. In addition, the characters of James and Ben are positive role models despite their bending the rules; they always are determined to stop criminals, they are solidly middle-class, and one is about to get married and the other is shy, rather than womanizing as so many movie cops are.

Director Tim Story handles the action in bracing fashion, with a particularly funny foot chase and a spectacular car chase that writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi put a clever spin on. After Ben has been criticized for his obsession with fast-driving video games, he finally gets the chance to drive while pursued by criminals, and winds up being an incredible stunt driver because he applies the tricks he learned in the games.

"Ride Along 2" has a minimum of foul language compared to most other movies in the action-comedy genre, with about 30 relatively mild uses of foul language (about 10-15 S words, 5-10 a-holes and 3-5 GDs, but no F words. The naughtier aspects are relatively quick onscreen and imply rather than show sex, as there are a couple of split-second lustful shots of women in bikinis, a quick scene in which a computer hacker has a video chat with a woman spotlighting her cleavage, and a scene in which the engaged cop is approached by his fiancé dressed as a naughty cop (with bra and panties showing).

In the overall scope of the movie, these are not moments that will likely wind up being dwelled upon. It's acceptable viewing for all but the most uptight adults, and most teens should be able to handle it as well.

As funny as Hart is, the real MVP here is Cube, who has quietly become one of the most reliable box-office draws today. With franchises in not only the "Ride Along" movies, but also "Friday", "Are We There Yet?" and the "Barbershop" and "21 Jump Street" series, he's clearly got his pulse on viewers who just want to have a mindless good time at the theater.

Here's hoping he keeps being one star who delivers exactly what the fans want. If so, he's got a long ride still ahead of him.