BEFORE: OK, so the initial goal was to have Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Hart as co-leaders with the most appearances this year, that seemed fair since they were co-stars in "Me Time", but I sort of forgot that Kevin Hart was in three films in February, that's given him a clear advantage, so by June 1 he'll have the top spot by himself, and he'll probably still be leading when I start the Doc Block in mid-June, but really, after that all bets are off, because somebody like Dick Cavett or Richard Nixon will probably be in so many documentaries via archive footage, that it won't really matter any more. But enjoy the lead while it lasts, Kevin Hart.
Kevin Hart carries over from "Me Time"
THE PLOT: Security guard Ben must prove himself to his girlfriend's brother, top police officer James, so he rides along on a 24-hour patrol of Atlanta.
AFTER: Sure, there are action movies that have elements of comedy to them, but when someone tries to make a film that's both action AND comedy, it's very tricky - most often they end up with something like this, that feels like it doesn't know which thing it wants to be. It kind of toggles between the two things, and maybe there's just no film that's a true representation of both genres at the same time. "Bad Boys", "21 Jump Street", "The Nice Guys", they all kind of suffer from this same problem, as not every film can be "Lethal Weapon" or "48 Hrs." or "Free Guy".
There's so much of this story that wasn't clear to me, like what was the mystery man, Omar, really involved in. Police officer James tries to get him on some fake passport operation, but isn't he an arms dealer? Drug dealer? What does any of that have to do with passports? Or is he some kind of criminal mastermind who's involved in a whole conglomeration of vertically integrated crime-like things? It's a bit tough to say.
James has been after him for years, but the problem seems to be that nobody knows what Omar looks like, because everyone who's seen him ends up dead, including the people who work for him. OK, so what then is anyone's incentive to go to work for Omar in the first place? How does he retain any loyal followers at all if he (or somebody) keeps killing them? Well, we have to put a pin in that one for now, because there's more going down, as high-school security guard and platinum-level video game player Ben wants to marry James' sister, Angela, but first he feels that he needs James' approval, so James takes future police cadet Ben along with him on patrol, with the idea that he'll show Ben how tough it is to be a cop, and when Ben can't handle it, he'll change his mind about going to the police academy, and probably marrying Angela, too. Umm, sure, that tracks.
James takes all of the "nuisance" calls from the police dispatcher, and Ben has to deal with a gang of bikers that block the handicapped parking spaces, also a drunk and disorderly patron at a market, who's really a poker buddy of James', in disguise. In the midst of all this, James talks to an informant, who accidentally lets some information slip about an arms deal with some Serbians, which might be connected to Omar somehow. But then the two men end up in a strip club with some real armed thugs, and by now Ben has figured out that he's been taken on a series of nuisance calls, so naturally he assumes that the real gunmen in the strip club are just another set-up arranged by James. Ha ha, what a farce, to confuse real, armed criminals for fake ones!
Honestly, the fake calls I could understand, but the REAL information from the informants about the arms deal was very confusing. I think I fell asleep a couple of times while trying to sort it all out, and that's not a good sign for an action film. OK, sure I was tired from a long shift at the theater, but still, an action movie should be able to keep me alert for 90 minutes, and "Ride Along" just didn't do that. Not even Kevin Hart's high-pitched screams after getting shot in the leg could keep me awake, and that's saying something.
On the comedy front, it's kind of a fail, too - I thought this was one of the classic films (it's 10 years old now) that MADE Kevin Hart's career, but in the end it wasn't that funny either. So it's neither fish nor foul, therefore - not funny enough to be a true comedy, and not enough action to keep me awake, either. Somehow this was a big hit, though, it made over $150 million, and that's in 2014 money. That's over six times its budget, so a bona fide hit, no matter how you look at it. I might as well knock off the sequel tomorrow, but honestly my expectations aren't that high, I'll just be doing that to cross one more film off the list.
Also starring Ice Cube (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), John Leguizamo (last seen in "The Menu"), Bruce McGill (last seen in "Poms"), Tika Sumpter (last seen in "Think Like a Man"), Bryan Callen (last seen in "Walk of Shame"), Laurence Fishburne (last seen in "The School for Good and Evil"), Gary Owen (last seen in "Think Like a Man Too"), Dragos Bucur (last seen in "The Way Back"), Jacob Latimore (last seen in "The Last Summer"), Jay Pharoah (last heard in "The Mitchells vs. the Machines"), Benjamin Flores Jr. (last heard in "Happy Feet Two"), Jasmine Burke, David Banner (last seen in "The Boss"), Gary Weeks (last seen in "The Tomorrow War"), John Kap (last seen in "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip"), Anona Tolar, Dwayne L. Brown, Lou Anne Cooper, James Logan (last seen in "Greenland", Chase Steven Anderson (last seen in "Father Figures"), Kenny Alfonso (last seen in "Jerry and Marge Go Large"), Aaron Saxton, Bill Neenan, Will "Spank" Horton (last heard in "Tom & Jerry"), Eric Goins (last seen in "Boss Level"), Lucius Baston (last seen in "Secret Headquarters"), Drew Goin, Fernando Gonzalez (last seen in "Employee of the Month"), Jordan Rios.
RATING: 4 out of 10 quotes from "Training Day"
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