* and 1/2
With a major supporting role in Grudge Match and a leading role in the new buddy comedy Ride Along, it seems like Hollywood is trying to pitch Kevin Hart as a budding comic talent. If he is indeed as funny as they think, they should probably get him better scripts.
In Ride Along, Hart is in love with the sister of a tough cop (Ice Cube). To try and win the cop's approval, Hart goes on a ride along with him. Naturally, shenanigans ensue as Cube intentionally seeks out the most annoying disturbance calls in an effort to make Hart rethink his desire to join the police academy.
The movie puts a ho-hum arms dealer action plot around a series of vignettes where Hart faces off against bikers, children, and a nearly naked drunk. None of these encounters are particularly funny and none of the action scenes have any spark. Everything about the film feels perfunctory, which is par for the course in January, when studios throw out their trash after the big Christmas releases.
With Academy Award nominations out, many nominated films will get a second run in theaters. Skip this and catch up with one of the nominated films you missed.
