“Ride Along 2” Fires Nothing but Blanks

There’s a moment in the needless but seemingly obligatory Ride Along 2 in which everything clicks. 
Reluctant partners and pending brothers-in-law James (Ice Cube) and Ben
(Kevin Hart) are interrogating a beautiful young woman, trying to find out
where her ne’er-do-well boyfriend might be. 
With the suspected perp’s cellphone in hand, Ben goes through the list
of ringtones assigned to various women in the phone, all of whom have snippets
of suggestive songs that play when they call. 
As for the knock-out being questioned, the ringtone that comes with the
phone sounds when she calls, the kiss of death in any relationship.

During this one moment, Hart’s motor-mouth act works, his
rapid-fire delivery raining one clever joke after another down upon the audience,
each of them working so well that a glimmer of hope shone through the tepid
collection of clichés that Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi had pawned off as a
script.  But alas, this is the one and
only moment in which a single iota of inspiration rears its head, an anomaly
amidst the dross of recycled situations and uninspired gags that’s being
foisted upon an audience willing to accept this film as an acceptable piece of
entertainment.  (For the record, the
movie brought in $35 million during its first three days of release, placing it
number one at the weekend box office.)

Well, for the sake of form, here’s a brief summary of the
plot, such as it is.  Having saved the
day in the previous entry of what will regrettably become a franchise, Ben is
now a rookie cop.  This adds insult to
injury where James is concerned, as he’s not only set to marry his sister in a
week but now has to put up with him at work. 
However, an opportunity arises in which he might be able to shed this
spastic parasite.  Charged with going to
Miami to bring back a computer programmer that goes by the handle A.J. (Ken
Jeong), who might be the key to taking down high-rolling drug kingpin Antonio
Pope (Benjamin Bratt), he decides to bring Ben along, hoping he’ll embarrass
himself and get kicked off the force for good. 
Oh, if were only to be so…

The buddy cop template is followed to a tee here, much as it
was in the first film. Certainly other movies are guilty of following a formula
but when they’re executed with a sense of urgency and a degree of enthusiasm,
we don’t mind traveling down the same narrative road once more.  Here, both of those elements are missing, as
is any sense of imagination that might put a distinctive stamp on this
affair.  Other than tracking down A.J.
and Pope, nothing much happens story wise; rather this is a series of gags so
that we might see Hart crack wise and Cube scowl.

For those who are fans of the two leads, I’m
sure they will enjoy this latest escapade. 
There are surely no surprises and Hart and Cube deliver exactly what’s
promised in the trailers.  All others
should stay away and perhaps take a trip down memory lane and track down Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, or even the recent Let’s Be Cops, buddy cop
movies that actually work.

This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2016.