Ride Along 2 (2016)

I am not sure if I can rate favourably a comedy where I find the straight man heaps more entertaining than the funster, but that's what you get with this Ride Along 2. Kevin Hart comments his own silly antics with the kind of smug pride that makes his character really unlikeable to me: they already aren't that funny to begin with, so dragging them out further does nothing to make them more entertaining. On the other hand, Ice T is at its best playing it straight and like he really does not care for the partner's foolishness. Definitely can relate to this!

This take on the buddy cop movie wouldn't work at all without Ice T for me. The problem is that it even tries to be 'serious' and make a semblance of a plot work, but that is just pretty low level. Olivia Munn has good screen presence and easy on the eyes but not exactly a strong showing in this sort of role. They chose to double down on the annoying comic relief dynamic through Ken Jeong. Did they really need to add a comic relief to the comic relief? Someone even more squawky and puny than Hart so he'd look 'better'? I really don't think that with a role like Hart's you need that sort of dynamic. A forgettable movie.

Sammo ★