VividSimon Simply Perfect

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Shawn Watson I feel the need to watch a lot of comedies these days as my mood is often grumpier and more irritable than Ice Cube (in general, not just every character he plays). Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy stupid humor and low-brow comedy just as much as any genuinely moronic and slovenly mouth-breathing member of Joe Public, but Ride Along is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff.The "buddy cop" sub-genre is apparently alive and well, despite the 1980s being a distant memory. Kevin Hart is a feckless school security guard who dreams of being a real cop. In order to impress his girlfriend's overprotective big brother (the Cube) he agrees to a ride-along for a day, unaware that he's being set up for humiliation. But his convenient geekiness just so happens to help solve an important case involving a local crime boss. Honestly, the plot is so thin it could be written on the back of a postage stamp and Tim Story (an ironic surname, for sure) seems to have learned nothing since his days directing Taxi, allowing his stars to improvise to save the weak scripted material. It doesn't work.Set in the cheap, tax-break city of Atlanta, the movie looks ugly, not just because of the non-cinematic locations but because Tim Story has no idea how to use a 2.35:1 frame and photographer Larry Blanford uses the unfortunate modern aesthetic of hard contrast with oversaturated colors instead of creating an atmosphere in-camera. It's shot in amamorphic Panavision, but you'll never notice as it is so flat and nasty looking.Kevin Hart is funny but this is not a good vehicle for him. It made a lot of money, hence the sequel, but I honestly thought that this sub-genre died with the painfully unfunny Showtime back in 2002 (Remember that? No?). If you've seen one, you've seen the other, you've seen them all.Always, always, always be ex-treme-ly weary and cynical of movies that have outtakes over the end credits.I should have just watched Dragnet.

Dominic LeRose A strong and skilled cop is forced to work with an unskilled misfit who causes everything to go wrong. This has been done by mainstream Hollywood hundreds of times, this time passing on the torch to Kevin Hart. This is yet another laugh-less comedy with garbage writing from two unfunny actors. This is just a flat-out bad movie.

Daniel Hood This is a movie that I was not particularly excited to see. I did not hear much about it at all. All I knew about it is that it is a buddy-cop movie, that follows a very generic structure, which turns into a very predictable movie.Kevin Hart plays a rookie police academic who, in order to prove his worthiness to his girlfriends brother, played by Ice Cube, has to go on a ride along. That's the basic plot of the movie, and it is one which is not anything new. That's the thing about this movie, it is something that most of us have seen before, and honestly, it wasn't even very funny. I found it mildly amusing though, mostly due to the chemistry between Hart and Ice Cube, which was good enough to keep me entertained. Laurence Fishburne also plays quite well in this film.The jokes were not terrible, they just weren't very funny, I did laugh at one or two moments, but that was it. Overall it was OK. It wasn't great or terrible, but just OK. If you're ever bored with nothing to do and feel like watching a buddy cop movie, by all means, watch it, but don't expect anything great.

Bryan Kluger Once or twice a year, we the people receive yet another installment in the form of a buddy cop film franchise where two unlikely people are paired up to take out the world's most dastardly criminals. Very few of these movies are worthy of your time, while most of them are forgettable almost instantly. With Tim Story's PG-13 'Ride Along', the latter is unfortunately the ultimate result here. It makes sense that Story directed this as he made 'Barbershop' and the recent 'Think Like A Man' film, which both 'Ride Along' stars Kevin Hart and Ice Cube starred in. I can see this movie doing well at the box office this weekend, but I expect negative reviews across the board.There isn't one thing in this action movie that hasn't been seen, heard, or done one thousand times before it. The characters are one note and predictable, and even when a supposed twist or turn comes into play, you can see it coming from miles away, thus there isn't really any suspenseful moments here, let alone any blood, guts, or cursing. And for these actors to tone it down in the form of adult humor and this action cop story to dial down its violence was a big mis-step. However, it was nice to see Hart carry a film, even if he was too over-the-top all the way through the movie. This proves Hart can be a leading man, and not the side kick he is used to playing, as he is the best thing about this motion picture.It's the same story you've heard before - Ben Barber (Hart) is a funny and sweet man who has been accepted into the police academy in Atlanta and happens to be dating the beautiful Angela (Tika Sumpter), whose brother is James (Ice Cube), who seems to hate everyone and everything, and only concerned about catching bad guys by himself. Ben desperately wants James's approval, and James will give it to him if he agrees to 'Ride Along' with him for a day in the big bad police world. If you've seen the trailers, then you have seen most of the movie as Hart gets himself into some ridiculous situations and Ice Cube having to bail him out.This paint-by-the-numbers script and its unsurprising characters bring down the entertainment value here in what could have been a much better film, or at least more fun. Once again cameos by John Leguizamo and Laurence Fishburne are completely underused here and the other supporting characters don't really offer anything to the table other than stereotypes such as the always angry police chief. There are a few laughs here and there, but nothing memorable, and they want to set this up for more sequels, but they have some serious re-sketching to do if that's the case.