Ride Along 2

“Ride Along 2” is the story of two police officers, who are soon to be brothers-in-law, traveling from Atlanta to Miami in order to find a computer hacker, but instead stumble onto a corrupt politician. James (Ice Cube) is the detective. His sister is engaged to Ben (Kevin Hart), the officer who just graduated from the police academy. James captures a drug dealer that has an encrypted flash drive. He thinks that this might lead to the main drug lord. After bringing it back to police headquarters, the computer tech people can only find the maker of the encryption. This maker is a computer hacker name AJ (Ken Jeong) who resides in Miami. The detective takes his soon to be brother–in-law with him while his sister makes plans for the wedding. They get help from the local Miami police and the antics of these police officers begin.

Although the movie presents an overused and cliché genre, each actor plays their parts well. The picture replicates the typical comedy routine: the straight-faced with the goofball and is predictable. I thought of Abbot and Costello or Gilligan and the Skipper. The goofy character always gets them into trouble and the serious character gets them out. Ice Cube and Kevin Hart fit the formula well. Unfortunately, the good cop/bad cop routine gets overplayed. The journey of these two cops has the usual car chases, car explosions, and shootings. The storyline and the formula for comedy are so overused and the entire movie is predictable.

The heartrending truth is this film could have been decent if it never had the endless profanity, the sexual overtones, and the Lord’s name taken in vain. I found it very hard to keep track of the amount of s-words in this movie. It is used in every scene. Characters exclaim it throughout the movie.

Provocative scenes are abundant. The camera does close up shots of a woman’s buttocks. There are one or two scenes of a woman in her bra and panties. The characters talk and joke about sex. The first two scenes have a silhouette of a sensual figure on a building and then cut to a scene of the computer hacker Skyping a woman moaning and groaning sexually and doing sexual gestures. James is uncomfortable hearing Ben talk about having sex with the former’s sister. The computer hacker is obsessed with sex, and that becomes quite clear within the first few minutes of the movie.

The positive side is the two officers do not look at a woman lustfully. They treat the female Miami police officer with respect. However, she does have a scene where the corrupt politician touches her seductively. The sensuality is woven throughout this movie. The one redeeming quality is Ben remains faithful to his fiancée throughout. The flip side is they are cohabiting, plus the audience gets to see their seductive scene, and talk about underwear.

Overall, I recommend that only adults see this film. I think that I counted about 30 s-words, 1 f-word, a** (18), cr*p, SOB, and 7 times the Lord’s name was taken in vain. I included in my count the amount of times that God was used with the d-word. There are many shooting scenes where people are killed.

Violence: Heavy / Profanity: Heavy / Sex/Nudity: Moderate to heavy