Taking us back to the unlikely buddy cop movies of the 80’s and 90’s Ride Along stars Kevin Hart as Ben Berber a wise cracking security guard who dream of becoming a police officer, especially because his girlfriend Angela (Tika Sumpter) has an overprotective brother James Payton (Ice Cube) who is a detective so before he asks James for his blessing to allow him marry Angela he decides to apply for the Atlanta Police Academy. When he is successful and approaches James he is told that he will need to prove himself worthy by accompanying James on a typical day as a Ride Along where James is hopeful of putting Ben off taking that career path.

So begins Bens baptism of fire into the police world where James does his best to rid himself of what he sees to be the nuisance in his ear but to his initial dismay but eventual reluctant acceptance James realises that Ben has some smarts and can put clues together that he has missed so he agrees to allow him help on the case.

We have seen this story time and time before with the tale only changing slightly on each occasion, two guys who couldn’t be more different thrown together in a situation where they initially clash but it slowly dawns on them that if they work together the sum of their parts makes them stronger and thus they can both win out in the end. There’s nothing new in terms of the comedy either, it’s all been seen before however the interaction between Hart and Ice Cube works well, there is a chemistry between the two which keeps the movie going and it’s all about these two as the rest of the cast have little to do, even Laurence Fishburne has to take a back seat.

In what is essentially a close parody of Training Day with a comic spin Ice Cube plays the hard nosed, street wise detective well and is a perfect foil to ground the manic Hart who actually seems to be playing the character of Kevin Hart rather than Ben Barber, motor mouth to the point of annoying. If you like his style of comedy you will no doubt enjoy the movie but if not then if can grate on your nerves a little. The film does have it’s moments but it’s a premise that’s been done so often that there nothing new here so it’s average at best despite the efforts of all involved.

DJ Speaks Movies: 5 Out Of 10