There's a moment at the end of Ride Along 2 where Oliva Munn's character, Detective Maya Cruz, is staring at Ice Cube and Kevin Hart (as James Payton and Ben Barber, respectively) as they argue over who's going to drive the brand new sports car they just acquired. She shows an interesting procession of emotions on her face as this transpires: humor, bewilderment, concern, and then a settled-upon sense of mediocrity. That pretty much sums up my take on this film, one of some minor entertainment that is largely devoid of value.
For what it's worth, Tim Story does direct some clear looking action sequences with a solid sense of geography. That has value. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is on on-par with a mid-level, 80's to 90's era, direct-to-tv cop drama. That's a shame, considering the fact that both Ice Cube and Kevin Hart are capable of more (I mean, Ice Cube was in 21/22 Jump Street, both of which are clever riffs off of those same direct-to-tv cop dramas).
That being said, I think there are interesting things within the film. Hart's character has the arc of the baffoon who seeks to prove himself, with Cube's James Payton slowly recognizing that Barber has some value, despite his foolishness. With this is an interesting juxtaposition of Hart's somewhat non-traditional masculinity and Cube's hyper-gruff version, almost as though it's saying there's room for both. Even more, part of me wanted to see this near-savant side explored a bit more, but it's too often disregarded for more overstated gags.
It comes down to a mismanagement of resources, or at the very least it feels that way. Hart does what he often does, which is to be far too much for what's needed of him. Jokes stretch on too long and continuously depreciate in value. Those interesting thematic elements are rarely explored. Everything is mostly painted in broad brushes. All of the more intriguing elements are buried under all of this. Mediocrity, thy name is Ride Along 2.
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