Quantrell D Colbert/Universal/Cube Vision/Will Packer Prods/Kobal/ShutterstockIce Cube and Kevin Hart are back for more crime-fighting hijinks in the action-comedy sequel Ride Along 2.
The actors reprise their roles as detective James Payton and Ben Barber, his future brother-in-law, who just graduated from the police academy and is now a cop. Ride Along 2 also stars returning actress Tika Sumpter as Ice Cube's character's sister, Angela, as well as newbies Olivia Munn, Sherri Shepherd and Benjamin Bratt, who plays a drug lord.
The movie hits theaters on Friday, Jan. 15.
Check out what five critics said about Ride Along 2.
1. The Village Voice's Alan Scherstuhl writes that the movie "is made up entirely of scenes you've seen before, starring actors you're familiar with doing the kinds of things that they usually do. Like your smartphone, it's a testament to the theory of interchangeable parts, a perfectly engineered product that, if you're charitable, you might also think of in terms of art."
"Hart doesn't get as much solo time here as he did in The Wedding Ringer...and on occasion the direction he seems to have been given is, "Be loud and annoying for a couple minutes,'" he says. "But, as in his stand-up, Hart dazzles when he has material worth his considerable motormouth talents. His hilarious rants here about the meanings of ringtones, or how his and Cube's characters should call themselves 'The Brothers-in-Law,' or how much surviving a police shootout would hurt? They'll forever be highlights of his already swollen highlight reel."
2. NJ.com's Stephen Whitty says Ride Along 2 "wants to be a dumb comedy, which is fine" but "there's a difference between being dumb and being stupid."
"It's not a movie about odd-couple friends, but about an annoying screw-up and a humorless bully," he writes. "And what fun is that? The first film at least had the virtue of novelty—it was interesting, for a while, to see how the two actors interacted – but by now they're locked into their roles, and a familiar, strictly pro-forma plot."
3. Forbes' Scott Mendelson says Ride Along 2 is a "painfully unfunny action farce that can't even live up to the meager pleasures of its predecessor."
"The original Ride Along was a pretty terrible movie that scored just enough laughs to justify a recommendation," he writes. "Sadly, Ride Along 2 is 0/2, with pretty much the same paint-by-numbers plotting and significantly fewer chuckles. What's most distressing is that it basically repeats the character relationship and character arcs of the first film, existing as if the first picture never happened."
4. The A.V. Club's Jesse Hassenger says, "Kevin Hart and Ice Cube's chemistry is squandered again in Ride Along 2."
"The implausibilities, cop-movie checkboxes, and mildly wasted talent make Ride Along 2 lazy, but not downright loathsome," he writes. "If anything, it's perhaps slightly more amusing and agreeable than the original—a sign of how little that film's seemingly surefire premise wound up mattering. The sequel, meanwhile, functions as an object lesson in the way the mildest likability can convince actors and filmmakers that they're doing something right. Hart and Cube probably had chemistry on set, and assumed it would translate into big laughs onscreen."
5. IGN.com's Max Nicholson says Ride Along 2 is "the kind of movie that's best watched in the comfort of your own home, preferably for free and while consuming alcohol."
"As the followup to an already poorly received buddy comedy, it won't be changing any minds about Kevin Hart or Ice Cube," he writes. "It's not without an occasional laugh or two—I stress 'occasional'—but Ride Along 2 lacks emotion, runs long and doesn't precipitate enough laughs to justify the price of admission."