TARA O’GORMAN, KATIE PICKRELL

Kevin Hart and Ice Cube stars in “Ride Along” directed by Tim Story. Ride Along is an intense thriller that is quite predictable at some parts. “Ride Along”  started off slow, but got much better towards the end.

To open it up, the movie begins with an action filled crime scene. All is going well up until the point that Cube drove his truck straight through an explosion without any problems. Mindless action was definitely a key part of Ride Along, but the acting and comical relief made even the unrealistic moments bearable.

Hart plays a childish high school security cop aspiring to become a real police officer just like his soon-to-be brother-in-law played by Cube. In an attempt to crush Hart’s ambitions of becoming a police officer and his longing to marry his long-time girlfriend, played by Tika Sumpter, Cube takes Hart on an eventful ride along.

Cube tries very hard to get rid of Hart, even posing unreal annoying situations for him to fail. By the end of the day, it seems as though Hart has had enough. He is determined to gain the approval from Cube to marry his sister.

The plot line and even the plot twists are very predictable. Like most other cop movie story lines, you have the grumpy guy that would like nothing more than to be alone (Ice Cube) and the guy that is always way too excited (Hart). Then you have the way too excited guy always trying to marry the grumpy guy’s sister.

Ride Along may be poorly written, but the comedy made it worthwhile. Nearly every time that Hart opened his mouth I could not help myself from bursting out in laughter. Cube was the key to the movie’s comedy, while Hart was a huge contributor.