Release Date: April 26, 2016
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour 42 minutes

The brothers-in-law are back! Ben (Kevin Hart; Get Hard, The Wedding Ringer), a recently graduated police rookie, now aspires to be a detective like his soon-to-be brother-in-law, but James (Ice Cube; 22 Jump Street, Barbershop) still doesn’t think that he has what it takes for the job. He reluctantly takes Ben with him to follow up on a lead in Miami. Plans for a quick trip go awry when their unorthodox policing gets them into a compromising situation that threatens to derail a major case… and Ben’s upcoming wedding day. Also starring Ken Jeong, Benjamin Bratt, Olivia Munn and Sherri Shepherd. The dynamic duo of Cube and Hart renew their comedic connection in this bigger, better, and funnier sequel!

I enjoyed Ride Along enough to want to see a sequel when it came my way and am happy to say that the sequel doesn’t fall into the sophomore slump that many sequels these days do.

Ride Along 2 is laugh out loud funny, has even more action than the first film, and some fresh faces that really infuse even more energy into this already fun franchise. Ice Cube and Kevin Hart bring their classic energies and do not disappoint. They deliver exactly what you’d expect. As for the newbies to this world?

Olivia Munn and Benjamin Bratt are fun additions to the cast. It is always refreshing to see Bratt in a serious role since I mostly see him as a dramatic actor. I love that they brought in more female blood to the cast and that Olivia’s character is essentially the woman version of Ice Cube’s character. That said, I loved the addition of Ken Jeong who is an absolute hoot, stealing every scene that he’s in, making him the Kevin Hart of his scenes but really, I’m serious when I say Ken steals all the scenes he’s in – even the scenes with the leads!

Story wise, this was a natural progression from the first film. Ben is now a cop and working with James. Chaos ensues. If the story continues to progress naturally, I think audiences are satisfied as is but if there must be more to this, there’s probably only room for one more film that people will stick around for. Anyway, solid sequel. If you’re on the fence about seeing this, go ahead and watch. you won’t regret setting some time aside to laugh.

Special Features:

Commentary – The commentary is conducted by director, Tim Story. I can’t say that I watched the whole thing but what I did catch was fun and a great behind the scenes audio commentary on working on set, the cast, the setting, the story, etc…

Ride Along With Us (2 minutes) – In this feature, Ice Cube and Kevin Hart act as their characters recording a police recruitment video. It’s not really funny so you can skip this feature.

Behind the Scenes of Ride Along With Us (Approx. 2 minutes) – This is essentially a gag reel for a feature on the special features. This is pretty ridiculous. It’s not that funny and it could have just been tacked onto the end of Ride Along With Us as a gag. Skip it.

The Ride Along Roundtable (15 minutes) – At first, I thought that Kevin Hart would overpower this roundtable with his comedic flare but thankfully after the first few minutes, it becomes a serious heartfelt, enjoyable roundtable between Hart, Ice Cube, director Tim Story, and producer Will Packer, with Packer mainly moderating the roundtable. The guys talk about working on the film, working with each other, and working on a film that is diverse. Worth the watch, I’d say.

Appearing in This Feature:
Director, Tim Story
Producer, Will Packer
Cast Members, Ice Cube, Kevin Hart

The Ride Diaries (20 minutes) – This feature is broken into 7 behind the scenes featurettes with the option to play all. Each feature is 2-5 minutes long so I’d recommend simply playing all as they’re all fun features to watch as we catch the cast and crew shooting pivotal scenes in Miami and Atlanta.

Appearing in This Feature:
Producer, Will Packer
First Assistant Director, Milos Milicevic
Head Makeup, Debra Denson
Director, Tim Story
Production Designer, Chris Cornwell
Dolly Grip, James Tripp Pair
Visual Effects Supervisor, Scott M. Davids (Level 256)
Visual Effects Supervisor, Björn Mayer (Pixomondo)
Stunt Coordinator, Jack Gill
Executive Producer, Nicolas Stern
Cast Members, Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, Olivia Munn, Michael Rose, Tyrese Gibson, Tika Sumpter, Ken Jeong, Yolanda Adams, Bruce McGill, Sherri Shepherd, Banjamin Bratt

Kevin & Cube: Brothers-In-Law (7 minutes) – This feature could have been lumped in with “The Ride Diaries” if it had been more meaningful but it’s pretty pointless. So, skip this feature.

Appearing in This Feature:
Producer, Will Packer
Director, Tim Story
Cast Members, Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, Ken Jeong, Olivia Munn

The New Recruits (6 minutes) – This feature puts a fun spotlight on the fresh meat of the cast from Olivia Munn to Benjamin Bratt and takes a brief moment to talk about expanding the dynamic of the film through the characters that they play.

Appearing in This Feature:
Producer, Will Packer
Director, Tim Story
Cast Members, Kevin Hart, Olivia Munn, Ice Cube, Ken Jeong, Benjamin Bratt

Inside Black Hammer Vision (Approx. 3 minutes) – This is a really fascinating feature in which Director, Tim Story talks us through how the car chase scene came together which is part action, part visual effects with Ben’s gamer POV. Pretty cool how this came together.

Ride Along With Kevin Hart (Approx. 5 minutes) – This feature is a loose version of a day in the life of Kevin Hart on the set of the film.

Appearing in This Feature:
Producer, Will Packer
Director, Tim Story
Cast Member, Ice Cube

Cori’s Wedding Commercial (Approx. 2 minutes) – Sherri Shepherd stars as her character, Cori in a wedding planning promo reel. Sherri Shepherd is funny but this didn’t make me laugh. I’d say skip this.

Deleted Scenes (9 minutes) – There are five deleted scenes and there’s an extended bar scene. All of the scenes were amusing but only one of them (“Your Drunk Husband”) actually made me laugh out loud so it’s completely understandable why all of these scenes were cut but they are still worth the watch.

Gag Reel (Approx. 4 minutes)

Own Ride Along 2 on Blu-ray and DVD today.