I've loved "buddy cop" movies ever since Lethal Weapon came out, so I was looking forward to seeing this latest iteration of the genre, but I missed it in the theaters so I was glad to get the chance to review it on Blu-ray. Ride Along continues the tradition well, but it's nowhere near as good as the Lethal Weapon movies, but they may also be due to the filmmakers intent on making a comedic Training Day rather than the traditional "buddy cop" film. And that's fine, but I think it was a missed opportunity for more laughs. That being said, I have the feeling that the planned sequel will follow the more traditional aspects of the genre based on the ending of this movie.

Kevin Hart continues his skyrocketing momentum here as Ben Barber, a gamer who has aspirations to leave behind his job as a school security guard to become a real cop, like his girlfriend Angela (Tika Sumpter)'s brother James Payton (Ice Cube). James has made it no secret that he thinks Angela is wasting her time with a loser and he gives Ben plenty of hints to move on since he isn't good enough for her. James also doesn't have any respect for Ben's chances to become a cop based on his short height and his lack of skills. The only thing that Ben seems to be good at is playing "Call of Duty" like video games.

When Ben is finally accepted into the police academy, James sees this an final opportunity to scare Ben off once and for all. He offers to take Ben on a ride along with him to see what police life will be like over the course of a day. He doesn't tell Ben that he's planning on making the day as difficult as possible by putting Ben in bad situations (both real and staged) by having every crazy assignment be assigned to them. Of course, his real police work comes up during their day which is not surprising. He's been tracking an arms dealer named "Omar" (think Keyser Soze) and of course they get involved in that during their ride along. It also shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that during this ride along that the two men will start to bond and appreciate each other. If they can just survive this mess long enough, they just might become friends.

Ride Along has some laughs to it but it seems that the director Tim Story (the Fantastic Four films) decided to focus more on delivering action than laughs. It's tough to try to replicate the incredible Lethal Weapon formula and this one doesn't come close. I enjoyed it and there's not too many people that can play it straight better than Ice Cube who glowers through the entire movie. Kevin Hart reminds me of Chris Tucker, where they both work best in small doses. Hart has the largest role in this movie and it was a little too much for me. Some of his comedy works and some of it doesn't (much like in Grudge Match), but combined, the two men have good chemistry together. There's also some good supporting work here from Laurence Fishburne, Philip Baker Hall, and others, with one of them being the obvious bad guy "Omar" just by putting two and two together from watching the opening credits and seeing a little of the movie. I'd be interested in seeing the upcoming sequel which I suspect will follow more of the "buddy cop" formula than this one which I think will make a big difference.

This 1080p (2.40:1) transfer was shot with the Red Epic digital camera so as you'd expect, the resulting picture looks very nice. The picture is sharp looking with bright and accurate colors and natural looking flesh tones. Black levels are suitably dark which is a good thing considering how many scenes take place in darkened areas. There's no digital defects or other issues such as scratches or noise to complain about. This is a very nice transfer for Blu-ray.
Extras (3 1/2 out of 5 stars)
There's a decent assortment of extras included but most of them are fairly short which is too bad. The good news is that they are all in high definition.