MYST Post #6: Ride Along

This movie has been on my list of movies to watch since it's come out to theaters. The trailer looked interesting and I mean, who doesn't love Kevin Hart? This movie is about this guy named Ben Barber, played by Kevin Hart, who is trying to obtains his girlfriend's brother's, James Payton played by Ice Cube, blessing to marry his sister. Ben goes on a "ride along" with James, who is a cop, in order to prove that he is worthy of his sister and can protect her. On the ride along, Ben gets assigned to deal with annoying crimes/citizens known as case 126's. Ben fails at all these tasks until he realizes that some of them were set up by James so that he would fail. By the end of the night, Ben and James get involved in a huge crime that changes both their lives. This movie overall was decent in that it has some humor scattered around, but the overall plot was a tad bit boring.

In my opinion, the actors for each part, for the main characters at least, fit their other roles in this movie very well. Kevin Hart is known to be quite the comedian. He does stand up comedy, but also plays the role of the "love-maker" and comedian in movies, such as in Think Like A Man. He brings the humor out in the audience, which is perfect for Ride Along since it is a comedy movie mixed with action. Ice Cube is another actor that I think fits his role nicely. He usually stars in gangster or crime fighting movies such as Boyz n the Hood. In Ride Along, he plays James who is the tough guy cop who thinks that he is the boss of everyone and is able to protect everyone, especially his sister. He gets involved in situation that end in gun shootings or hand to hand combat which seem to really be his "thing." Finally, another one of the main characters that seem to fit her role by looking at her previous roles is Tika Sumpter. She comes off as the girl who goes for the money and is always in need of help. Another time she played a role like this other than in Ride Along is in the tv show "Gossip Girl." Her name was Raina Thorpe and she had a short affair with Chuck Bass who is very rich and powerful. She was very deceitful in the relationship because she wanted Chuck's money. That is something that is a little different in Ride Along in that she wants her and Ben's relationship to go on to the next level since she loves him.

One of my favorite scenes from the movie that actually made me laugh out loud was the one where Ben is still a high school security guard of the lunch room. The scene starts with a extreme long shot of the school while the bell rings in the background. This is used to show the setting of the next couple minutes of the movie. It then moves on to a medium shot of Ben talking to the lunch lady about how rough his life is. This shot is used to show any hand motions he uses and to see the outfits so that we know who they are. The scene then switches to a long shot for the rest of it. A long shot is used to show the entire lunch room as Ben goes through it telling people to stop dancing on the table and fighting (best part: look at gif). The final part is of Ben doing a "kick move" across the lunch table in order to chase this kid named Ramon. The long shot is used to show the action of Ben and the students and to see everything that is going on around him. It doesn't limit what we see which is helpful so that we feel like we're a part of the lunchroom, too.

The movie as a whole contained various types of cinematic elements including shots, music, and effects. The sound effects were very on point with the explosions and gunshots especially. As mentioned from the previous paragraph, long shots were also prevalent. They were used mainly for full body action shots which are very common in an action movie. The use of low angle was also seen especially during the arguments between Ben and James. This is used to show how Ben is inferious in James' eyes. Another noticeable technique they used is a very dark toned movie which makes sense since it's a movie about a ride along with a policeman. It also involves a lot of gunshots so the darkness works for that. The music was also what some people would consider "ghetto" or throwbacks. For the most part, the music fit the scenes as background music and sometimes it even adds a bit of humor to it.

All in all, this movie was only decent in my opinion. It wasn't as comedic as I hoped it would be and the plot seemed similar and expected. I give Ride Along 3.8/5 stars for this reason and the fact that the dialogue could have been a bit more interesting.