Ride Along (PG-13) ★★½

Review Date: January 17th, 2014

In just about every one of Kevin Hart's scenes in Ride Along, there's a joke that is just aching to find its way out of the diminutive, rascally comic actor. Hart is a small-scale physical comedian - of the same ilk as Jack Black - who puts nuclear-degree energy into his facial contortions, anatomical outbursts, and the delivery of every gag in general. If only he had material that was crafted with the same energy.

Unfortunately, nothing else about Ride Along seems at all hard at work. Not the script, which pads a lifeless story with lazy comedy, and certainly not his screen partner Ice Cube, whose only stage direction seems to be frown, and be taller than Kevin Hart. So lifeless is Ice Cube that even his machismo-obsessed straight man bit doesn't really work. Instead of the virile and intimidating bad cop, he comes off as a disapproving middle aged dad without much to show for his own life.

But the script pairs the wily, overzealous high school security guard and video game junkie Ben (Hart) with no-nonsense lawman James (Ice Cube) on the titular ride along, with the scrappy cop-wannabe hoping to prove to the force veteran that he's good enough to marry the latter's younger sister. In earnest, he's not. Ben never puts any respectable effort into learning the tools of the trade, insisting on employing his amateur style and controlling the radio despite his proclamations that he wants, and deserves, James' trust. And James is no saint either - he's irresponsible on crime scenes, violent with perps, and disgruntled to the point of being unable to work with anybody else on the force. These are not good police officers... of course, you'll say, this is a comedy. But where are the laughs, then?

They're not absent entirely, you just have to look for them. In a movie so focused with big, broad humor, it's the smaller comedy that actually lands best. Hart's background mutterings and fumblings, his emoticon-laden texts to girlfriend Angela (Tika Sumpter, whose only stage direction seems to be smile, and never wear a full outfit of clothing), and a bizarre repetition of the word weird from supporting player John Leguizamo. All good for unexpected chuckles, while jokes like Hart facing off with a pre-teen or being blown backwards into a brick wall after firing a large gun are all lazy, familiar, and flat.

Structurally, the script is a mess. Ride Along spends far too much time on set up - we get it, Hart and his soon-to-be-brother-in-law Ice Cube don't get along - and far too much time on wrap-up - there's a gigantic, dramatic warehouse shootout that, in any other movie, would be the climax, but there's plenty more to go after that - without any cohesive middle to make the movie feel like... a movie.

Hart, who leaps at every comic opportunity like a kangaroo (wallaby would be more appropriate), is suited just right for a buddy cop comedy, but he needs something fresh with which to work - a real character, an interesting story, actually funny jokes. Even just one of these would be fine!