Ride Along Information

Ride Along is a 2014 American action comedy film directed by Tim Story and written by Greg Coolidge, Jason Mantzoukas, Phil Hay, and Matt Manfredi. The film stars Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, John Leguizamo, Bryan Callen, Tika Sumpter and Laurence Fishburne. The film was released January 17, 2014.

Plot

Ben Barber, a fast-talking, jumpy security guard, joins his potential brother-in-law James Payton, an APD cop/detective, on a 24-hour patrol of Atlanta in order to prove himself worthy of marrying Angela, James's sister. The patrol begins to turn into a real case as James finds clues that he thinks will lead to potential closure of the 3 year case he has been working against the mysterious criminal known only as "Omar".

Cast

• Ice Cube as James Payton
• Kevin Hart as Ben Barber
• Laurence Fishburne as Omar
• Tika Sumpter as Angela Payton
• John Leguizamo as Santiago
• Bryan Callen as Miggs
• Bruce McGill as Lt. Brooks
• Gary Owen as Crazy Cody
• Jay Pharoah as Runflat
• David Banner as Pawnshop Jay
• Drago? Bucur as Marko
• Gary Weeks as Dr. Cowan
• Jacob Latimore as Ramone

Production

On November 29, 2009, The Hollywood Reporter announced that comedian Jason Mantzoukas had been hired to rewrite a cop-buddy comedy film Ride Along for the New Line Cinema original written by Greg Coolidge, with Ice Cube set to star in and produce the film along with Matt Alvarez through Cube's film company, Cube Vision Productions. On July 11, 2012 Universal Pictures acquired the distribution rights to the film from New Line, with production starting in October 2012 with Tim Story set to direct the film rewritten by Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay, produced by Will Packer and Larry Brezner. On October 31, 2012, the studio announced the film would be released on January 17, 2014.

Casting

Ice Cube joined the cast on November 29, 2009 to play the lead role as Detective James, a rogue cop who tries to break off his sister's engagement to an upper-crust white psychiatrist by inviting his future brother-in-law on a ride-along. Kevin Hart joined the cast on July 11, 2012 to play Ben, a security guard. On October 16, 2012, John Leguizamo joined the cast of the film to play an undercover cop. On October 30, 2012, Tika Sumpter, Bryan Callen, and Jay Pharoah joined the cast of the film, Sumpter plays Angela, Ben's fiancee and James' sister while Callen plays an undercover cop and Pharoah plays a street informant.

On November 9, 2012, Back Stage posted that the film's director was looking for adult extras of all ethnicities for the background in the film. On November 16, 2012, Bruce McGill joined the cast of the film to play a hard-nosed lieutenant. On December 7, 2012, Gary Owen also joined the cast to co-star with Cube and Hart.

Filming

Principal photography began at the end of October 2012 in Atlanta, the crews were filming some scenes at Underground Atlanta on October 30 and 31. On October 31, 2012 CBS Atlanta posted the news that the Atlanta police are warning citizens that there will be a simulated gun battle inside the mall area during the filming on Thursday, November 1, 2012. It was a 35-day shoot which wrapped-up filming on December 19, 2012 in Atlanta.

Release

A teaser trailer and an image were released on July 1, 2013. On September 26, 2013, studio revealed the first teaser poster featuring Cube and Hart. On November 5, 2013, eight new images from the set and the poster were revealed. A second trailer of the film was revealed from studio on November 7, 2013. On December 19, 2013, Universal released a full length trailer for the film. On the night of January 6, 2014, the film's premiere was held at Atlantic Station in Atlanta. On January, 13, 2014, the Los Angeles premiere was held at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California.

Ride Along was released on January 17, 2014.

Critical response

The film holds an "A" grade on CinemaScore but has garnered negative reviews from critics. The film currently holds a 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 93 reviews. The consensus states: "Kevin Hart's livewire presence gives Ride Along a shot of necessary energy, but it isn't enough to rescue this would-be comedy from the buddy-cop doldrums."

A negative review came from Steve Pulaski of Influx Magazine, who gave the film a D grade, stating, "Ride Along is a cut-and-paste, buddy cop actioneer that seems to have assembled its screenplay by taking sentences from the screenplays of other films of the same genre and throwing them in this particular project unaltered. It combines the zealous energy of Kevin Hart with Ice Cube"?s trademark meanness, a trait he can exercise when he sleeps, and throws them both into a dead-on-arrival storyline about the usual circumstances of street crime and mobsters with a romantic twist in an attempt to offer narrative leverage."

Box office

The film's 3-day opening weekend gross was $41,516,170 in 2,663 US and Canadian theaters (an average $15,590 per theater gross), giving Ride Along the record for highest domestic opening weekend gross in the month of January ahead of 2008's Cloverfield. For the 4-day MLK Holiday weekend, the film grossed $48,626,380.

Sequel

On April 23, 2013, Deadline reported that the studio had announced that there would be a sequel to the film, with the script written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. Production is to start immediately after the release of first film in January 2014.