Ride Along 2 appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. I found no problems with this excellent presentation.
Colors veered from a light teal feel to a mild amber impression. These stylistic choices worked fine, as the hues seemed appropriate for the selected palette. Blacks were dark and tight, while shadows showed nice clarity.
Sharpness excelled. All shots – wide, close and in-between – provided solid clarity and definition. If any unintentional softness emerged, I didn’t see it. Jaggies and shimmering were absent, and edge haloes weren’t a factor. No signs of source flaws emerged, and I didn’t sense any digital noise reduction. Across the board, this was a pleasing transfer.
Comedies don’t usually boast dynamic audio, but the “cop flick” side of the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack allowed for extra oomph. Music showed nice stereo presence, and a few scenes – usually those in clubs or on the streets - opened up the environment in a reasonably satisfying manner. These gave the soundscape a bit of dimensionality and created a good setting for the events.
Audio quality was solid. Speech always came across as natural and distinctive, with no signs of edginess or reediness. Music sounded lush and warm, while effects – as minor as they were – appeared accurate enough. At no point did this threaten to become a superior soundscape, but it seemed better than average for a film of this sort.
We get a long list of extras here, and these launch with an audio commentary from director Tim Story. He provides a running, screen-specific look at story/characters and deleted scenes, sets and locations, cast and performances, stunts and action, music, effects, and related areas.
At his best, Story provides a chummy chat, one that touches on a decent array of filmmaking areas. However, the commentary tends to feel somewhat superficial, and Story often does little more than narrate the movie. Story makes this a listenable piece but not one with tons of informational value.
Six Deleted Scenes fill a total of eight minutes, 44 seconds. These mix attempts at comedy with some basic exposition. None of them offer anything useful.
A Gag Reel lasts three minutes, 47 seconds and presents a standard mix of goofs and giggles. Given the presence of Kevin Hart and Ken Jeong, I hoped for some improvised comedy bits, and we get a couple, but most of the reel seems lackluster.
A slew of featurettes follow. Ride Along With Us goes for one minute, 48 seconds. This offers a fake public service announcement with the James and Ben characters. It’s a promo piece but it’s fairly entertaining.
Connected to that show, we find the one-minute, 24-second Behind the Scenes of “Ride Along with Us”. It offers outtakes from the promotional clip and seems mildly interesting.
Next comes The Ride Along Roundtable. It runs 15 minutes, 52 seconds and shows a panel discussion with Story, producer Will Packer and actors Kevin Hart and Ice Cube. They cover cast and performances, the impact Story and Packer have on the production, and developments for the sequel. Virtually no real content appears here, as the participants praise everything and everyone without any useful insights. Even when they talk about the influence of race in their work, it feels like fluff.
With The Ride Diaries, we find 20 minutes, 28 seconds of footage from the set. We also get comments from Cube, Hart, Packer, Story, first AD Milos Milicevic, department head makeup Debra Denson, production designer Chris Cornwell, stunt coordinator Jack Gill, dolly grip James Tripp Pair, visual effects supervisors Bjorn Mayer and Scott M. Davids, and actors Olivia Munn, Michael Rose, Sherri Shepherd, Tyrese Gibson, Ken Jeong, Yolanda Adams, Benjamin Bratt, Tika Sumpter and Bruce McGill. These segments look at cast and performances, sets and locations, stunts and action, and related areas. The clips tend to be superficial but they give us occasional nuggets of value.
Kevin and Cube: Brothers-In-Law occupies six minutes, 52 seconds and includes notes from Cube, Hart, Packer, Jeong, Story, and Munn. As expected, “Law” looks at the lead actors. It benefits from a decent amount of behind the scenes footage, but the comments walk down the puffy side of the street.
After this we locate The New Recruits. It lasts six minutes, 21 seconds and features Packer, Hart, Jeong, Munn, Cube, Bratt and Story. It shares the same content, strengths and weaknesses as “Law”.
During the three-minute, 24-second Inside Black Hammer Vision, we hear from Story. We learn the way the film’s car chase was made to look like a video game. Despite its brevity, “Vision” offers some good notes.
Ride Along with Kevin Hart takes up five minutes, 26 seconds and lets us follow the actor through a typical day. “Along” tends toward a silly, comedic tone and lacks much substance.
Finally, we find Cori’s Wedding Commercial. It runs one minute, 36 seconds and shows the Cori character’s advertisement. It offers mild amusement.
The disc opens with ads for Kevin Hart: What Now?, Kindergarten Cop 2, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Race, The Boy, The Forest and Triple 9. No trailer for Ride 2 appears here.
A second disc provides a DVD copy of Ride 2. It includes the commentary, the deleted scenes, the gag reel and four of the featurettes.
Maybe someone finds entertainment from the flat, uninspired Ride Along 2, but I don’t. The film lacks even the most rudimentary comedic value and becomes a slow, stale 102 minutes of boredom. The Blu-ray provides excellent visuals as well as very good audio and a fairly superficial roster of bonus materials. Perhaps fans of the original will like Ride Along 2, but I can’t find an iota of amusement here.
