Day 160: Ride Along 2 (2016)

One of my favorite comedies back in 2014 was the dysfunctional buddy cop movie Ride Along. that featured Ice Cube (Barbershop) as rough loner cop James and Kevin Hart (Get Hard) as his annoying soon to be brother in law Ben. We all know what happens in the first film and the dysfunctional duo return for Ride Along 2. This time around, Ben is a beat cop that is still in his probational term while James has a new partner. James discovers that a potential key to solving a case lies in Miami and despite not wanting him there, the duo heads to Miami. While in Miami and in search of a hacker named AJ (Ken Jeong), they stumble open something that may be bigger than they thought that involves a very well off tycoon of sorts. Not it’s up to the brothers in law to solve the case before Ben has to get back for his wedding. The film also stars Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse) as Maya, Tika Sumpter (Ride Along) as Angela, Benjamin Bratt (Demolition Man) as Antonio Pope, Michael Rose (Unthinkable) as the Hitter, Sherri Shepherd (Precious) as Cori, Glen Powell (The Expendables III) as Troy, and the film was directed by Tim Story (Fantastic Four). To see the rest of the review and see the stats of the film, please click here to go to Moshpits and Movies.

Day 118: Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)

I thought for a very long time that I was the only person n the whole wide world that was waiting for some sort of sequel to the 1994 Richard Linklater (Boyhood) classic Dazed And Confused. Go 22 years into the future and now we have our spiritual sequel (Linklater has stated) to the classic film in Everybody Wants Some!! which takes place in the 1980’s (or at least the beginning of the decade). The film follows incoming freshman Jake (Blake Jenner) and his ragtag baseball teammates as they navigate through the life of college and everything that comes with it like partying, sex, and anything else you can think of as it’s all unsupervised by adults. Will they survive that three day weekend before classes start or will we have some casualties along the way. The film also stars Juston Street (My All American) as Jay, Ryan Guzman (The Boy Next Door) as Roper, Tyler Hoechlin (Road To Perdition) as McReynolds, Wyatt Russell (22 Jump Street) as Willoughby, Glen Powell (The Dark Knight Rises) as Finnegan, Temple Baker (Love Is Relative) as Plummer, J. Quinton Johnson as Dale, Will Brittain (A Teacher) as Beuter, Austin Amelio (The Walking Dead) as Nesbit, and Zoey Deutch (Dirty Grandpa) as Beverly.

For a while as I was watching the film, I had a hard time figuring out what the plot of the film was. Was this a film that was just about partying? Dazed And Confused had a plot to it that was easy to get while this one just seems like a movie about endless partying and gamesmanship. Then after a while, it became clear as soon as I read IMDB’s explanation. One thing is for certain with this film is that just like the first film, it has a killer soundtrack that features the likes of Foreigner, Devo, Van Halen, Cheap Trick, Pat Benatar, and so many more. The soundtrack was always a huge part of the film and they do a terrific job picking the songs once again as it mixes some disco with rock and a little country too. Another thing Linklater has a knack for when it comes these films is discovering young talent to go with the already established guys. There are a lot of guys who make their feature film debuts in this film and they do a great job. One of the true highlights for me was Juston Street who plays an absolute awesome comedic relief as a pitcher who takes himself way too seriously. Every time he appeared on screen, I was laughing my butt off and couldn’t get enough of him. I like how the film ended however cause it was kind of a nice way to end the adventure that was the film. One thing I will say is what they hell were they thinking in the 80’s when it came to their outfits and those short shorts guys wore? Anyways, I am going to give the film an A- only because it doesn’t top Dazed And Confused, but it was very enjoyable to watch.