Cop comedy sweeps box office for third straight week

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Kevin Hart tries to impress his future brother-in-law, Ice Cube, in Ride Along.

    Ride Along came in first place at the weekend box office this week for the third week in a row, despite competition from the Super Bowl. The Universal Pictures’ comedy is nearing the $100 million mark in domestic revenue, according to studio estimates Sunday. The opening for the film marked the biggest debut for a film released during Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend.

    The movie is action-packed, there is no doubt about that. In the first five minutes, the director gives viewers a shootout, a car chase, and a massive explosion. So if you’re looking for action, Ride Along is the movie to see. In the crime comedy, Ice Cube plays a cop who takes his soft, opposite-of-tough, soon-to-be-brother-in-law, played by Kevin Hart, out on a out on patrol in an effort to find out if he’s worthy of marrying into the family.

    Ride Along is the first starring role for Hart, whose box-office status has been on the rise since the success of his 2013 stand-up film Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain and memorable appearances in such movies as Think Like a Man, This Is the End and Grudge Match.

    Cube’s straight-man role is one that plays to the actor-rapper’s strengths: He’s a scowling, tough, no-nonsense cop who takes his job extremely seriously. It’s the role he played memorably in 21 Jump Street, and it’s pretty much the same role he’s been playing on-screen and off for more than two decades. Needless to say, he’s got it down pat.

    Cube is physically behind the wheel for the bulk of the film, but it’s clearly Hart’s show. Hart is a high school security guard who dreams of becoming a cop.Newly accepted into the police academy, he makes plans to marry his girlfriend, Cube’s sister. Hart, who is manically energetic, moves from funny to hilarious as he tries desperately to gain the approval of the man who holds the family approval for his marriage in his hands. If you’re already a fan of Hart’s style of motor-mouthed comedy, then you’ll find much to giggle about here.