The New Year is kicking off with an outrageously funny and incredibly entertaining new comedy. With Hollywood’s foremost comedian Kevin Hart and veteran Ice Cube, get ready for a “Ride Along” you will never forget. “It’s a fun ride… The audiences really want to be in that back seat,” said Ice Cube at a recent press conference. The actor/producer plays James Payton, a tough and hot-tempered detective who is after the most notorious criminal in the city, Omar (Laurence Fishburne).

Kevin Hart plays Ben Barber, a fast-talking, video game junkie, who works as a high school security guard, and also happens to be dating James’ sister, Angela (Tika Skumpter). But, the funny moments are not just between the comedic duo (Hart and Cube), the beautiful and talented Tika Skumpter also plays her part. Ice Cube commented, “After you look at us in the screen for so long, you can’t wait to see Tika.” On the other hand, a ‘career changer’ for comedian Kevin Hart, as he jokingly describes, “happens at 29 minutes and 56 seconds” of the movie, which is where audiences get to experience a shirtless Kevin Hart. Another career changer occurs, but this time, for his character, Ben Barber. When he receives his acceptance letter to the police academy, he feels this will be enough or at least a step closer to the approval of his future brother in law. James, however, intends to scare him away by inviting him on a shift around the streets of Atlanta. To his surprise, Barber is a lot more prepared than he had initially anticipated. Ben’s gaming skills came in handy as they battled against the bad guys. “The gaming aspect of it helps in real life, which was a cool twist because every gamer that’s playing Call of Duty, or whatever, thinks if they was in Fallujah they could really get down like this. It’s cool to see somebody that is actually trying to apply and it’s kind of funny,” said Ice Cube.

Although video game referencing and jokes may seem organic to most people, a team of talented writers put everything together. Screenwriter Greg Coolidge said, “People might be surprised how much of the comedy was really carefully scripted and worked out by all of us on the team… Kevin especially loves to do improv but he does within the story, within the scene, within the character, within the beat. So that’s very gratifying too because you see him playing the beats exactly as they have been crafted and he’ll put his own flavor on it.” A well-written script works best with a great team of actor’s and like writer Phil Hay says, “with great actors you have no idea if it’s coming up on the spot… that’s when you know you’ve reached success.” Greg and Phil as well as Jason Mantzoukas and Matt Manfredi are the team responsible for developing this funny script.

While the best and funniest moments of the film involve some tension between the two, both Hart and Cube agree on how easy and fun it was to work with each other. “Kevin is a pro. He’ll make the crew laugh but also make the camera laugh too,” said Ice Cube. Meanwhile, Kevin Hart talked about his admiration for Cube and added, “There’s definitely a mutual respect… We both already had the same agenda, which was to knock this movie out the damn park.” Film Director, Tim Story commented on how pleased he is with the project and to have worked with a cast of professional and talented actors, “Kevin as well as Cube, they’re just good in the sense of they know how to tell the story and kind of give us those happy mistakes.”

Producer Will Packer added on how satisfying it was to have been part of what seems to be a promising success (as there is already talks about a sequel), “It’s exciting to me that Ride Along is a movie that has two African American leads. It’s even more exciting to me that its not a movie about two African American leads, they just happen to be African American; It’s a universal story.”

Joining Cube and Hart in this action-comedy are John Leguizamo, Bruce McGill, and Bryan Callen (just to name a few).

Ride Along hits theaters on Friday, January 17^th.