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Joy Ride

2001, Movie, R, 115 mins

Joy Ride: Review

JOY RIDE | ROADKILL
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From the department of cautionary tales: Should you ever consider playing a mean-spirited prank on some anonymous fellow driver during a boring road trip, reconsider. College freshman Lewis (Paul Walker) has had a crush on Venna (Leelee Sobieski) since they were high schoolers, but they were always just friends. Now they're at separate schools — he in California, she in Colorado — but fate has dropped an incredible opportunity in his lap. The summer holidays are upon them and Venna has just broken up with her boyfriend. Lewis offers to drive to Denver and take her home to New Jersey: So what if he doesn't have a car — he'll cash in his plane ticket and buy a junker. The point is that some time on the road alone with Venna just might jumpstart a romance. The spanner in the works is Lewis's ne'er-do-well older brother, Fuller (Steve Zahn), who's just been arrested in Salt Lake City on some penny-ante drunk-and-disorderly charge. Familial responsibility forces Lewis to pick up Fuller, a charming bundle of perpetually misdirected energy whose first contribution to the trip is the purchase of a used CB radio. "It's like a prehistoric Internet," he crows, then persuades Lewis to play a game: Lewis mimics a whiskey-and-cigarettes-voiced honey they dub "Candy Cane" and romances a raspy motorist who calls himself "Rusty Nail," eventually inviting him to a midnight assignation at a lonely motel. The brothers giggle like schoolgirls as Rusty comes face to face with the room's real occupant, a beefy, belligerent redneck, but the smiles fade as they hear a scuffle, followed by ominous silence. The next day, Fuller and Lewis learn that their next-door neighbor is near death, his lower jaw ripped clean off, as a direct result of their practical joke. Worse still, they discover that Rusty Nail knows who they are and is one vindictive mothertrucker. Thinking they've shaken him, they proceed to Denver and pick up Venna, but Rusty Nail isn't done with them yet — not by a long shot. Following in the tradition of nightmare road-trip movies like DUEL (1971), ROADGAMES (1981), THE HITCHER (1986) and BREAKDOWN (1997), this taut thriller is sharply directed by John Dahl and benefits from fine, low-key performances by Walker, Sobieski and Zahn, whose usual goofy boisterousness is reworked into something jittery and dangerous. The sequel-ready twist at the end is a letdown, but until then this is a neatly constructed nail-biter. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead
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Thrills & Chills 3 Pack (The Hills Have Eyes / Joy Ride / Phone Booth)
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