Summary Capsule
Freewheeling idiots taunt the wrong trucker
DnaError's Rating: The Voice from Scream gets a job
DnaError's Review: Before the review starts, can we address the problem of dirty theaters? Maybe it's just me but I do not like getting a buttfull of naco-chesse when I sit down. At the very least it should be warm. Okay, on to the movie. Joy Ride is actually 2 movies in one, a movie and it's sequel. The first movie takes about 60 min of the running time. Clever, silly, tense, has a blonde chick and a bumper crop of good one-liners, kind of like a Buffy episode. The sequel, which I have named "Joy Ride 2: Ride Harder Bugaloo", takes up the rest of the running length. Dull, plodding, and with the kind of bizzaro-zone ending thats becoming common. The entire movie is almost a ying-yang of completion, everything good in the first half becomes bad in the second. Clever becomes annoying, style goes to excess, and silly drops to implausibility.
The scanty cast is equally split. (I just wanted to use the word scanty) Paul Walker hails from the school of model-acting, stare into the camera and look puckered. Leelee Sobieski has the distinction of having a silly name in real life and in the movie and wining the "Most Like Jennifer Connley" Award. The only person really acting in the movie is Steve Zhan, who plays the wisecracking Fueller. Normally the term "wisecracking" would send me into paroxysms of pain. However he did deliver his one-liners and mordant humor with just the right zing. Normally "hilarious" is not a good term for describing a horror movie, but Zhan does make the combo work. Good for him.
But it's the extra 40 min that really bugs the hell out of me. There is NO NEED to continue the movie, it's over, Res Complete, stick a fork in it the story has ended. The last 40min are the appendix of the movie, just sitting there collecting infection. So go see Joy Ride but leave after the story ends. It happens just as the blonde chick appears. You see her ride up in that kicky little silver car, leave the theater with happy memories and a non-nachoed butt.
 2001 Rated R Suspense Horror Director
Starring
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All hotels are surrounded by giantic heat lamps at all times.
That I didn't mention Steven King's "Duel" in the entire review? [perhaps he's referring to Steven Spielberg -ed.]
Lewis sounds nothing like a girl, at all?
Shown in the trailers and TV spots, but not in the movie, is a quick scene where Lewis and Fuller run out of a diner, naked.
The Movie Store!
Joy Ride: Soundtrack [CD]
Intermission!
Three endings exist for the movie..maybe I just got stuck with the "huh?" one.
This movie was originally entitled Squelch.
Official and Not-So-Official Websites
Official Site
 CB lingo is a world unto itself. Beware the Bear and Big Charlie, and check out The CB Lingo page. More definitions than you can shake a bug-infested stick at. |
Lewis: Don't you miss home?
Fueller: Oh yea I miss mom's cookies, playing football with dad...no, wait, that's someone else's childhood.
Lewis: Maybe you should show up when you don't need bail money.
Guy: You okay?
Fueller: yeah, we're fine now that we're...not murdered.
If you liked this movie, try these:
The Glass House
Duel
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