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Joy RideRating:
Release Date: 02 September, 2003 Retail Price: $9.98 OUR Price: $9.98 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Complete Cast (11 total) |
Joy Ride Reviews
thrilling, but with many faults and loopholes
I'd like to start off with the pros by saying this was decently entertaining due to its fast pace suspense and believable storyline. The 2 brothers who play a light joke on a trucker over a CB radio, and later find themselves, along with their friends, the targets of the vengeful trucker, is realistic and absorbing because it can happen to anyone.
I would categorize this into a suspense-slasher despite the fact you see very little blood and gore. The actors/actresses are by far one of the better groups among modern horror flicks with loads of crappy, stiff actors. The movie builds suspense very creatively and unleashes them at opportune times without making you feel like they are throwing cheap scream bursts at you (think The Grudge). It's filled with twists and turns and leaves you little time to guess what happens next.
Now, on with the cons. Usually, candidates selected for targets in horror flicks are known for their stupidity. The common "don't go in there, you fool", "don't divide up, stay together", or the "shoot him, dammit, that's what your gun is for!!!". It's very normal for people to make a mistake or two and pay for the consequences. But seriously, the actors in this movie are so stupid (bad scripting?) that they continue to make dumb mistakes and very, very illogical decisions that gets you to wonder if the writer specifically put those decisions in to carry on the plot. There must have been at least 15 or 20 places where these sort of things happen, and some of those mistakes are just so unforgivable that I had to take out a star for the bad plotting.
The other part I really found annoying was how godly they made the pyscho trucker. I mean, we aren't talking about normal killers like Jason or Freddy who are a step or 2 above their victims...we are talking about an omniscient, omnipotent criminal who can stealthily maneuver a huge truck to do anything at will, track down people with every piece of information about them, strategically plan every move and moves of opponents, while also knowning skills close to those of being an espionage. I mean, this guy should not even be a trucker, but an instructor who teaches CIA or FBI agents. This was the part that took the movie down further more. It would not have been hard to make an intelligent killer rather than the god of all criminals. The guy doesn't make one single mistake besides the prank that he fell for, and that's just very implausible. I'm sure you can find some far-fetched idea to explain this phenomenon, but I find it hard to beleive that a guy that can drive like a getaway specialist and track down people and plan out strategies like a CIA, would be a normal, ordinary trucker.
Suspenseful movie with few minor flaws.
So I just saw this on TV. Usually, I channel surf during the commercials but this movie was so suspensful that I actually stayed on the same channel waiting for it to come back. I wasn't expecting much for a movie with Paul Walker in it, but it was actually pretty good.
It's a basic plot with two brothers, Lewis (Paul Walker) and Fuller (Steve Zahn) driving around with Lewis' long time friend and crush, Venna (Leelee Sobieski). It starts off with Lewis calling Venna and then making plans to pick her up from college and drive home. Along the way, he picks up his recently out of jail brother, Fuller, and off they go.
Before reaching the college, they play a mean joke on an unsuspecting truck driver, who calls himself "Rusty Nails", mostly initiatied by Fuller, the more cruel of the two. So after a few close encounters with this psychotic truck driver, who remains unseen for most of the movie, they pick up Venna. The brothers are so close to death at one point that it seems kind of illogical that they don't run for help, but instead kind of blow it off as a mean joke. That's one of the few things about the movie that bothered me.
The real horror comes in a little later after they run into this crazy truck driver again and they realize just how much he doesn't like being made a fool out of. It's a crazy chase along the highway that's extrememly enthralling and it gave me a mini heart attack.
The final scenes at the motel end the movie nicely. You're dying to see what this truck driver looks like and what happens to Venna and the brothers.
Minor things that bothered me were the fact that this huge truck was able to follow them across the country unseen by them. Why don't they immediately call for help after the first time they run into this crazy guy? Why are they even still using that radio after the truck driver nearly kills the guy in the room next to them?! Oh yeah and Fuller was a little repulsive, first he gets them into the whole mess by suggesting the prank, then he tries to go after the girl his brother has a crush on, and then he picks up the radio just to egg the guy on even though it's pretty obvious that he shouldn't. But other than that, good movie =)
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