Joy Ride
Joy Ride *** (R)
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Reviewed by Brenda Sexton
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The joy of terror
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Fuller Thomas: Steve Zahn
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Lewis Thomas: Paul Walker
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Venna: Leelee Sobieski
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Charlotte: Jessica Bowman
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Director: John Dahl
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Rusty Nail the trucker: Matthew Kimbrough
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30 Second Bottom Line: Two brothers along with one's potential girlfriend are driving home to New Jersey from out West. Unknown to her, the guys have played a practical joke on a horny trucker over their CB radio, enraging him to seek horrifying revenge on them all.
Story Line: Lewis Thomas (Paul Walker), a good-guy college freshman at Berkeley, is chatting with Venna (Leelee Sobieski), a gorgeous girl from back home who's just finished her freshman year at Boulder, Colorado. She lets him know she's broken up with her boyfriend and Lewis decides in a moment to cash in his airline ticket home for the summer to buy a beat-up used car so he can give her a ride home.
Full of romantic glow, handsome and strapping Lewis sets out for Boulder but stops in Salt Lake City to catch up with his long lost bum of an older brother, Fuller (Steve Zahn), who happens to be just getting out of jail. Fuller decides to hitch a ride, maybe to Denver or so, with Lewis who reluctantly accepts this unavoidable burden. Fuller, a magnet for trouble and always in Lewis' face, picks up a cheap CB radio on the way and pushes Lewis into mimicking a sexy woman's voice, using the name "Candy" and enticing a horny truck driver, "Rusty Nail," to seek "her" out later that night in a motel room.
The brothers give the trucker the number of the room next to them and eavesdrop when he shows up at midnight. There's a gruff salesman-type guy in that room who annoyed Fuller at check in. They hear some ominous muffled sounds, report it to the manager who checks it out and says everything seems fine. They are horrified the next morning to discover the police checking out the room next door; the gruff salesman was found nearly dead, mutilated, on the highway.
It's not until after they pick up Venna that the real terror begins. Trucker Rusty Nail (Matthew Kimbrough), seething with revenge, has figured out what type of car these guys are driving and seems to know their every move. This guy is on their tail and is out to destroy them all.
Tell Me More About It: Lewis and Fuller have that magical brotherly banter that only years of mutually annoying behavior can cultivate. They love, hate and easily irritate each other and can be outrageously funny. The script is so well written and suited for these two guys; it is laugh-out-loud funny at times and creates a very convincingly real relationship. Venna is a natural knockout and seems to glide well between the two brothers.
We quickly go from this laughing mode into a full-reign of terror. The offended, lunatic trucker is everywhere and is all the more terrifying since all we know of him is his heavy slow voice and powerful million-pound rig barreling down on these kids. There is a mildly evident lack of logical sense to all the knowledge the trucker has on these kids, but we want to believe he figured it all out some way.
Great clipped editing keeps us on this edge and the excellent cast of complimentary actors creates a gripping intensity. It's clear we're being set up for a sequel; hopefully it will be as funny and scary as this is.
Teenagers should love this well-crafted, scary thriller, and adults should find it terrifying and entertaining.
This movie could make you think twice about the joys of cross-country driving. My knees were weak leaving the theater, and I loved the feeling. It's a good ride for the money.
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