When Lewis’s childhood friend, Venna, calls to tell him she broke up with her boyfriend and would love to drive rather than fly home for her summer break at college, Lewis acts on impulse and volunteers immediately. Cashing in his plane ticket, he buys an old 1971 Chrysler Newport and begins his impromptu road trip. While talking with his mother on the phone to give her an update on his travel plans, Lewis’s mom informs him that his brother has just been incarcerated again. Guilt overwhelms him and he turns the car around to bail out his brother, Fuller, pushing his rendezvous with Venna back a day.
On one of their stops, Fuller buys a CB radio for their
drive to pass the miles easily. In
addition to tracking “bear” traps, Fuller also finds it amusing to talk to
other truckers and creates handles for each of them. After hearing one trucker give a cryptic talk
about the weather, Fuller convinces Lewis to play a prank on the trucker. It isn’t until later that night when their
prank goes very wrong that they begin to realize just how stupid it was.
Joy Ride is
another one of my guilty pleasures but then again, who doesn’t love a good
on-the-road/prank-gone-wrong thriller?
And this movie definitely fits that bill nicely. Paul Walker stars as Lewis with Steve Zahn
filling the role of his brother Fuller.
Leelee Sobieski also co-stars as Venna.
The one star that really makes this movie is never seen and that is the
voice of Rusty Nail played by Ted Levine.
Without his creepy addition to the cast, this movie would not be nearly
as disturbing as it is.
Written by Clay Tarver & J. J. Abrams and directed by
John Dahl, Joy Ride was heavily
influenced by other road thriller movies, specifically Duel. One great feature for
watching this movie on DVD are the alternate endings that are added in the
features. These endings really transform
the movie and I have to say I prefer the original one. Also included on the DVD are some of the
voice auditions for Rusty Nail by other stars but I think you will agree with
me that Ted Levine is by far the best out of all of them.
If you haven’t seen this movie I don’t think it will be a
waste of your time. The acting is solid,
the suspense fluid and the storyline believable enough to keep you from pulling
similar pranks on your own. This review
concludes Day 10 of my 31
Days of Horror…I hope you will stay tuned with me as I share with you my
October viewing as we count down to Halloween!
Comments
Post a Comment