Monday 30 April 2012

Joy Ride

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Year:2001
Country of origin:USA
Director:John Dahl
Genre:Dreary trucker maniac
Starring:Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski
Rating:2/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206314/
Tagline: Don't screw with people you don't know
Favourite line:None worth mentioning

Originally titled Road Kill – a much better name – seems someone has been watching Duel one too many times.

The plot:
Sickeningly beautiful Lewis Thomas (Paul Walker) plans a road trip to hook up with a girl he is interested in. Planning to travel cross country, he gets a message telling him his brother just got out of jail. Making a slight detour, he heads to Salt Lake City to pick up the sibling and, together, they head for Colorado. En route, the brother produces a CB set, and the pair prank a fellow CB user by the name of Rusty Nail. Pretending that Lewis is a woman, they get the guy going, then lure him to a motel room that happens to be next door to their own, and listen through the wall.
Next day, turns out someone has done a murder in the next room and, before you can say “Steven Spielberg did this first,” the pair are on the run from a maniac truck driver, hell-bent on their demise.

Nuts and bolts horror / suspense, then, with a couple of no marks in the leading roles. Yes, Walker is pretty as a picture, but the fucker has no real screen presence.
With a derisory script, a pretty weak concept and no genuine guts behind the camera, this is all rather anaemic, all rather predictable.
Getting more and more implausible with every plot twist – and I use the phrase in the loosest sense possible – it gets to the point where it almost becomes comical, a real problem for what is ostensibly a straight down the line horror movie.
There’s a sequel available for those that can be bothered but, know this: It will never be viewed at Smell the Cult HQ.
Dreary.

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