Joy Ride

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Joy Ride ★★★ 2001 (R)

Released about the same time as fellow road thriller/ horror entry “Jeepers Creepers,” this superior outing benefits from better humor, pacing, and performances. Nice guy Lewis (Walker), a college freshman, offers to drive friend/potential squeeze Venna (Sobieski) back home from Colorado for the holidays. Unfortunately for Lewis, roguish brother Fuller (Zahn) calls Lewis to bail him out of jail in Utah and sticks around for the ride. Fuller instigates a CB radio prank in which Lewis, imitating a woman's voice, invites a trucker with the handle Rusty Nail to the hotel room next to theirs. The next day, the man in the room is found close to death in the middle of the road, and the trio has a very angry trucker on their tail. Taut countrywide chase thrills are reminiscent of Spielberg's “Duel.” Great mixture of shocks and black humor. 96m/C VHS, DVD . US Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski, Jessica Bowman, Stuart Stone, Basil Wallace, Brian Leckner; D: John Dahl; W: J.J. (Jeffrey) Abrams, Clay Tarver; C: Jeffrey Jur; M: Marco Beltrami; V: Ted Levine.