Joy Ride Movie Review 2001

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.

Distribution

Fox Home Entertainment, PO Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213, Phone: (310)369-3900, Toll-free: 888-223-4FOX, Fax: (310)369-5811, URL: http://www.foxmovies.com/index1.html, Remarks: Also known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 96 minutes.
Originally from United States.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Road Trip, Big Rigs, Brothers & Sisters, Psycho-Thriller

Screenplay

J.J. Abrams, Clay Tarver

Cast

Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski, Jessica Bowman, Stuart Stone, Basil Wallace, Brian Leckner

Cinematography

Jeffrey Jur

Director

John Dahl

Music

Marco Beltrami

Other

Ted Levine, Tim Cooney, John Bissell, Glen Scantlebury, Eric L. Beason, Scott Chestnut, Todd E. Miller, Michael Rizzo, Terry Dresbach, Rob Pearson

Producer

Chris Moore, J.J. Abrams, Regency Enterprises, New Regency Pictures, Bad Robot, Live Planet, 20th Century-Fox