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Joy Ride

Release Date: 
10/05/2001
MPAA Rating: 
MPAA: R
Star Rating: 
★★★½
Anyone who thinks truckers are merely decent, hard-working chaps will be shocked—wait a second…does anyone think truckers are anything but caffeine-fueled psychopaths driving enormous death machines? Maybe we just don’t spend enough time in Nebraska truck stops, but we find it easy to believe that the guy with the death’s head stenciled on his Mack would disembowel you with a spork as soon as look at you. This innate fear of open roads, dark nights, scary truckers, and the Deep South in general informs every bit of the surprisingly solid Joy Ride.

The story of two young guys (living Ken doll Paul Walker and eternal comic relief Steve Zahn) driving cross-country with Walker’s platonic girlfriend Leelee Sobieski and making the classic mistake of fucking around with a diesel-powered Leatherface over a CB radio, Joy Ride has enough mood, jolts, and good pacing to satisfy. Despite some logic flaws and shameless “borrowing” from other films (most notably Steven Spielberg’s Duel), you really won’t begin to pick it apart until after the movie is over, because, whether you want to admit it or not, you’ll have been sucked in by this trashy and perverse noir thriller. It ain’t high art, but it is entertaining.