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Joy
Ride
(2001) |
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Once in a while there comes along a suspense thriller in the mould of the sort of cat and mouse games exemplified by Spielberg's classic "road" movie Duel. The plot is pared down and indeed shaped to create maximum white knuckle tension with characterization and sometimes logic taking second place and while Duel and Dead Calm were the masterpieces of their type, this years sleeper hit Joy Ride ranks as a notable success. The film stars erstwhile teen-comedy star Paul Walker playing a well intentioned college student and dutiful son and brother who gets caught up in a deadly mess thanks to his idiotic, criminal elder sibling (Steve Zahn) and his own inability to say no. Walker buys a banged up car only so he can drive out west to collect his potential girlfriend Leelee Sobieski and drive her back home but on the way to meeting her he does his parents a favour by picking up his brother just getting released from prison. Unfortunately for Walker, the pushy and aggressive brother isn't easy to shake and it seems he is going to be stuck with big brothers demented company longer than he had bargained for. Zahn, like all true petty criminals buys a CB radio in order to dodge cops along the highway but he also starts using it for mindless entertainment, prattling on a stream of nonsense to other truckers on CB's in a variety of fake accents. Then he threatens to turn nasty if Walker refuses to do his "sexy woman" voice to try to snare some moronic roadie's attention and sure enough a man calling himself Rusty Nail begins to take an almost obsessive interest in Walker's imaginary siren Candy Cain. Zahn and Walker fall about the car in hysterics not realizing that they have just begun a prank that is going to back fire on them in the most horrifying manner. All of a sudden, rather than instigating the fun and games, it is Zahn and Walker who find themselves being toyed with and being pushed to the very brink. "Apologise" demands the enraged voice on the CB radio, and he means it. This stylishly shot film is the best of its kind for many a year - perhaps since Dead Calm - there are moments of extreme tension and genuine horror. It takes a leaf or two from Duel as well as Scream and even Coppola's brilliant Conversation but has enough character of its own to be its "own film". Having watched the DVD it's interesting to note that the originally intended ending was so awful that it would have rendered the film a laughable turkey of the worst proportions. A huge hearty pat on the back therefore to who ever decided to scrap that hideous ending for the highly effective one that was ultimately chosen for the theatrical version - wish they'd done something for the ending of Jeepers Creepers. Paul Walker
may not win any awards for his performance here but he does well
in his role as do Zahn and Sobieski but the real star of the show
other than the director is the wonderfully chilling voice of Rusty
Nail as he searches the waves for the non existent Candy Cain.
This unpretentious, no-nonsense thriller is a highly entertaining
90 minutes or so with no CGI special effects, no green monsters,
no ghosts back from the dead, no gore, no masked slashers…it's
nothing new, yet really is rather refreshing all the same. Finally,
yes we know Dead Calm wasn't set on the road but in essence it
belongs to the same genre of thriller as Duel, The Car, Wheels
of Terror (ugh) and Joy Ride.
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