Summary:
A psychotic trucker harasses three young people after they play a cruel joke on him.
My Thoughts:
Last spring I went on vacation with my family, and on a rainy day when there was little else to do, my brother and I decided to visit the local theater to check out Jordan Peele’s “Us.” We arrived early and after finding our seats in the theater, we turned our attention to the screen. This theater, instead of playing ads before the feature like theaters in my town do, played older movies, and on that particular day, this theater was playing this film. I had no idea what the movie was when we started watching it, but I recognized Steve Zahn and Paul Walker, so, using IMDb and my keen detective skills I quickly deduced that the film we were being shown was “Joy Ride.” I read over the plot, and scoffed.
Trucker chases after teens on a long stretch of seldom-traveled backwoods country road.
Just how many times this plot seen a new rendition over the years? I couldn’t tell you. I’ve watched Kurt Russel fight off baddies in “Breakdown;” Steven King tired to scare me with “Maximum Overdrive;” I saw the start of Spielberg’s career with “Duel;” I’ve seen both the Rutger Hauer and the Sean Bean versions of “The Hitcher” (take a guess at who dies in the Sean Bean version). I’ve seen this story any way you want to tell it, so I had no intentions of watching this film when I first stumbled upon it. Actually, if I hadn’t found this film the way that I had, I probably would’ve let it slide from my rearview without a thought.
We had arrived at the theater fifteen minutes before the film was scheduled to start, so we watched fifteen minutes of the middle of “Joy Ride”, and it was those fifteen minutes that convinced me I should actually go out of my way to see this film. First of all, this movie is an early 2000s time capsule, so rewatching this was like jumping right back into high school . The music, the fashion, the hairstyles; all of that enough was a draw enough for me to want to see this movie just for the nostalgia factor (am I getting old?). The plot, as one might imagine, is very basic and predictable, but the way that the story is told feels very tongue in cheek. While this film is a horror film, it doesn’t have the hardcore gritty, bloody gore-soaked scenes of some of the films appealing to genre-hardened fans. This is a horror film that I feel like most people could get behind. It’s thrilling, intense, and sometimes funny, but it never pushes the horror elements to the extreme.
“I was just playing.”
College student Lewis (Paul Walker, “Tammy and the T-Rex”) decides to drive across country to impress his crush Venna (Leelee Sobieski, “Public Enemies”). On the way, Lewis picks up his older black sheep brother Fuller (Steve Zahn, “Lean on Pete”) and the two of them play a joke on a trucker. Not amused by their joke, the trucker begins terrorizing the two brothers.
Last year during one of our October Podcasts, we talked about the difference between horror films and Halloween films. I argued that great horror films (like “Rosemary’s Baby” or “Hereditary”) don’t necessarily make the best Halloween movies. The definition of a good Halloween film, I said, was a horror film that could be viewed by a variety people with different viewing preferences at a Halloween party without too many issues being raised. “Joy Ride” is not the best horror film in the world, but it is a perfect Halloween movie. It’s the kind of film that you could throw on the background for some laughs and thrills, while ignore during the boring bits. You could probably do this without missing a single plot point.
While I think the tameness (as far as gore goes) and the simplicity of this film really working in this film’s favor, I really think the acting does a lot to sell the intensity, and that was really surprising. I’ve seen Paul Walker in a few things, most notably a few entries in the Fast and Furious franchise (I’m not a huge fan, so I couldn’t tell you which ones I’ve seen and which ones I haven’t), but I’ve never been impressed with him. In this film, Paul essentially plays himself: he’s a jocky college kid trying to win the girl. Usually I find characters with one-dimensional nature to be annoying, but in this film I actually think the character’s one-note brain works in the story’s favor. “Joy Ride” is essentially toned-down homage to grindhouse movies of the seventies, so I’m absolutely fine with characters that are paper-thin, because that’s the kind of characters that would’ve populated those films. We don’t need a ton of backstory for Paul and Steve; we need them to show up, do something stupid, and then be scared for an hour and a half, and they do that job remarkably well.
Verdict
Again, this isn’t the greatest horror film in the world, but it is good schlocky fun. There are plenty of fun lines (come to find out this was co-written by J.J. Abrams (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens)) and ridiculous situations, as well as some pretty memorable shocking moments. This isn’t the next “Shining” or “Exorcist”, but if you’re in the mood for a decent thriller several pulse-pounding scenes, then this is a fine choice. It’s certainly better than it had any right to be.
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