Joy Ride has an unnecessary early twist and a derivative, slightly unsatisfying ending, but it earns Worthwhile status thanks to a reasonably clever and well executed development at the end of the first act, even if the actions of some characters need to be dumb in order to further the plot.
Lewis (Paul Walker) changes his holiday plans to go on an opportunistic – if arduous and expensive – booty call. Consider first that he must buy a car, then cross several states, in order to do a favour to a girl that may or may not even like him. Actually, there’s every chance most young guys have one tale of similar misspent effort.
Somewhere out there, one of them probably worked…
Lewis’s interstate pussy hunt is complicated by his older and noticeably dopier brother Fuller (Steve Zahn), fresh outta prison, deciding to tag along for the ride. It is Fuller that buys the CB radio. It is Fuller that thinks up the prank. It is Fuller the thoughtless douche that brings the aggrieved prankee on their tale with promises of pain and suffering, kick-starting a tense middle section where every truck or car could contain a cold-blooded killer hell-bent on doing the brothers and Venna (Lelee Sobieski) the shapely passenger, harm.
Alas the tension can’t be maintained, although the film tries with a few red herrings and contrived occurrences (so an ice cream truck guy will chase people cross country to return an item huh?), but for a tense middle section Joyride AKA Roadkill (a far better name by the way) crackles with tension and intensity.
It is this section that makes it worth chasing. It is this section that you will remember. And it is after this section ends that you will wish the film could have maintained the momentum, instead of joining the ranks of clichéd killer chases teens films.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. Apparently there are at least a couple sequels. I am genuinely torn as to whether to chase them down.
