A DOSE OF TERROR: JOY RIDE
First and foremost, RIP Paul Walker
As anyone who has gone on a road trip would know, things can get really boring out there, and who wouldn’t like to have a little fun with a CB radio? Fuller (Zahn) and Lewis (Walker) will soon learn that it isn’t wise to start shit with an unknown trucker going by the handle “Rusty Nail”.
The plot is simple; Lewis is driving from Berkeley to Denver to pick up his longtime friend Venna (Sobieski), but first an unscheduled stop in Salt Lake City, UT to get his estranged brother Fuller from jail. The movie takes a little while to build up, it has some funny moments thanks to Fuller but things quickly turn sadistic once they play around on the radio. What starts off as a seemingly innocent prank, the guys learn that Rusty Nail is a little too infatuated with the fake woman “Candy Cane”, as voiced by Lewis. So when does a prank go too far? In this case it’s when Rusty Nail rips the jaw off some poor bastard after being given a fake location for the fake Candy Cane.
Joy Ride really shows it age from the very beginning, as evident by the use of payphones, and lack of cell phones; bottom line is that none of this would happen if the guys had a cell phone, period. On the other hand, there aren’t movies like this anymore because of that very reason, which is a same. Break Down might be the king of this genre, but Joy Ride is right up there, plus the comedic moments helps in what is otherwise a simple plot. Both Zahn and Walker are good in this, but Rusty Nail really steals the show. His face is shown only a couple of times, but the real credit goes to the voice of Rusty Nail – Tim Levine, who isn’t the person shown on camera towards the end.
This movie must have made people paranoid back when it was released, as driving across country can be scary enough, adding in a sadistic psychopath only makes matters worse.
GRADE
Violence – C
Realism – A
Suspense – A