Paul Walker and Steve Zahn in "Joy Ride."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski Director: John Dahl Rated: R, with profanity, violence Length: 96 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(October 5, 2001) -- John Dahl's Joy Ride is a lean and mean road movie, with three young folks going pedal-to-the-metal, trying to outdistance a psychotic truck driver bent on their destruction.

The film zips along the same thematic highways as Steven Spielberg's 1971 classic Duel, which established the template for movies about faceless truck drivers who want to run you off the road. The ironically named Joy Ride also echoes 1997's Breakdown, which continued the road chase tradition but let us in on the trucker's identity.

Paul Walker (who was also behind the wheel in The Fast and the Furious) plays Lewis, a college student en route home after his freshman year.

Along the way, he picks up two passengers. The first is his wild, ne'er-do-well brother, Fuller (Steve Zahn), whom he bails out of jail and reluctantly agrees to take home.

Later, Lewis stops more eagerly to give a ride to Venna (Leelee Sobieski). She's a long-time buddy, though Lewis is eager to move the relationship beyond the platonic level.

Unfortunately, the frisky, irrepressible Fuller uses a CB radio to play irresponsible games with truck drivers. He encourages his baby brother to use his talent for mimicking a girl's voice to entice a driver nicknamed "Rusty Nail" to a sex rendezvous at a highway motel.

Needless to say, no such rendezvous awaits. And hell hath no fury like a horny highwayman thwarted on the road to satisfaction.

The rest of Joy Ride has our three reckless heroes doing their best to keep the raging Rusty Nail off their rear bumper.

Nail's truck keeps coming at 'em so relentlessly in the final reel, I was reminded of Spielberg's Jaws as well as Duel.

Of course, Joy Ride is nowhere near the league of those classic thrillers. But it does manage an entertaining degree of action and suspense.

It's a well-performed, smartly staged B-movie romp that'll keep you on the edge of your seat and have your foot pushing a nonexistent gas pedal.