Joy Ride

Pros: Steve Zahn, great action, creepy tone
Cons: Heavy handed score, predictable ending

I've long had great admiration for the creative teams that put together the best X-Files episodes. The ones that mix the macabre with the creepy with the scary with a splash of silly thrown in for good measure. "Joy Ride" reminds me of these great...

Pros: Subtle creepiness and some truly tense moments. Zahn steals the film.
Cons: Certainly not the newest ideas in the world.

In the "road stalker" sub-genre of horror movies, a few titles stand out above the traffic. The Hitcher, Duel and Breakdown are three films in which vast expanses of American highways are the setting for some dark and frantic...

Pros: scary, fast paced
Cons: plot holes, annoying characters

Last night I saw Joy Ride, which is unusual in two ways. First, because I rarely see first run movies in the theater – the last one was the wildly disappointing Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace. Secondly, because I...

Pros: Good first half, nice performances.
Cons: It gets silly, and it has the brain of a truck.

For the first hour or so, John Dahl's Joy Ride is filled with an amount of excitement and terror that is incomparable. Then logic sets in, and the film gets a little too silly for it's own good.

The film is a bit of a...

Pros: Steve Zahn. Stylish direction of action scenes.
Cons: Formulaic.

After reluctantly saying goodbye to all of the lovely people at the 'Happy Hasid Acres' nursing facility, even the lady who emptied her Foley bag on my feet, it was time to head off to the casino at Niagra Falls where I had been booked into the Emerald...

Pros: Brainless fun, some intense moments.
Cons: Hollywood stereotypes truck drivers yet again.

Truck drivers never catch a break. They are either trying to run someone off the road, kidnap the innocent, falling asleep at the wheel dumping 207,000 raw eggs on the freeway, or as Hollywood would lead you to believe – kill, kill, kill with a force...

Pros: Unseen terror evokes fear, an emotion well-utilized by director John Dahl.
Cons: Preposterous, less-than-credible script.

Unseen terror is always more frightening than the obvious - and that's what makes John Dahl's newest thriller so scary.

College is over for the summer when Lewis Thomas (Paul Walker), a nice-guy Berkeley freshman, trades in his...

Pros: Steve Zahn; fast-paced thriller that's not too serious
Cons: Silly ended; not just real original; ending kind of stunk

This film is nothing spectacular, but it's a nice diversion after you've had a hard week at work, ate dinner over a couple of beers and are looking for some entertainment which requires absolutely no use of your brain. Indeed, this is a tight, no-filler...

Pros: Good suspense, fast paced thriller, that also has some laughs.
Cons: Acting could have been better.

As most of you know by reading my movie reviews, I like to catch the new movies at a Sunday afternoon matinee. This past Sunday was no exception. My friend and I took her son and his girlfriend to see "Joy Ride." I had seen previews for the movie and...

Pros: Good acting. Good tension and pacing in movie's first half.
Cons: Plot gets silly and unbelievable.

It seems like horror movies often straddle the line between being truly scary and being campy, where the horror turns into a joke because it loses its believability. In some cases horror films like Alien are truly frightening (despite the ...

Pros: Truly natural suspense, decent performances
Cons: Suspend believability

The simple nature of life, and how little decisions can affect bigger events is a fascinating study that is often loused up by filmmakers who decide to forsake reality for amoral pleasure, emotional manipulation or decadent gore. John Dahl is one who...

Pros: everything, good acting, great plot, interesting characters, unseen villain
Cons: nothing

Joy Ride is R rated for violence and language and is not suitable for children of any age.

Steve Zahn plays Fuller, Lewis' problematic older brother who just seems to find trouble. Paul Walker plays Lewis, a California...

Pros: Creepy story, decent acting and naked guys!
Cons: Unanswered questions and a poor ending.

After a mildly good review in our local paper, I was looking forward to seeing this movie. I enjoy scary movies and this seemed different from other recent flicks.

It opens with a young male college student, Lewis, talking on the phone with...

Pros: Steve Zahn. Director John Dahl. A thriller that actually thrills. Steve Zahn
Cons: An unnecessary intersection in the middle breaks up the action

Giving credit where credit is due is a major part of any kind of criticism. Even in the worst of films, whether it be the cinematography or just a few laughs, something has to justify the star rating next to the title. When an action film or thriller (so...

Pros: Intelligent and truly suspenseful, well-acted on nearly all fronts.
Cons: Certain moments strain the plausibility the rest of the film strives for.

It's been a good rule of thumb for awhile now that if a film identifies itself as a "thriller" and features a principal cast all in their 20s, those looking for a good movie should immediately look elsewhere. Now we have "Joyride," a better-than-average...