A huge disappointment, especially considering the excellent trailer which advertised this movie (turns out the trailer just about gave everything away!). I was expecting a tight, suspenseful chase flick with plenty of violence and bloodshed. What did I get? An edgy, middle-of-the-road, "teen" thriller complete with dumb humour, dumber situations, totally implausible scenarios (just what was up with that dumb-as-nails ending?) and many, many scenes ripped of from previous, better fare like DUEL, THE HITCHER, and BREAKDOWN.The main problem this film has is that its geared too firmly towards the "teen" market, so the plot is dumbed down, the situations overplayed and unrealistic, the humour out of place and irritating. The young characters are bland and one-dimensional, so that action man Paul Walker doesn't have a chance to make his lead anything other than a crashing bore. Steve Zahn fares a little better, injecting some life and spirit into his role as the mischievous brother, but Leelee Sobieski is generally appalling. The best actor? Ted Levine, playing the voice of trucker "Rusty Nail".Not much of this film is surprising, just contrived. Director John Dahl aims for suspense but is hindered by plot cliché after cliché, most of them liable to make you either groan or laugh. There are a couple of novel situations along the way, but not enough, and come the routine climax I could barely be bothered to continue watching. What's the point of spending money on a new movie when the end result is just a concoction of the 'best bits' of previous films, warmed up and lacking originality, depth or excitement? None, which is why I fail to rate ROADKILL as a worthwhile watch.

Recently revisited JOY RIDE for the first time in years. John Dahl is a guy I can get behind...his early noir triumvirate (KILL ME AGAIN, RED ROCK WEST and THE LAST SEDUCTION) is marvelous while ROUNDERS is as essential to my existence as my heart flow.I love southwestern road movies...they're eerily transfixing, with their varied landscapes and desultory byroads that contain the very essence of America's identity. DUEL, RACE WITH THE DEVIL, THE HITCHER, BREAKDOWN, that stuff's great.JOY RIDE excels in all the same areas those movies did for exactly half of its running time. Two brothers bonding to outwit and evade a psychotic trucker (voiced by the wonderfully menacing Ted Levine) is pitch-perfect in pacing, thrills, and atmosphere.Everything changes once Leelee enters the picture. The plot becomes incoherent, the chemistry is sabotaged, and the well-earned tension is shattered. Worse yet, the decision to reveal the antagonist is not only jarring (this is clearly not the Mr. Lotion we all know fondly), it evaporates the air of mystery around his character. Had this movie stuck with the brothers while relegating Rusty Nail to just some deranged, detached voice on a CB radio, we'd have a near classic on our hands.JOY RIDE comes recommended, with a caveat that it could have been better.

This was pretty good. Not super original or outstanding in any way but still really effective, fun and even scary at times. The horror element is well paced and Walker and Zahn have great chemistry together so that I found myself alternating between being genuinely freaked out and laughing at some well delivered line. "This CB is like a prehistoric internet or something." "Well, just how scared am I supposed to be? Much more than usual." Sometimes these simple (premise) movies without the huge budget or tons of special effects are worth catching. Paul Walker (sigh) plays a college freshman on a summer road trip to pick up his girlfriend. Along for the ride is his smart-ass brother who uses the car's CB radio to play a cruel but harmless prank on a lonely trucker known only by the handle Rusty Nail. The gag backfires though and the siblings soon find themselves on the run from a psychotic murderer, out for revenge.The creepy dude from 'Silence Of The Lambs' (Ted Levine) is the chilling voice on the CB. His voice is unmistakable and because the viewer never gets to see his face he really added to the freaky element for me. Actually I'm not even sure if its that he was so good or I'm still traumatized from his performance in Lambs.I also enjoyed Steve Zahn, usually the comedy sidekick roles annoy me but he was really good. Leelee Sobieski is mostly eye candy here, girl needs a bra too because I could not take my eyes off her boobs and I'm not even into that kind of thing, but they were right there. 1/15/15

This is one of the films which I must have caught on television a few times but not had the chance to sit down and watch it all the way through.Unlike your usual teen horror movie, it actually has moments which are surprising and make your heart beat faster. It has a plausible storyline, not total mundane made up madness like other teen horror movies.This instills the message - don't talk to strangers! You don't know who the hell you might be dealing with.I like the actress and there were a few moments of comedy. The music helped create tension.Unlike other movies where I watch once and that's it, I would like to watch this again. It has a rather timeless quality.