Joy Ride

After forays into film noir, thrillers, dramas, and even documentaries, director John Dahl tries the teen horror genre on for size. Paul Walker stars as Lewis Thomas, a college freshman embarking on a cross-country road trip during summer break to pick up his girlfriend Venna (Leelee Sobieski). ...more

With Joy Ride, director John Dahl abandons the sophisticated plotting of his earlier films, Red Rock West and The Last Seduction, in favor of more visceral thrills, and it pays off with a suspenseful and darkly comic kick. The script, by Clay Tarver and Felicity co-creator J.J. Abrams, cribs from the TV movie that put Steven Spielberg on the map, Duel. It has a surfeit of wit and strong, believable characters, which is good, because in less assured hands it could have been a routine teen horror ...more