I wasn't unethical towards the original Joy Ride film, and by original, I mean that annoying road-slasher film with Paul Walker and Steve Zahn. I really couldn't bring myself to hate that movie cause it brings something that isn't overkill to a dying genre. Although road terror isn't an untapped market, it had only a few successful endeavors. To aid in the recent plague of direct to DVD sequels, Joy Ride too will enjoy a second helping with the return of Rusty Nail.
Some undesirables meet up discussing the wild antics of meeting people on myspace. They plan on wasting a merry weekend in Las Vegas where the sun never rises. Of course, a detour is in order and when their car breaks down in front of a pleasant looking house, they decide to borrow a car not knowing it belongs to Rusty Nail. An hour long game of cat and mouse then ensues.
Joy Ride 2 is a film that lacks any form of essence. It is a generic marmalade churned out with the sole existence to sell stock to the fans of the original. I don't look at this film in any professional manner other than an excuse to attempt to create a horrifying figure out of the mysterious Ted Levine voiced highway killer. With that said, Rusty Nail has a lot more menace about him than Death Proof's Stuntman Mike ever had going for him.
Joy Ride had characters that were irritating and mousy looking, but they each had principles. This is something that allows the viewer to spark a connection with them. Joy Ride 2 has none of this and features characters that will do nothing short of annoying the absolute piss out of you. Characters like Nick who wax poetic about The Crow and stopping nothing short of defining a counterculture. Stereotypes and labels cluster fuck into an inane roster of victims that will leave you with cottonmouth and the only absolution is their death.
Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead is the same bargain bin blunder you'd expect from a 2008 title that ends with 2. See also: Rest Stop 2, The Lost Boys 2, Feast II, The Hills Have Eyes II, and Wrong Turn 2. With the exception of Wrong Turn 2, all of these films have a decided fate to burn on peoples shelves only to be traded in to a local GameStop months later. Have you no shame for purchasing a film like this? Joy Ride 2 is a pathetic film in every aspect. This is foreseeable knowing that the director also directed The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting.
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