Some lines from the movie rang true for me, “promise me you’ll finish this.” Well, dear reader I didn’t want to but I did it anyway. The original was a fun throwback to the 70s grunge cinema and this sequel reminds me of some of the rotten sequels made to those flicks. A joy this ride ain’t.
Melissa (Nicki Aycox) and Bobby (Nick Zano) are driving to Vegas to get married, along with her sister Kayla (Laura Jordan) and her boyfriend Nik (Kyle Schmid). Their car breaks down on the back roads and they find a seemingly abandoned house and break into it. They find a sweet car in the barn and “borrow” it so that they can continue on their trip.
Melissa is so sweet and trusting that she leaves a note with her cell number so that the owner will know where the car is and that they’ll return it and reimburse him. The problem is that the house belongs to the trucker serial killer Rusty Nail and he’s not really happy that his space has been violated. He kidnaps Bobby and plays a game of cat and mouse with the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang.
It may say “joy” right there in the title, but Joy Ride 2 is a sequel that takes all the fun that was in the first film and does the exact opposite with it. The carful of characters are so annoying that you can’t wait for Rusty to catch up with them and snuff ‘em out. Perhaps it was also the atrocious acting that made me want to see them die.
Not that Rusty is any better since he’s given a dubbed, Barry White voice that produces more laughs than shivers. You pull your hair out when Melissa decides to play along with Rusty’s sadistic games or was it the inane dialogue that made me start to bald early? The scripting is also a flat tire.
I got on this thrill ride thinking that it might at least be a medium sized vehicle, but I found that I was in a compact with four flat tires. Catch a ride elsewhere. It gets even worse in that there’s an opening for a Joy Ride 3. I hope not since they drove this one into the ground.
Joy Ride 2 is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the 13 minute making of featurette, the 7 minute “Blood and Guts” about the special effects, 3 minutes of storyboards, and trailers.
If you’re looking for a high-octane thrill ride then you’ve picked up the wrong hitchhiker with Joy Ride 2. The original is the way to go and this sequel should’ve been left on the roadside.
Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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