I truly had no
idea that there was even a Joy Ride 2,
in all honesty, but Joy Ride 3 is
pretty much exactly what I would expect from a low-budget sequel to the
long-forgotten road rage thriller scribed by J.J. Abrams. Normally I don’t even
think that it matters too much who directs these trashy grabs for cash in the
home entertainment department of successful studios, but the fact that Joy Ride 3 is written and directed by
Declan O’Brien is telling of the quality to be expected. O’Brien’s filmography
is filled with low-budget horror, but his most significant credits include
three straight-to-video sequels of another moderately popular thriller from the
past; Wrong Turn.
Just as he
leeched on the success of another successful horror franchise, O’Brien has done
the same here. The villains turn from mysterious killers to caricatures of
gore, and Joy Ride 3 begins with the
gruesome demise of a few junkies to let audiences know what kind of
splatter-fest this will be. Rusty Nail is no longer the mysterious unseen
trucker, and now is just a near-superhuman machine of bloody destruction on one
specific stretch of desolate road.
There is truly
no reason to go into great detail about the plot of Joy Ride 3, because it all comes down to creative road-related
deaths. A group of twenty-something adults make the mistake of rude driving on
their road trip to a street race competition called Road Rally 1000. When they
cut off Rusty Nail for no reason other than arrogance, it sets off a cat-and-mouse
chase along the highway. Giving a random reason for the killer truck driver to
catch up with them once is all that is needed. He kidnaps one of their friends
and uses this bait to continue the altercation far longer than even a 90-minute
film can make believable.
The sad thing
about O’Brien’s film is how much of it is actually competently made. It looks
good and the acting is surprisingly competent among the actors who keep their
clothes on, despite a horrendous amount of throwaway dialogue. I’m afraid that
O’Brien is a far better director than he is a screenwriter, and yet this is
hardly a compliment. There are also many technical issues with the direction,
including continuity and logic, but all of this is far less noticeable than
idiotic decisions made by the protagonists as they avoid the destruction of the
killer truck driver.
The Blu-ray
release includes several useless featurettes, including one about the random
search for a bit player shown in one forgettable scene early in the film. There
are also some informational features, from the director’s video diaries to an
audio commentary track. There is also a featurette about the film’s latest
story elements, and some other odds and ends that prove more effort went into
documenting the making of the film than constructing the screenplay.
Entertainment Value:
5.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 4/10
Historical
Significance: 0/10
2 comments:
U kind of a dick on ur reviews do u even watch horror movies
I do watch horror movies. I've been watching them since before you learned how to write, which was apparently last week.
Sincerely,
"kind of a dick"
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