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Released by: 20th Century Fox
Released on: October 7, 2008.
Director: Louis Morneau
Cast: Nicki Aycox, Nick Zano, Kyle Schmid, Laura Jordan, Mark Gibbon
Year: 2008
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The Movie:
Melissa (Nicki Aycox) and her fiancé bobby (Nick Zano) are on their way to Las Vegas to get hitched. Along for the ride are Nicki's sister, Kayla (Laura Jordan) and her boyfriend, Nick (Kyle Schmid). Of course, as they're driving through the most barren part of the desert that surrounds the city of sin, their car breaks down. Unsure what to do, they decide to break into a nearby house that they figure is abandoned - this way they'll have somewhere to hide out until they can get help. Once they take a look in the garage, however, their plans change - they notice a surprisingly nice sports car in good condition just waiting there, almost like it was gift wrapped just for them!
They decide to take the car, though Melissa at least has the good conscience to leave a not with her cell number on it to let the owners know that she intends to return the vehicle and compensate them for their troubles. What they don't know is that the house that they've just stolen from is the home of a deranged trucker named Rusty Nail (Mark Gibbon). Rather unimpressed that his car has been 'borrowed' without his permission and so he hops into his big rig and does his thing. He kidnaps Bobby and starts playing cat and mouse games with the rest of the group…
The first thing that you'll probably notice about this film is how obnoxious the four lead characters are. They're completely hollow and generic looking types - pretty vacant, if you will - and they have no real personality to make them interesting or to differentiate themselves from any other 'slaughter fodder' types that make up horror movie casts. They're there to serve as the mice to Rusty's cat and that's it. Once you can get past the fact that the four leads are lame, however, you're left with a reasonably entertaining and bloody chase film.
The desert locations lend their natural ambience to the film and it makes for an appropriately barren location for the story to play out in. While Rusty Nail's voice makes him sound more like a lounge singer than a murdering psychopath he's at least got some physical presence, enough so that he makes for a moderately interesting bad guy. The film treads on ground very similar to the Rest Stop and Hills Have Eyes films that have been fairly successful over the last few years and so it doesn't feel particularly original. That said, it's well paced, it's gory, and it's well shot. The dialogue is bad and the story isn't going to blow you away despite a nice twist or two towards the end but at least the film is entertaining in a brainless and fun sort of way.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Joy Ride 2 is presented in anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen. Judging by the 'Property of 20th Century Fox' bug visible in the lower right corner of the image and the severe compression artifacts visible, we'll assume that this is not representative of final product and therefore no grade will be given to the transfer.
The primary audio mix on this release is an English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix though French and Spanish language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks are also included as are optional subtitles in English and Spanish. While the rear channels aren't used quite as often as they could have been there is some nice surround activity in a couple of key scenes that helps to build tension and suspense. Dialogue remains clear from start to finish and there aren't any issues with hiss or distortion to complain about. All in all, the audio is fine.
The most interesting extra feature is Joy Ride 2: The Making Of Dead Ahead (13:39) which is a fairly standard making of featurette that gives us a look behind the scenes and treats us to some interviews with the director, the producer, and a few of the cast members. They talk about their appreciation of the first film and what they were aiming for with this sequel as well as what it was like on the set of the film in British Columbia, and how they all enjoyed working with one another on this project.
Aside from that, look for Blood And Guts: The Make Up Of Horror (7:10), which is a short look at Christopher Mark Pinhey's effects crew and the work that they created for this film in addition to how they made it all happen. It's fairly interesting if a little on the short side. Rounding out the extras are a quick storyboard to film comparison section, a few trailers for other Fox properties, animated menus and chapter selection for the feature.
The Final Word:
Despite the generic nature of the film and its characters, Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead does at least have a couple of good kill scenes and a few interesting twists to make it entertaining enough. It's far from a modern classic but as a mindless popcorn film, it gets the job done.