Joyride

Watched this almost by accident on a Sunday afternoon with nothing to do and nowhere to go. This movie was much better than any expectations I might have had. Tobey Maguire and Wilson Cruz are fine together as is Amy Hathaway (not familiar with her). Adam West is fine as a sleazy father pimping for his daughter. Though the "losers making bad choices" plot can bore the heck out of me, this one kept my attention. Certainly not great in any way, it's not boring or stupid and can sometimes be surprising.

I watched this movie because it starred Tobey Maguire. I read some comments and a review or two beforehand and as a consequence I expected it to be dire. However it wasn't, though it wasn't particularly good either. The performances were average, except for Benicio del Toro who was awful. The script definitely needed some work - there were a lot of loose ends dangling around that could have been tied together. Tobey Maguire is the lead actor, but towards the end of the film it seemed that his role tapered off in relevance to the story.The direction was flashy in a pointless sort of way. There were hardly any close ups used. I would recommend this film only really for die-hard Tobey Maguire fans as it is interesting to see him in a early role, before he got to work with first class directors of the likes of Ang Lee, Lasse Hallstrum and Woody Allen who he has obviously learned a llot from,since his performance in this film is a million miles away from his work in Spider-Man or Pleasantville or any of the other excellent films he has done in recent years.

This isn't award material. The dialog is pretty bad, and the story really doesn't go as far as it could have.

It is, however, a chance to see Tobey Maguire before he fell in love with Mary Jane. Here, he is all ga ga over Tanya (Amy Hathaway - "My Two Dads"), who is the first woman to show him her body.

You also get to see a young Benicio Del Toro, who played a detective trying to solve a murder.

I would have liked to see the character played by Christina Zilber beefed up. She was a hit-woman whose car they stole for a joyride.

Adam West, who was "Batman" in the 60s, played a pervy father that pimped out Tanya for blackmail.

Worth a watch for historical value.

Good movie. I've seen it more than once. Christina Naify as Smith was just AWESOME, why haven't we seen her in more films. The rest of the cast was good also. It was nice to see Batman play a sleazemeister. The guy playing the sheriff did a good job, I've seen him in other films and he seems to talk that way all the time.

The only reason to watch this movie is to see just how awful it is and how far Tobey Maguire and Benico Del Toro have come as actors. The script and dialoge are awful, and appear to be written by high school level talent. The premise is absurd and loaded with ridiculous sub plots to further waste viewers time. In short, three just out of high school kids tango with death so they can keep a car. Adam West is good for a laugh as some sort of pimp/daddy business man. If you're a collector of some sort and want this film, the good news is you should be able to get it for about three bucks at any Target or WalMart style store. However, I certainly don't bother messing with this one.