Joy Ride 3: Road Kill

But not as good as the first. This entry finds a group of young people driving cross country on the way to take part in a race in Canada. They make a bad decision and take a detour down a road known for its disproportionate amount of disappearances. Of course we know this is the road traveled by Rusty Nail, the villainous trucker obsessed with both his CB radio and destroying anyone that dares insult him.

Our core group of young people cut off Rusty Nail, played by yet another actor after the previous two entries. Here, it is Ken Kirziner, best known as Jason in Freddy vs. Jason. He's actually pretty good, although not as nearly as great as Ted Levine in the first. And Rusty is a much more present villain here, as we actually see him committing the violent acts that were usually kept off screen in the first movie. And the kills here are unique and genuinely creative, even impressive, especially for a straight-to-DVD flick directed by a guy that makes his living doing cheap sequels to theatrical releases.

I'll also say that the movie is fairly unpredictable and you generally won't know exactly who will die and when. The plot is less impressive, becoming repetitive and unbelievable as it goes. But it cleans up in the action-oriented and impressive finale.

The supporting cast is fair, the effects are pretty solid, and the movie is generally pretty good, if not great. The second movie, which made the dubious decision to try and force Joy Ride into the then popular "torture porn" sub-genre, was pretty terrible. This is actually pretty entertaining. I'd say give it a look. It's not a bad little movie.

The movie would have been better if they didn't make the driver and his trucks supernatural. The truck driver could be in several places at once and his trucks were faster than anything on the road and were practically indestructible. I just think they could have made it more believable without losing too much.

Not the best sequel but enjoyable enough to watch. Goodish storyline, although not sure what turned Rusty Nail into a serial killer, when it was more cat and mouse in the first two movies. But that's sequels for you!

I enjoyed the first Joyride which was full of tension and very well done. Unfortunately as we already know the perpetrator this one does away with the tension to instead concentrate more on gore.

A group of boy racers and assorted girlfriends pick on the wrong lorry to mess with and pay the price. It's all fairly predictable stuff but there are one or two good scenes i.e the opening death scene to keep you interested. At times it is extremely gory with some SAW like scenes which I'm not sure add a great deal to the movie. The acting is what you'd expect, by no means bad but not great either.

Overall as long as you don't have high expectations this is an OK time filler but I doubt it's one that will live long in the memory.

I enjoyed the first two "Joy Ride" movies, so I was definitely up to watching the third one when it came my way. But I found this entry to be somewhat unsatisfying. Now, I will admit it's far from the worst direct to DVD movie I've seen. It's not boring, the production values are okay (if somewhat restrained at times), and there is some serious splatter here and there. But something prevented me from enjoying what I saw. It may be that it takes a long time to get going after the admittedly wild pre-credits sequence. It may be because the youthful protagonists were annoying and lacking real personality. It may be because there are some confusing moments in the story. It may be because Rusty Nail in this entry seems more of a mindless psychopath instead of the scarily intelligent brute of the first two movies. It may be because the movie gives us several looks at Rusty Nail's face instead of hiding it like the first two movies. It may be because the atmosphere for the most part feels workman-like instead of building terror as it goes along. Whatever the reason(s) may be, I found it hard to sit back and enjoy what I was watching. If they make a "Joy Ride 4", I will give it a chance, but I'll be hoping the filmmakers will have learned from their mistakes from this one.