godless savage

As a lover of grim, violent, and surreal horror (as opposed to lame "teenagers chased by slasher" type flicks), as well as liking the previous work of both the director and writer, I was really looking forward to this movie. I thought the trailer looked cheap and cheesy, but a lot of them do these days, even for great movies, so I didn't pay any heed. I should have, the movie was just like the trailer, cept for a few cool parts. The biggest problems for me were: Awful dialog, badly acted by annoying, shallow cardboard characters that I knew nothing about, and therefore cared nothing about. I can't believe Roger Avary wrote this.... And the plot, or at least the resolution of it, was just stupid and convoluted. It seemed like they needed an excuse for all the weirdness that had gone on, so they threw something really ridiculous together in the last 20 minutes. It didn't unfold naturally or believably (at least, as believable as a situation like this can). I know, they got some of this stuff from the games, but I haven't played the games, and I shouldn't have to to enjoy this. If anything, this seemed too much like one of these types of games; aimless wandering from scene to scene, finding clues, unrealistic "conversations" with random characters intended to advance you throughout the game.

I thought this was going to be creepy and gory, but there was about 20 total minutes out of 2 hours that I'd call that. Maybe if all the backgrounds and gore hadn't been badly computer animated, and if there hadn't been 2 minutes of cool and creepy then 20 minutes of walking around, i would have liked it more. I'm really getting tired of the cgi gore in horror films, it's not necessary, and not once has it made a movie better for me, usually the opposite. Doesn't seem to cost less either..... bring back the latex and corn syrup with red#40..... this movie was just more lame, fake, shiny Hollywood crap..... I like shiny Hollywood stuff sometimes (hell, I liked "The Ring"), but not here.

Wow, I really hated this movie, I really don't understand how so many of you liked it. Reasons (without really spoiling anything): 1. The script was crap, pure and simple. They seemed to think they were being clever with the so-called surprise ending, but any moron with a pinch of common sense could have figured it out within the first 20 minutes (and no, I'm not one of those people who says that about every movie with a twist ending). If you've seen a couple of episodes of the twilight zone, or even the new Outer Limits, then it should have been blatantly obvious....

And the dialogue and character actions was pure torture. For instance, they're out in the middle of nowhere in the woods at night, they stop at a creepy little cabin for help, and the teenage son wanders into the woods, whips out a playboy and tapes the centerfold to a tree so he can get himself off by the light of a lighter. In the middle of some strange dark woods. After they've picked up a creepy stranger. Yeah, that's realistic....

2. The direction. I know, it's a low-budget flick, they were having fun, whatever. But for anyone to say this movie was scary is ridiculous, it was far too ineptly directed to actually have any tension or truly scary moments. Even though they're supposed to be miles from any civilization, every shot the characters look like they're standing under a spotlight, even when they're walking around in the woods without a flashlight. Also, it's one of those flicks where characters supposedly just out of frame talking suddenly become silent and disappear, until called into the frame again.

In one scene, a character gets shot from about 5 feet away directly in the upper leg with a shotgun. They act like they just stubbed their toe or something, limp around and wince a bit, and within a couple of minutes, they're driving and walking around like everything is normal.

Ah, I've spent too much time on this... I don't usually post reviews here, and I watch a lot of crappy movies, but for some reason, this one really ticked me off, I don't know why. Perhapse because the reviews are so good, and the film came off as if it's creators thought they were being clever and making a real piece of art. I love bad movies and have a good suspension of disbelief, but I really didn't find this movie to be "so bad it's good". I just felt like i'd lost an hour and a half of my life for nothing......

i really can't believe all of the praise for this movie, here and other places when it came out. the acting and dialogue were bland at best, and i never cared what happened. as a matter of fact, i wanted these stupid kids to get messed up, and was really disappointed when it ended all happy and such.....

this movie was compared to 2 other psycho road movies, "The Hitcher" and "Duel", which is a shame, as those 2 movies stomp all over this lameass, slick, hollywood fluff. In both of those movies, there was real suffering (either mental or physical) on the part of the protagonists, and I really believed they had gone through hell. In Joy Ride, I never felt like anyone was even remotely, truely terrified, or had suffered at all. I don't know if that's due to the bland acting, or tepid direction, but it just felt so predictible and stupid. Not only that, but there was pretty much no gore, and the action was lame. If this is what passes for a great horror thriller these days, then we're all doomed......