Joyride

Two guys and a girl, all apparently in their early twenties, leave their dreary jobs in the lower forty-eight and head north to Alaska in their hearse, in search of adventure and freedom from "the system". It's a weak script. The main characters are shallow and rather generic. We never learn enough about their back-stories to empathize with them.

The plot trends repetitive and aimless. Some of the sex scenes seem gratuitous, and included to extend the runtime. I couldn't find much of a theme, apart from the obvious idea that youthful dreams, sans pragmatism, lead nowhere but to disappointment. Much of the script's dialogue is too on-the-nose.

Color cinematography is conventional. There's a tendency toward dull, grayish, dreary visuals, which is fine, given the geographic setting. Casting is acceptable, except for Melanie Griffith, whose childish face and extremely weak voice seem out of place. Overall acting is below average. Probably the best element is the music of Electric Light Orchestra.

"Joyride" looks and feels very much like a 1970s film, with its emphasis on free-spirited youth and cheap visuals. It's not an awful film. It's just that the story lacks substance.

(1977) Joyride DRAMA/ ADVENTURE

Co-written and directed by Joseph Ruben that has three friends of Scott (Desi Arnaz Jr.), Susie (Melanie Griffith) and John Lerner (Robert Carradine) quitting their current jobs to drive up to Alaska to purchase themselves their own fish boat. And of course, things does not go accordingly, as there car got broken into, leaving them with much money, forcing them to seek other means of employment at the pipeline. And when that did not work, forced them to do things they would not necessarily do such as rob the pipeline office, before abducting an employer, Cindy Young (Anne Lockhart) to which Scott coincidentally had met before. At this point, viewers have no idea how they are going to end up, or whether they are going to remain with each other at all. In other words, this is an exploitation movie as it has nudity and action to robbery in the most unusual of circumstances as each event or choice they turn to is unexpected.

As I watch this movie, it's one of those movies where the characters have a lot of good intentions but appear to experience a lot of bad luck, such as by the time they arrive to Alaska, their car gets broken into with their hard earned money left in the car, before their own boss, Frank Sanders (Tom Ligon) was caught stealing from the pipeline company, and he retaliates by forcing them to quit the jobs he landed for them after Scott wanted to do the right thing. And if that wasn't enough, Scott gets physically assaulted by the pipeline workers from orders by Frank Sanders. Placing them with one unfortunate circumstance after the next, motivating them into a situation to steal their groceries from a super market as they do not get paid enough, rigging cars, while Susie continues to get harassed by her employer while waitressing at a diner. Yep, that was what it was like during the 1970's and more no matter what city they reside to. In other words, they are the anti-hero's of society itself, and put into circumstances they are incapable to foresee themselves which is why I was rooting for them until the very end. As I liked the way the movie had ended unlike other films that consist of a similar theme, such as "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" for instance. This movie gets 70%.

Hey, it's Joyride, starring the son of Desi Arnaz, a son of John Carradine, and the wife of Antonio Banderas!

Well, these wacky kids could sure pull crimes and escape local bar patrons, business owners and the police with ease, alright

But there was always ONE horrible thing they could NEVER escape from:

All that lousy ELO music!!!

Yes, regardless of what state they drove to, what restaurant, bar or car radio that played music, mainly only ONE thing kept blaring out of those poor little speakers:

ELO! ELO! ELO!

Now THAT was some scary stuff!

This movie, unfortunately, brings up some of where I grew up. Basically we have some late teens or early twenties on road trip. ( The actors are older than that but I think that's what they're trying to represent).

So they steal cars and wreck them. Also they had a hostage situation but it ended up with the girl being okay as a matter of fact she kind of joined them.

I grew up in a low rent place and the people in this movie reminded me of the people I grew up with. Not much morals. But steal a few things. Even the adults where I grew up stole things or cheated people. Yeah I grew up in a low rent town in Upstate New York and that's what this movie reminded me of.

Also they wrecked a couple of nice cars including a '68 Dodge Charger and what I believe is a 68 Mercury Cougar. Of course they're all classics today. Just a one-time watch for me.

"Joyride" captures the malaise of the 70's so much better than many films of the era. Think of it as a perfect antidote to "Saturday Night Fever" on many levels. Watch for the Pacific Northwest cinematic quirkiness that comes through later in everything from "Twin Peaks" to "Napoleon Dynamite" and many more. There are many northwest talents that went on to other endeavors in this movie as well - surprising it has not been celebrated a bit more for that. I recommend it highly to college sociology students and Melanie Griffith groupies (get a life!). Truth be told, I've always held a candle for Anne Lockhart. We could have been very happy together, the restraining order was so uncool. Psyche! She's great.