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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
83
Alexandra
43
Anamorph
35
Babysitters, The
32
Backseat
80
Band's Visit, The
62
Battle for Haditha
47
Bella
63
Blind Mountain
71
Blindsight
47
Boarding Gate
63
Body of War
58
Bra Boys
70
Caramel
54
Cashback
44
Chaos Theory
32
Chapter 27
69
Chicago 10
82
Chop Shop
46
CJ7
78
Counterfeiters, The
30
Cover
48
Dark Matter
35
Deal
61
Dhamma Brothers, The
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
58
Fall, The
43
Favor, The
58
First Saturday in May, The
57
Flawless
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
xx
From Within
44
Frontier(s)
59
Fugitive Pieces
41
Funny Games
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
61
Girls Rock!
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
57
Grand, The
58
Hats Off
68
Honeydripper
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
67
Jellyfish
xx
Kiss the Bride
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
72
Life of Reilly, The
50
Look
65
Married Life
35
Meet Bill
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
54
Mister Lonely
52
My Blueberry Nights
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
52
Noise
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83
Paranoid Park
55
Pathology
48
Penelope
90
Persepolis
62
Planet B-Boy
xx
Plumm Summer, A
67
Praying with Lior
46
Previous Engagement, A
72
Priceless
17
Prom Night
69
Redbelt
72
Roman de gare
48
Run, Fat Boy, Run
85
Savages, The
24
Sex and Death 101
66
Shelter
75
Shotgun Stories
40
Sleepwalking
67
Snow Angels
64
Son of Rambow
71
Standard Operating Procedure
76
Stuff and Dough
64
Surfwise
xx
Tashan
82
Taxi to the Dark Side
57
Teeth
56
Then She Found Me
55
Tracey Fragments, The
56
Turn the River
72
Tuya's Marriage
83
U2 3D
59
Under the Same Moon
76
Unforeseen, The
xx
Unsettled
91
Up the Yangtze
55
Vice
79
Visitor, The
64
Water Lilies
45
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
57
Without the King
74
Witnesses, The
63
XXY
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75
Young@Heart
45
Zombie Strippers
97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
91
Up the Yangtze
90
Persepolis
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Savages, The
83
Paranoid Park
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
82
Chop Shop
82
Taxi to the Dark Side
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Unforeseen, The
76
Stuff and Dough
75
Young@Heart
75
Shotgun Stories
74
Witnesses, The
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Roman de gare
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Life of Reilly, The
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Blindsight
71
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Caramel
69
Redbelt
69
Chicago 10
68
Honeydripper
67
Snow Angels
67
Praying with Lior
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
67
Jellyfish
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
66
Shelter
65
Married Life
64
Surfwise
64
Son of Rambow
64
Water Lilies
63
XXY
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
63
Body of War
63
Blind Mountain
62
Planet B-Boy
62
Battle for Haditha
61
Dhamma Brothers, The
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
Girls Rock!
59
Under the Same Moon
59
Fugitive Pieces
58
First Saturday in May, The
58
Fall, The
58
Hats Off
58
Bra Boys
57
Flawless
57
Teeth
57
Without the King
57
Grand, The
56
Turn the River
56
Then She Found Me
55
Vice
55
Tracey Fragments, The
55
Pathology
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
54
Cashback
54
Mister Lonely
52
Noise
52
My Blueberry Nights
50
Look
48
Run, Fat Boy, Run
48
Dark Matter
48
Penelope
47
Bella
47
Boarding Gate
46
CJ7
46
Previous Engagement, A
45
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
45
Zombie Strippers
44
Frontier(s)
44
Chaos Theory
43
Anamorph
43
Favor, The
41
Funny Games
40
Sleepwalking
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
35
Meet Bill
35
Babysitters, The
35
Deal
32
Backseat
32
Chapter 27
30
Cover
24
Sex and Death 101
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
17
Prom Night
xx
Tashan
xx
Unsettled
xx
Plumm Summer, A
xx
Kiss the Bride
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
xx
From Within
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Joy Ride
20th Century Fox Film Corporation
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for violence/terror and language
Starring
Steve Zahn,
Paul Walker,
Leelee Sobieski,
Matthew Kimbrough,
Jim Beaver,
and
Rachel Singer
A contemporary thriller that finds darkness laced with humor in the heartland of America. (20th Century Fox)
| GENRE(S): |
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Clay Tarver
Jeffrey Abrams
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
John Dahl
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: March 12, 2002
Video: March 12, 2002
Theatrical: October 5, 2001
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
96 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Turns out to be the most unnerving film of the year. Easy.

90
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Climb into this rig and you'll be sweating bullets.

90
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
If you're looking to have your nerves fried and your pulse pounded, this is your ticket to ride.

90
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Terrific escapist fare, stylish, outrageous and compelling.

90
Village Voice
Jessica Winter
Redoubtably hilarious as always, Zahn also lends his character unpredictable flashes of anger, pathos, and faint psychosis, even when the movie jumps the median from ticklishly discomfiting black comedy into by-the-numbers horror jolts.

88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
A horror film that doesn't wear out a moment of its welcome.
88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
There is a kind of horror movie that plays so convincingly we don't realize it's an exercise in pure style. ''Halloween'' is an example, and John Dahl's Joy Ride is another.

88
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
The potential for action never lets up; you never know what's coming around the next corner.
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Skillfully crafted, flawlessly paced, intellectually challenging tension of classics like "Bad Day at Black Rock."

83
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Zigzags across the conventions of genre, occasionally driving on the shoulders of black humor -- it's a road movie for the way we process suspense today.

80
LA Weekly
F. X. Feeney
Director John Dahl ("Red Rock West," "The Last Seduction") has a pronounced knack for snap reversals and out-of-the-blue shocks.

80
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
The director, John Dahl, has no intention to baffle or obscure; his objective is to scare the living daylights out of you, or, more pertinently, the dying headlights.
80
Variety
Joe Leydon
Hot-wired, white-knuckle thriller.

80
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
The kicker is that Joy Ride is funny, too. In fact, it would be a superbly frightening entertainment if not for the way Dahl fixates, disturbingly, on sadistic details.

80
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
In noir, everybody's guilty, and that's one of the pleasures of Joy Ride. The three youngsters aren't exactly innocent.

75
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
It's a snazzy, smartly made, and even hip little scarefest. As a jump-start to Halloween, it's all you could hope for.
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Joy Ride is also surprisingly funny, thanks mostly to Zahn.

75
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
There's good pulp and bad pulp, and for most of its duration, Joy Ride is quality stuff.
75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Joy Ride is plenty spooky but there's also plenty of comic relief -- mostly from the perennially goofy Zahn.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
A really satisfying suspenser, but also really, really fun.

75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Some of the plot twists don't really stand up to close scrutiny, but the sometimes over-the-top Joy Ride plows through them with such joyful glee, you don't really care.

70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
There's plenty of scary pleasure to be had from this clever, compact thriller.
70
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Much more effectively terrifying than the usual overplotted, underwritten Hollywood thriller.

70
New Times (L.A.)
Gregory Weinkauf
Manages to be both astoundingly derivative and reasonably entertaining at the same time.

63
USA Today
Mike Clark
Even at its best, Ride never survives its shaky opening hook.

60
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
At some point in this endless thriller the suspense turns into an extremely unpleasant ordeal that Dahl doesn't know when to stop.

60
Mr. Showbiz
Michael Atkinson
Pure, irrational, claustrophobic, gritty, unpretentious.
60
Film Threat
Heather Wadowski
Despite its few flaws, Joy Ride does take viewers on one hell of a ride. It's one of those rare films that manages to take an overused plot and breathe some sort of creativity into it.

60
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The sequel-ready twist at the end is a letdown, but until then this is a neatly constructed nail-biter.

50
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Dahl, who really does know what he's doing when it comes to investing a scene with both heebies and jeebies, is a notch or two above most.

42
Portland Oregonian
Kim Morgan
The picture is pinched and predictable. Even with the immensely talented Steve Zahn, an actor who's known to steal scenes and, sometimes, save pictures, the movie is a yawn.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 42 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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