Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (2008)

Fantastic!

Best movie ever!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Blistering performances.

Shoddy and tasteless. To all those people who are rightly curious to watch the sequel of "Joy Ride", just don't do it, if I may suggest. Very cheaply made, rare intriguing scenes, the acting is poor and stunt scenes are catastrophically bad. This is the perfect example of a forced sequel. Overall you can't just get into it because of the pumped up characters themselves. Typical situation were apparently tough rocking guys change attitude after messing up and weeping silly girls becoming invincible and unrealistically able to fight monsters. And this might be pleasant when the story takes you on their side, but it just doesn't happen. You don't get involved at all. Just enjoy the first movie and don't go further.

Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead starts as four friends are driving across the open desert on their way to Las Vegas for a party, sisters Melissa (Nicki Aycox) & Kayla (Laura Jordon) & their boyfriends Bobby (Nick Zano) & Nick (Kyle Schmid). While driving down an old dirt road their car breaks down & they find themselves stuck, with no option but to walk they eventually stumble across a house that seems abandoned but as luck would have it a nice car is sitting in the garage full of gas & ready to go. The four decide to borrow it so they can get back to civilisation but when the owner returns later he isn't too pleased that they took his car. A serial killer who calls himself Susty Nail (Mark Gibbon) he sets out to teach the four friends a lesson & starts to psychologically & psychically torture them with his intent to kill them after he's had some fun but the plucky Melissa fights back & tries to outwit & out-think Rusty Nail & save herself & her friends...This American & Canadian co-production was directed by Louis Momeau & is a reasonable time-waster if your desperate & there's nothing else on telly but I would struggle to call it anything else other than watchable. A direct to video sequel to the theatrically released Joy Ride (2001) this is a fairly routine sequel that is more of a rehash of the original than something significantly different, as I said it's not too bad for what it is but Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead feels a little predictable & a little forgettable. The character's are alright but again with it's cast of perfect looking teens you get the impression Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead was written & made with demographics in mind, we never learn anything about Ruty Nail & why he decides to play games with the four teens, why not just kill them & be done with it? Why does he not follow up on wanting Kayla's middle finger after making such a big issue of it? The ending feels a little rushed too, how did Bobby get to Melissa so quickly & how did he know where she was? Come to think of it how did Melissa know where Rusty Nail had parked his truck? At just under 90 minutes it moves along at a decent pace, the game of cat & mouse occasionally works but sometimes feels like padding & the body count is maybe a little on the low side. Not bad I suppose but not exactly great either, watchable enough for what it is in a teen horror thriller sort of way.A I said the body count & gore factor is a little disappointing, a woman is decapitated, there's a severed finger, a ripped off jaw & someone gets a steel rod rammed through their head but otherwise not a lot. In fact out of the four lead teens two of them are still standing at the end. There are a couple of impressive looking crashes & explosions including Rusty Nail's truck falling off a cliff in slow motion at the end & exploding at the bottom. Available in an 'Unrated' version on video & an edited cut which gets shown on telly it's safe to assume the Unrated cut is a lot better with added gore (not that there's much to begin with), added nudity (not that there's much to begin with) & added profanity (not that there's much to begin with).With a supposed budget of about $5,000,000 this has good production values & looks nice enough, filmed in British Columbia in Canada although set entirely in the US. The acting is alright, the material isn't great & one dimensional so it was never going to award winning stuff.Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead is a passable time-waster, it has a decent enough story with some thrills, a bit of gore, a bit of tension & the ultimate question of what will happen next & how will our teen stars get out of it but not much beyond that. Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead is the sort of film you watch & enjoy it perfectly enough but within a day or two you have completely forgotten it.

The second installment in the series. This time a quartet of young people break into Rusty Nails house and steal his Chevelle.This dark comedy isn't as good as the first Joy Ride film,but still amuzing. This time we find out more about Rusty Nail. He is a diverse trucker. We first see him pulling a 53' dry van,but then we see him hook up to a livestock trailer at the end of the film. Which means he is a valuable driver in the trucking world. We also learn that if ya give something to him,he usually wants to keep it. Its a fascinating thing to see our quartet in the sweltering Utah heat and then walk into a barn where we can see there breath. And yes Nic. Us truck drivers a jacked up speed freaks that can only get a date with a disease ridden hooker.Mark Gibbons drives the Peterbuilt 18 wheeler.Nicki Aycox drives the same Peterbuilt big truck.Mark Gibbons and Nicki Aycox are permanent A List actor.Nicki Aycox,Laura Jorden, and Krystal Vrbe are hot!!erldwgstruckermovies.com

Joy Ride 2 Dead Ahead is not a bad horror film. Sure, it is predictable, and has some bad writing at times and acting, but not as often to make it a bad film. It has some really wild moments that make it all worthwhile, like the gambling death scene between the two male characters. Nicki Aycox is a strong leading lady, the others are mediocre. It is actually better than Jeepers Creepers 2, Aycox's other horror film and this should definitely entertain those wanting a night out, and for those who have nothing else to do, but be warned, it is not very scary.But overall, not a bad horror film and pretty entertaining