Night Train (5 Stars)

This is my Christmas tradition. Other people like to watch "Die Hard" every year for Christmas. I watch "Night Train". It would have been best to start watching it later in the evening. The film starts some time in the evening on December 24th and ends early on Christmas Day. I was impatient and had to start earlier.

The conductor starts his work on the train surrounded by gaudy Christmas lights. He ends it dying in the snow.

It's 2:12 am. First he checks the time, then he spends his last seconds looking at his wife.

It's a wonderful film, despite a few clumsy editing errors in a couple of scenes. I ignore them as best I can.

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War for the Planet of the Apes (4 Stars)

This film takes place two years after the events in "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes". In the previous film the apes won their fight against the citizens of San Francisco. Now they have a more serious opponent, a professionally trained army that's arrived from the North.

But this film shows further developments. The Simian Flu that wiped out more than 99% of the Earth's population has now mutated. It's making people lose their intelligence, starting with their ability to speak. A lot of thought has been put into the rebooted film series. It makes a lot more sense than the last three films of the legacy series.

The battle lines aren't as clear cut as in the last film. The soldiers aren't just fighting against the apes, they're fighting against one another. A second army arrives from the North which believes that the first army is infected with the Simian Flu and wants to destroy it.

Caesar doesn't want war. He wants peace. He thinks that humans and apes can live side by side. There's enough room for everyone. Unfortunately, the humans disagree.

Success Rate:  + 1.3

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Night Train (5 Stars)

Is my memory deteriorating as I get older? I told my son that we need to watch "Night Train", because I watch it at Christmas every year. It's a perfect film for Christmas, because it starts on 24th December and ends shortly after midnight. Then I checked my blog, and I saw that although I've watched it nine times, I've only watched it at Christmas once, in 2021. Never mind, it's a film in my top 100 films list, currently in 39th place. I say "currently", because my list isn't fixed. I keep changing my mind and making adjustments, mostly at the bottom of the list. The last time I changed my top 10 was a few years ago, but anything is possible. I actually have a top 200 list on my computer, but the places 101 to 200 aren't ordered. They're just 100 films that I think ought to be in my top 100, but they don't fit.

An unnamed passenger brings a present that will change everyone's lives. If you can call it a present. The other passengers rip it from his hands when he dies. They all want it, and they're willing to kill to get it.

The film is tarnished by some blunders. which become more apparent every time I watch it. The two Japanese businessmen are playing Go, and when the camera changes angles the pieces are arranged differently. A woman is shot in the head, and a few seconds later the wound is missing. I don't know how the director could possibly have missed things like that. He must have noticed it when he watched the completed film in post production.

Nevertheless, it's still a brilliant film. It deserves its place in my top 100.

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Night Train (5 Stars)

I spent this evening with a small group of film fans in Korntal. Once a month one of us presents two films to the others. Today it was my turn, so we watched two films starring my favourite (ex-)actress, Leelee Sobieski. The first film was "My First Mister". The second was "Night Train", one of my favourite films. When I say "one of my favourite films", I mean that it's in my top 100 films list. Last year I did a countdown of my top 100 films and published a list, but it's impossible for me to have a rigidly fixed list. I now update my list monthly, based on my whims. "Night Train" was in 49th place in my original list, but it's moved up a few places since then.

The response from my friends was the opposite of what I expected. I thought they would find "My First Mister" lightweight and Lifetime-ish, but they liked it, despite some criticism of the last half hour. Everyone I know who's seen "Night Train" likes it, but today I stood alone in praising it. I could tell by the reactions of the man next to me that he wasn't enjoying the film, so I was keen to hear his opinion afterwards. Mostly he criticised the poor special effects in the murder scenes, something I've always accepted as part and parcel of a low budget film. In the following discussion Leelee Sobieski's lack of emotions, compared to the first film, was criticised. I agree that she shows less emotion. It's a different role, and she played it the way it was meant to be played. In "Night Train" she's an ice cold killer.

I did my best to defend the film, but I was standing alone, and I didn't manage to persuade anyone to change his mind. I was accused of only liking the film because it features my favourite actress. That would be sad if it were true. My regular readers know that I didn't hesitate to call the film "Lying" awful, despite Leelee's participation in the film. 

Curiously, my review of "Lying" is one of the most read posts on my blog, even though neither the film nor the quality of my review are outstanding. I don't understand that. I often don't understand my readers. Posts which I personally consider well written are ignored, while posts that I consider below par have thousands of hits. Sometimes the summary of Google's search terms gives me clues, but not always.

Out of curiosity, I checked online reviews of "Night Train", both by film critics and normal film fans. The critics have mixed opinions, as evidenced by the 60% score on Rotten Tomatoes. They praise the similarity with Alfred Hitchcock's films while criticising the predictability. The fan reviews are mostly positive. Opinions vary. It just seems like I was alone with my opinion tonight.

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Night Train (5 Stars)

This is my second Christmas film today. I planned it well in advance. It's a film I should watch at Christmas every year. "Rare Exports", which I watched earlier today, was a random choice, but the two films fit together very well. Both films begin on Christmas Eve and finish on Christmas Day. Actually, "Rare Exports" has a prologue three weeks earlier and an epilogue a year later, but the main action takes place on 24th and 25th December.

Leelee Sobieski shows off her skill at chopping a body into small pieces. Don't worry, he was already dead.

It's a messy job. At least she wears spectacles.

I've watched the film a lot, but today I noticed an error in the film for the first time when Steve Zahn speaks to the two Japanese businessmen playing Go.

This is what the board looks like when Steve first approaches the businessmen. He tries to give them advice, even though he has no idea how to play the game.

Then there's a close up of a businessman making a move. Most of the pieces have disappeared from the board.

Then the camera pans out, and the pieces are back again. Oops. This is what happens when a scene isn't filmed in chronological order.

That's only a minor fault. "Night Train" still deserves its place in my top 100 films. I just checked the list. It's in 49th place.

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Tall Girl (3½ Stars)

Netflix Thursday #2

This is a Netflix original film, so it's not available on disc. It's about a tall girl, as you might have guessed from the title.

Jodi Kreyman is 16 and 6'1½". Don't forget the extra half inch. For my readers in Europe, that's 187 cm. She's not just the tallest girl in her school, she's taller than the boys. The other girls in her class bully her because of her size. This makes her an outsider. She can't get a boyfriend because she's too big for them. In the opening scene a boy is flirting with her in the library. When they stand up to leave she towers over him, so he flees.

I'll stop there. Why on Earth do boys avoid her because of her height? When I was a teenager I was successful with girls. I had more girlfriends than any of my classmates. I would have preferred a longer relationship, but the quick succession of short relationships made the other boys jealous of me. But there's one way I was never successful. I never had a girlfriend taller than me.

I'm not a giant. I'm only 5'9½" (177 cm). That's average height, so a lot of boys were taller than me, but I rarely met a girl who was taller than me. The tallest girl I knew was about 6'  (183 cm). I was attracted to tall girls, but they weren't attracted to me. The tall girls that I knew always dated tall boys, 6' tall or more. If I'd known a girl like Jodi in school I would have been crazy about her.

Stig Mohlin, a foreign exchange student from Sweden, joins her class for a year. He's the same size as her, so he doesn't feel intimidated. That's him on the right in the picture. The problem is that all of the school's pretty girls swarm around him, and he ends up dating Kimmy (on the left). She's supposedly the most beautiful girl in the school. That's what they say. I prefer Jodi.

Stig flirts with Jodi, and she thinks she has a chance, but it turns out he's an arrogant insert-rude-word-here, who's just two-timing her. The tall girl gets her heart broken. As a result she learns to accept her size. She turns up at the Homecoming dance wearing high heels, so that she can look down on Stig.

This is a coming of age drama with a difference. It could have been a lot better in the hands of a more capable director. It's too light-weight. The poignancy of a lonely girl is mentioned repeatedly, but it's not felt.

The actress Ava Michelle was 16 at the time she made the film. She's 19 now. She's only made two films, and her third film will be a sequel to "Tall Girl". She's a beautiful actress who shows talent. I hope that she'll find success in Hollywood. There aren't many tall girls in mainstream films. Elizabeth Debicki is 6'3" (191 cm) and has had some success, but she's an exception. I wish Ava Michelle the best in her career. I look forward to her future films, not just gimmic films about her height.

Joy Ride (5 Stars)

Today is the fourth time I've watched this film since I started my blog, but it's the first time I've given it a five star rating. I wanted to give it four and a half stars, as I did in the past, but then I asked myself what's wrong with it that justifies deducting half a star. The answer is nothing.

This film, directed by J. J. Abrams, is a story of road rage, driven to the extreme. The brothers Lewis and Fuller Thomas play a trick on a trucker with their CB Radio. Lewis pretends to be a woman and flirts with the anonymous trucker. The problem is that the anonymity only goes one way. They don't know who he is, but he knows who they are. He's observing their car on the road.

Paul Walker made this film in 2001, the same year as "Fast & Furious", but he looks much younger. It's all a question of the make up. He was 27 when he made the film, but he was supposed to be a college student, so a few years were shaved off his appearance.

Leelee Sobieski is beautiful, isn't she? Her age goes in the opposite direction. She was only 17 when she made the film, but she's also a college student, the same age as Lewis, so they're probably both supposed to be about 20.

As a horror film with elements of a road movie, this film is brilliant. It's truly terrifying. At the halfway mark it seems like the story is over, but the suspense quickly builds up again. The anonymous trucker tells them (via CB radio) that he's had his fun and he'll leave them alone. Maybe he really meant it. Maybe he just wanted to lull the Thomas brothers into a sense of false security. Whichever was the case, the worst was still yet to come.

I ought to listen to J. J. Abrams' commentary track. He obviously wasn't sure where he wanted to go with the film. There are three alternate endings on the disc, and one of them is 29 minutes long. They're all worth watching, but I think that the ending that he finally chose is the best one.

The film is now out of print on DVD and Blu-ray. That's tragic. It's worth looking for a copy on Ebay.

Success Rate:  - 0.4

Night Train (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #49

A tale of love and obsession and death.

Maybe this isn't my favourite film, but it's one of the films I've watched more often than any other in the last 10 years (since I started my blog). Something about it draws me in, so that I have to keep returning to it. It's a film that very few people know. It's a Canadian film, and as I've often said, Canadian films aren't taken seriously. But more than that, the genre isn't obvious. Is it a horror film? Not quite. Is it a supernatural film? Almost. Is it a tale of morality? That's getting closer. Everyone is prepared to kill to get what he most desires, whether it's a salesman, an ageing train conductor or a young medical student.

The film was released direct-to-video in 2009. As far as I know, it was never shown on television. It's a film that deserves to be a cult film, but it still hasn't been discovered by film geeks. If you're someone who takes films seriously, please watch it, then tell all your friends about it.

The film is available on Blu-ray in Germany, but it's only available on DVD in America. I hope that it won't go out of print and simply disappear before it's even been discovered.

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War for the Planet of the Apes (4 Stars)

This is the third film in the new Planet of the Apes trilogy. It takes place fifteen years after the outbreak of the virus known as Simian Flu, which makes it five years after the second film.

The major plot development in this film is the development of the Simian flu. In the initial outbreak it killed 99.8% of the human race. Now it's having a detrimental effect on the survivors. Intelligence drops rapidly, beginning with the inability to speak. Military leaders are executing those who show these symptoms to stop the plague spreading, but they're fighting a losing battle.

After the defeat of the human community in the last film only a large army base is present in San Francisco, led by a man called Colonel McCullough. Caesar offers peace if they stay away from the woods where the apes live, but the Colonel is determined to wipe out the apes.

In a sneak attack by the army Caesar's wife and older son are killed. Caesar vows revenge on the Colonel, but he doesn't want to involve his people in it. He sends his people away towards Nevada and heads towards the army base alone. Three of his closest companions accompany him against his will.

It's just as well that Caesar separated from his people. When he arrives at the base he sees that the migrating apes have all been captured and are being forced to build camp reinforcements. Most of the film is taken up by the attempts to free them.

Of the three films the third film holds the highest critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I don't know why. I find it slightly weaker than the two preceding films. Nevertheless, it's a competent conclusion to the trilogy. It still hasn't been decided whether there will be any more Planet of the Apes films. The decision will be based on money, and all three films were financial successes, but from an artistic standpoint it would be good to stop now. Look at what happened to the original series, which would have profited from ending after the second film. It's possible that a future fourth film could live up to the high standards reached so far, but is it worth the risk?

Success Rate:  + 1.3

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Night Train (5 Stars)

What starts as a casual Christmas tale slowly escalates into a roller coaster ride of horror from which no one will emerge alive.

This is a truly unbelievable film. Hardly any of my friends have seen it, but everyone that I've shown it to loves it. It's incomprehensible to me how it could have remained hidden from the public's eye. As you'll see -- eventually -- it will be included in the list of my top 50 favourite films.

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War for the Planet of the Apes (4 Stars)

I went to see this film badly prepared. I wanted to watch the previous two films first, but I didn't get round to it. I've been too busy watching the fifth season of "Lost". That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

There's a lot that happens in this film, but I'll only mention one thing. The simian flu which wiped out most of the human race has evolved. It now has a new effect on the survivors. It causes the intelligence of the humans to decrease, including taking away the ability to talk. It isn't a gradual development. Anyone who is infected is changed within a day. This is a positive development, as far as the story goes. It's making the new film series prequels to the 1968 original film, "Planet of the Apes". This was canon, and so was its sequel, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes". After that everything deteriorated fast. Making money took priority over making good films.

"War for the Planet of the Apes" isn't intended to be the final part in a trilogy. It's simply another film in a series. A fourth film has already been planned. In an interview Andy Serkis, who plays Caesar in the films, has suggested that there will be five films, but the exact number hasn't yet been decided. Based on the box office success of the newest film there will be no financial hindrances to making more films.

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On another topic: one of my readers has sent me a message telling me that she doesn't find my reviews as good as they were a year ago.

First of all, I'd like to thank her for reading my blog so regularly that she can notice differences. I wish everyone would read my blog every day for a year.

Is it true that my posts aren't as good as they used to be? I don't know. Sometimes I read one of my old posts and I think, "Wow, that was good". Other times I read an old post and feel unhappy that my comments were so superficial. My blog isn't consistent. Sometimes I have a lot to say about a film, sometimes very little. Sometimes I give a detailed description of the plot, sometimes I fly off on a tangent and write about something totally unrelated. My early reviews, 2010 to 2011, were very short. I wrote more once I got into the routine of writing, but even now I sometimes write very little.

My popular post list isn't a reflection on which posts are my best. Usually more than half of the posts concern films that I watched over the last few weeks. It encourages me that my newest posts are the most popular, because that shows me that I have regular readers who check out my new reviews. Looking at the popular post list today, six of the posts are recent posts. The other four are probably successful as a matter of luck, because the posts just happen to contain the keywords that people are searching for.

I've written 2516 posts, including this one. Some of them are better than others. That's natural. I'm no Roger Ebert and I'm no Joe Bob Briggs. They're my two favourite film reviewers. All I can say is that my reviews come from my heart. If you read my blog you'll get to know me.

Joy Ride (4½ Stars)

My personal definition of a good film is that it's a film that I want to watch at least three times. That's very subjective, but it fits. If you check my alphabetical list of posts you'll find a few films that I've watched three or more times. That doesn't mean that they're the only good films I've watched. I didn't say a film is good if I've watched it three times, I said that I want to watch it three times. These three times might be years apart. Then you have to consider that my list of posts isn't my full viewing history, since I only started writing my blog in 2010. I wish I'd started earlier. According to my list of posts the film that I've watched the most often is "The Life of Pi" (currently seven times), but the film that I've actually watched the most often is "The Truman Show". I must have watched it at least 20, maybe 30 times. I was obsessed with the film in 2000. I taped it when it was on television, and I watched it two or three times a week for months.

Today is the third time that I've watched "Joy Ride" aka "Roadkill" since starting my blog. I believe I watched it once before then, but it might have been twice. I can't be sure. It was made in 2001, and it's one of those rare films that was popular with both the public and the critics. It was written and produced by J. J.  Abrams, which is probably the reason. His films and television series tend to have a general appeal.

An integral part of the film's plot is the use of a CB radio. Are they still in use? The film takes place in the time before the proliferation of mobile phones, but the networking feature of CB radios is something that would still be useful today.

The reason I first bought the film was that it stars my favourite actress, Leelee Sobieski, but it's so good that I would enjoy it even without her. Her appearance makes a good film even better. She's the film's highlight, and her performance outshadows that of Paul Walker and Steve Zahn.

The film was released as "Joy Ride" in America, but it was renamed "Roadkill" in England and most other countries. The reason is the difference in meaning between American and British English. In America a joy ride is driving a car for fun. In England a joy ride is a criminal activity that involves stealing a car, driving it somewhere, then dumping it.

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The Ridiculous 6 (3 Stars)

In the mid 19th Century a white boy was found by the Apaches after the murder of his mother. He was given the name White Knife and brought up as the son of the chief. 25 years later he's shortly before his marriage to Smoking Fox, when his real father, Frank Stockburn, finds him and tells him his name is Tommy. Frank has been an outlaw all his life, but now he only has a few months to live, and he wants to make amends by giving Tommy the $50,000 he stole in his career. He tells Tommy where the money is buried, but the next morning his old gang members arrive and want the money. He gives them a false location, and they take Frank with him in case he's lying.

Tommy wants to dig up the money and give it to the gang to save his father's life, but he can't find it. The only way he can raise so much money at short notice is by robbery, but the Indian chief has taught him to be an honourable man. However, he tells Tommy that it's permissible to steal money from bad people, so Tommy sets out in pursuit of the gang, robbing on the way, but only taking money from other bandits or from banks in towns that don't have a church.

On his travels he discovers that his father used to be a lady's man. He finds five boys who were illegitimately conceived by women his father had used on his travels. These five boys join up with Tommy on the quest to rescue their father.

The film see-saws between brilliant hilarity and stupidly tasteless scenes. The funniest scene is a gunman being beheaded but continuing to shoot. The most disgusting scene is a donkey with diarrhoea. The film profits from majestically filmed scenery, but the story itself is dull, and I found the use of dim-witted characters in the lead roles annoying. Two of my favourite actors, Harvey Keitel and Steve Buscemi, appear in supporting roles, but they're not enough to win the film a higher rating.

Adam Sandler plays the lead role of Tommy Stockburn aka White Knife. His beautiful wife Jackie Sandler plays an Indian squaw called Never Wears Bra. To be fair, no Indians ever wore bras, but in Jackie's case it's obvious. Bras weren't invented until 1889, so no white women wore bras either.

"The Ridiculous 6" is a Netflix original film. It isn't available on disc, it's exclusive to Netflix. Now that Netflix finally streams films in full HD resolution with Google Chrome it's a more attractive web site.

Night Train (5 Stars)

Christmas eve. A train. Five passengers. Two conductors.

This is the 27th film starring Leelee Sobieski, made in 2009. If you only watch one film with Leelee Sobieski this has to be it. "Night Train" is a masterpiece that I've watched repeatedly but can never grow tired of. It's amazing that it was never shown in cinemas and went straight to video. Or maybe it's not so amazing. It's a Canadian film, and nobody takes Canadian films seriously, do they? Nobody except for me. This is one of my favourite films.

Leelee Sobieski plays the quiet medical student who changes into a psychopath.

Danny Glover plays the old conductor who decides to give up the job he loves.

Matthias Schweighöfer plays the young conductor who turns against his friend.

Steve Zahn plays the drunk salesman who becomes sober within minutes.

Richard O'Brien plays the old woman who turns into a man.

The two Japanese businessmen wait to reveal their true natures.

The dog is innocent. Or is he? Anybody or anything can change. The train has a driver, but he's lost control of the train. It's driving onwards, out of control, while everyone aboard fools himself into believing he's in control of his own destiny.

There are a few kisses in the film. The scene in the train's sleeping car is so brief that I didn't want to mention it at first, but I feel that I ought to, to be fair to Leelee who claims that there is too much sexual stuff in films. Whether the kisses in this film are passionate or not is a matter of opinion, but let's say they are. That brings the total to one film that contains a simulated sex scene and six films with passionate kisses. That makes the percentage of films in her career so far to 3% with sex scenes and 26% with passionate kisses.

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Joy Ride (4½ Stars)

This is the 11th film starring Leelee Sobieski, made in 2001 when she was 17. It was her first horror film, but not the last. She made a few, dotted through her career. She never specialised in any one genre. This is the first of two films in which she shared the lead role with Steve Zahn, the other being "Night Train" in 2009.

When I first watched this film in 2011 I gave it an average rating. That's probably the reason why I haven't watched it again until now. I'm not sure why I rated it so low. I judged it as a horror film. It's actually a mix of horror film and road movie, with a hint of love triangle thrown in for good measure. The love triangle aspect was played down in the final cut, as we see from the facts that the romantic scenes were cut and can only be found in the DVD's deleted scenes.

Lewis Thomas (Paul Walker) and Venna Wilcox (Leelee Sobieski) went to school together in New Jersey. Venna was the hottest girl in the school and Lewis always had a crush on her, but she only dated the hottest guys. He managed to stay in her life as her best friend, but that was never enough for him. "Just friends" is a very sad thing to be when you want more.

Now they're both at university. Lewis is at the University of California in Berkley, while Venna is at the University of Colorado in Boulder. At the end of term Venna rings Lewis for a chat. Just friends. She mentions that she's broken up with her boyfriend. Lewis sees it as a chance and offers to pick her up and drive her home.

On the way to Boulder Lewis stops to phone his parents. The film takes place in 1999, the days when not many people had mobile phones, so he rings from a phone booth at a gas station. Cute. My mobile phone went dead in the town centre two days ago and I needed to phone the person who was picking me up. I searched everywhere for a phone booth and couldn't find one. But Lewis has no trouble finding a phone. His mother tells him that his older brother Fuller (Steve Zahn) is due to be released from prison in Salt Lake City and asks if he can pick him up as well. Reluctantly, Lewis agrees. After all, it's his brother.

Fuller buys a cheap second hand CB funk radio, so that they can ask other drivers for advice about weather and speed traps, as well as engaging in small talk with other bored drivers. As I said, that was in 1999, the prehistoric days before mobile phones. How many of my readers are old enough to remember those days? They hear a trucker calling himself Rusty Nail giving advice on the weather. Fuller (calling himself Black Sheep) asks for more detailed information, but Rusty Nail doesn't reply. He suggests that his brother put on a female voice, calling himself Candy Cane, and ask again. Rusty Nail replies promptly. Men! Lewis flirts with Rusty Nail for a while before they stop at a motel. After meeting an obnoxious racist who's staying in the room next to theirs they contact Rusty Nail again, telling him he can meet Candy Cane at the motel, giving him the room number of the racist.

It goes badly. Rusty Nail attacks the racist and almost kills him by ripping his jaw off. The boys carry on with their journey, but Rusty Nail is stalking them. He knows that Candy Cane was speaking from the same CB radio as Black Sheep and follows them from the motel. He almost destroys their car, but  he lets them go and they think it's over. It's not. Rusty Nail follows the boys to Boulder, where they pick up Venna. Unknown to them, Rusty Nail kidnaps Venna's friend Charlotte (also from New Jersey), from whom he finds out all the personal details about the boys. Then the terror continues.

The film's atmosphere is made more horrific by keeping Rusty Nail anonymous. For most of the film we only hear his voice. In the few scenes where he's visible it's always dark, so we don't see him clearly. The film snapshot above is probably the best view we have of him. The actor isn't listed in the credits, but I'm sure that's a deliberate choice. Only the DVD's extra features tell us who he is. There are actually two different actors who play Rusty Nail. Matthew Kimbrough is the man pictured above, but for his voice the actor Ted Levine is used. This works well, because we never see Rusty Nail speaking. We either see him or we hear him, not both at the same time.

The film was written and produced by J. J. Abrams. He has a talent for writing good stories with original plots. It's not a pure horror story, but it's very good for what it is.

Here's an amusing little story told in the DVD extras. The film contains a scene in which the two brothers were forced to enter a restaurant naked, otherwise Charlotte would be killed. They had to strip in the back seat of the car. Leelee Sobieski was sitting in the car while this was filmed. She was too shy to look at them. She kept her head down. Even though the naked men were directly in front of her, she didn't see them until she watched the completed film. That little anecdote shows Leelee's attitude. It's somehow appealing that she was (and still is) so puritanical in her attitude towards nudity. She tries to excuse it by saying she respected Steve Zahn (on the left) and Paul Walker (on the right), but any other 17-year-old girl would at least have taken a little peek.

The film was a success at the box office and received praise from critics. That's an achievement in itself. It's not often that the critics and the paying public agree on anything. As a result, two sequels were made, in 2008 and 2014. Despite my curiosity I still haven't watched them. Both were released straight-to-video, and both received poor reviews from critics. Two things are mising from the sequels: J. J. Abrams and Leelee Sobieski. The first film relies on suspense, whereas according to the reviews the sequels rely on gore. They're described as torture porn, an expression I don't like to use, although I don't have a better way to sum up the genre.

Roger Ebert loved the film, heaping praise on Leelee Sobieski's performance. He had good taste. Click here to read his review.

The DVD is packed full of extras, including three feature commentaries. The first is by the director, John Dahl. The second is by J. J. Abrams and his co-writer Clay Tarver. Most excitingly, the third commentary is by Leelee Sobieski and Steve Zahn. It's essential listening for any Leelee Sobieski fan.

Paul Walker is best known for his role as Brian O'Connor in the Fast & Furious films. Unfortunately he died three years ago after his car hit a lamp post. He was sober at the time. The cause of the accident was speeding. He was driving at approximately 95 miles per hour in a road with a 45 mph speed limit. This was ironic, because in his films (including "Joy Ride") he frequently played a character who liked to drive faster than the speed limit. Driving fast isn't as safe in real life as it is in the films.

Paul Walker
September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013

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