(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%.
