Joyride

I found this movie very disturbing in the fact that the acting was horrendous. Never have seen films where director and writer are the same. Except for a few, it never works. Story line was a bit twisted and in many cases just plain boring. Casting of lead characters were not to my liking. I wonder if Tobey Maguire regrets that this film is in distribution having such later hits as SPIDER MAN and CIDER HOUSE BLUES. Too bad. It's a wonder that he got cast in another film after this one, but lucky for us he did. He's a good young actor, although directed in this movie to go around with his mouth open wondering what is going on around him.

Meanwhile we have Amy Hathaway, a terrible actress, walking around beating up people, namely men. They seem to just stand around and let her do this. Are they paralyzed? The scene with Adam West [Batman] just letting this bimbo push him around was a joke. She certainly wasn't a looker and in this viewer's opinion, not worth the price of admission. The same thing goes with the other bimbo, played by Christina Naify, who streaks her face with mascara and lipstick, looking like a clown from a freak circus and supposedly is attractive to the male community in the film. Guys, open your eyes, these broads are not that enticing.

So, I give the film a 1 on the fact that someone had to pay to have it made. I feel sorry for that person.

Tobey Maguire had to start somewhere before becoming Spiderman. His acting is quite good even if his aimless and clueless character makes no sense. Here's the plot: a motel owner's son hooks up with a hooker tenant, hangs out with his gay buddy (who seems to have a crush on him) and steals a car from an icy villainess assassin. Then a lot of other plot points occur that have nothing to do with each other. The first half is OK but then quickly disintegrates into this tangled non-sensical mess. Wilson Cruz does his best as Tobey's gay friend but his acting is too good for the amateurish script. Adam West as a father who pimps his daughter is an interesting stunt cast but who cares by the end. I bought the DVD for five bucks and paid about $4.79 too much.

This isn't award material. The dialog is pretty bad, and the story really doesn't go as far as it could have.

It is, however, a chance to see Tobey Maguire before he fell in love with Mary Jane. Here, he is all ga ga over Tanya (Amy Hathaway - "My Two Dads"), who is the first woman to show him her body.

You also get to see a young Benicio Del Toro, who played a detective trying to solve a murder.

I would have liked to see the character played by Christina Zilber beefed up. She was a hit-woman whose car they stole for a joyride.

Adam West, who was "Batman" in the 60s, played a pervy father that pimped out Tanya for blackmail.

Worth a watch for historical value.

I watched this movie because it starred Tobey Maguire. I read some comments and a review or two beforehand and as a consequence I expected it to be dire. However it wasn't, though it wasn't particularly good either. The performances were average, except for Benicio del Toro who was awful. The script definitely needed some work - there were a lot of loose ends dangling around that could have been tied together. Tobey Maguire is the lead actor, but towards the end of the film it seemed that his role tapered off in relevance to the story.The direction was flashy in a pointless sort of way. There were hardly any close ups used. I would recommend this film only really for die-hard Tobey Maguire fans as it is interesting to see him in a early role, before he got to work with first class directors of the likes of Ang Lee, Lasse Hallstrum and Woody Allen who he has obviously learned a llot from,since his performance in this film is a million miles away from his work in Spider-Man or Pleasantville or any of the other excellent films he has done in recent years.

After having watched Benicio Del Toro in some brilliant and engrossing roles, i decided id give 'Joyride' a watch. Toby Maguire isn't one of my favourite actors, and I've often found him to be a fairly boring, and in the hands of a movie such as this, Maguire is stretched far beyond his limits. The story is laughable for all the wrong reasons, and the movie plods on and on, without many scenes of any real depth. Del Toro is also slacking, mostly mumbling his way through the terrible script. As if all this wasn't bad enough, the movies production and soundtrack kill what little merit 'Joyride' had. I've tried to think of some good points to raise, but upon reflection, there are non.

3/10