Assume the Title is Ironic

Film: Joy Ride (Roadkill)
Format: Streaming video from Tubi on Fire!

For whatever reason, there are actors who don’t have the career they deserve. One such actor is Steve Zahn, who is frequently the best thing in the movie he is in and just as frequently is in a movie that is beneath his talent. I’ll put it out there that of our three primary actors in Joy Ride (also known as Roadkill), Zahn is better than the film. Co-star Paul Walker is exactly as good as the material, and love interest Leelee Sobieski, also known as the very poor man’s Helen Hunt, is punching above her weight.

Anyway, Joy Ride is a film that, depending on how serious you are about horror movies and thrillers, is one that you have absolutely seen at least once before. A substantial part of this movie is Duel for the Millennial generation, the main difference being that rather than happening seemingly at random, our heroes bring at least a little of what follows on themselves. There are also a number of similarities here to the original version of The Hitcher (I don’t know about the remake, since I haven’t seen it). If you want to go more obscure, there’s a lot here that is similar to the early-‘80s Aussie film Road Games.

No Femme More Fatale

Film: The Last Seduction
Format: DVD from personal collection on laptop.

Linda Fiorentino needs to work more. I say this because her IMDB profile lists only two films after 2000 for her. I have a tendency to like Linda Fiorentino in films, and I also have a tendency to like film noir. I like noir because it’s a great style and always deals with the seamier side of life. I like Linda Fiorentino because she has a great, smoky voice. It’s what makes her such a damn good femme fatale in a film like The Last Seduction.

This is a straight-up noir, too. I suppose technically it’s a modern noir, but eliminate the few moments of nudity and the sexual content and there’s very little in this film that wouldn’t be at home with something luridly titled from 1952. All of the noir points are hit and hit hard here. We’ve got an attractive woman with a heart of stone, criminal enterprises, sex, detectives, an amateur in way over his head, and a dedicated sense of moral ambiguity. If only it had been filmed in black-and-white, it would slide into the canon of the period without question.