Wolff rating: NOT BAD
Plot summary: Cross-country road trip turns scary when a trucker decides to get even with our two dopey heroes.
Biased, pithy comments: Leelee, Leelee, I love you! Marry me! Let me bear your children! On the commentary track, you say you love peaches and hate beer---let me be your cabana boy who brings you fruit and non-hops-based beverages! Wait, that was supposed to be voice-over. I mean, um, this is a languid, largely joyless, empty-headed cross between ``The Hitcher'' and ``Scream,'' only with truckers instead of hitchhikers and CBs instead of phones. Both of those two movies (at least one of which was referenced during the commentary as ``Wow, those guys really did it right'') are better than this one, but I guess the real purpose of this movie is a public service announcement---``Don't screw with the CB! It's a tool of great power!'' Except for an exploitative bra-less blouse in an early shot, my great love Leelee isn't in the movie much, and we're left with Zahn who is cast way against type as a the wired stoner dude, and hapless Walker as the Everyman who keeps doing stupid things despite his stated better instincts. Note to producers---semi tractors are wide turners; our heroes would have been safer to just keep running at 90 degree angles than to spring headlong away from the big truck. In the desert scene, they could have just sprinted off into the hills; the truck's clearance was too low to go over the visible hills.
Other Notes: DVD contains some really fun commentary (why is commentary on bad movies so much more fun than commentary on good movies?) by Leelee, Zahn, and writers Clay Travers and Jeffrey Abrams. Also, it contains a remarkable 4 additional endings including one Leelee-focused one that clearly needed to be right choice. (The writers are particularly funny as they laconically deride their cliches, as well as wonder whether or not anyone is listening. Yup, guys, you should have listed an email address; I was listening.)
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Leelee Sobieski, Paul Walker, Steve Zahn
Directed by: John Dahl