Beware of practical jokes. They might backfire, leaving the perpetrator hoisted on his/her own petard --- or worse. Joy Ride, an intense thriller starring Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, and Leelee Sobieski, illustrates how setting up the wrong person, even as a prank, can lead to murder. Because this scary film is so realistic, I spent the entire ride home looking out the back car window. Sounds crazy, but I halfway expected to see a giant rig driven by the same enraged trucker who wanted revenge against the movie’s three main characters.

At the beginning of the film, I guessed the two young men were headed for trouble when Zahn (Happy, Texas) cajoled Walker (Fast and Furious), his younger brother, into using a sexy female voice over their new CB radio. Calling himself "Candy Cane," he invites a trucker named "Rusty Nail" to a romantic rendezvous at a roadside inn. After discovering he’s the victim of a childish joke, Mr. Nail decides to get even.

Neither one of the brothers realize their actions will put their friend, the lovely Sobieski (The Glass House), in jeopardy too. She’s their passenger on a cross-country road trip. Sobieski explains, "My character has just broken up with her boyfriend at school, so I think this is a kind of discovery road trip for her. But she doesn’t expect to have a killer chasing after them. She just wanted a nice, adventurous journey. Well, she got an adventure, but hardly a nice one!"

Although the movie is filled with extremely tense situations, Zahn provides a bit of comic relief. "We made Joy Ride to be a thrill ride laced with laughs," says director John Dahl (Red Rock West), who adds that Zahn’s "finely tuned sense of humor was critical to giving the story its unique mix of laughs and tension."

Like Dahl, I always find Zahn’s performances amusing --- but mostly because of his "Peck’s Bad Boy" twinkling eyes and bemused expression. I’ll never forget his hilarious scenes in Happy, Texas as an ex-con in high heels teaching little girls how to be beauty pageant contestants. In Joy Ride, Zahn’s most humorous work comes in a bar sequence where his usual laid-back character suddenly becomes more macho than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the role of a charismatic and daring screw-up, Zahn is quite convincing here. The photogenic Walker impressed me equally as an empathetic man who’s afraid to take chances, yet vulnerable to his brother’s foolish suggestions. I had no difficulty believing these actors were brothers trying to pull their relationship together in the face of incredible danger. My only complaint about this fine cast relates to Sobieski’s limited time on camera. She’s great, as usual, but the talented actress doesn’t appear in enough scenes to suit me. I was expecting to see her in a major part similar to her leading role in The Glass House. How disappointing!

My other criticisms concern an excessive drinking sequence involving Zahn, Walker, and Sobieski, as well as a predictable ending shot and the invisibility of "Rusty Nail" to the audience. Yes, we hear his deep, gravelly voice. But his face is never shown. Does this add to the suspense? Maybe for some, but it just irritated me. Perhaps filmmakers wanted to pay homage to Duel, that classic Steven Spielberg television drama starring Dennis Weaver and an anonymous, menacing truck driver. But it seemed unnecessary to me. Despite minor flaws, Joy Ride stands on its own as a superb contemporary thriller.

(Released by 20^th Century Fox and rated "R" for violence, terror, and language.)