Although most critics generally love to pounce on fright films, several are giving high marks to Joy Ride, starring Steve Zahn, Paul Walker and Leelee Sobieski. Rick Groen in the Toronto Globe & Mail writes: "Joy Ride is just that -- it's nothing more or less than scary noirish fun, low on thematic ambition but giddily high on the fright front." To Jay Carr in the Boston Globe, it's "a nice, nasty little B-movie that keeps things simple and keeps things scary." Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal agrees, saying that "there's plenty of scary pleasure to be had from this clever, compact thriller." But several critics remark that they were taken aback by the ending. "Nobody acts in the character that they have established; instead, they become generic ciphers like the crowds of fleeing extras when the beast in the '50s monster movies hits town," writes Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post.