EYES WIDE SHUT [1999]

After 12 years of absence, director Stanley Kubrick returned to make his final motion picture before his death. Eyes Wide Shut, a difficult piece to tag an exact genre to, so we'll just call it an erotic Kubrick Christmas film.
On the outside it's simply about an unlikable high-class doctor, who embarks on a frightening mysterious journey of sexuality after his equally unpleasant wife tells of a time she nearly cheated on him.  However, it's has a far more complex psychological effect on the viewer, with it's ominous twists and turns that open the further the "good" doctor goes down the rabbit hole.  Kubrick's attention to detail, symbolism and lighting is as intricate as always, so there's always something new to discover with each viewing.  Like a feverish nightmare, Eyes haunts me as much as it did the year it was released, in fact more so with a slightly more mature love for storytelling and film-making.
It might not be the ideal swan song for Kubrick fans but it's still a dame fine final chapter for a man who never took his craft lightly.

4 magic circles out of 5

JOY RIDE [2001]

Director John Dahl and screenwriter/producer J.J. Abrams show their love for Steven Spielberg's Duel in the road movie thriller, Joy Ride.
While traveling the long empty desert roads of Middle America, three college students are hunted down by a mysterious trucker who contacts them on a CB radio and vows to kill them.  There's a lot of fun to be had here should you ignore the glaring plot-holes, obvious re-shoots and bizarre stalls in the pacing.  There's a 29-minute long alternate ending that fixes a lot of the mistakes in the film but not enough to make Leelee Sobieski's character nothing more than a prop.  It should have stayed focused on the two brothers to avoid a lot of the misdirected bumps in the road.
Joy Ride knows it's popcorn but when it wants to push you to the edge of your seat it does a great job at it.

3 bottles of pink champagne out of 5