Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better than the Original, January 27, 2009
Rest Stop: Don't Look Back is a sequel to the 2006 horror film Rest Stop, about a crazed pickup truck driver terrorizing a young couple at a deserted California rest stop. It wasn't a very good film but the sequel manages to out do the original, rising to passable horror fare. Tom (Richard Tillman) is the brother of Jess who disappeared in the first film along with his girl friend Nicole. Home for two weeks on leave from the army, Tom decides to go in search of his missing sibling. He's joined for the ride by his girlfriend Marilyn (Jessie Ward) and his buddy Jared(Norris). Evidently, because Marilyn doesn't like Jared, the goof is forced to drive his own beater of a car from Texas to California.
We're treated to a replay of the "Driver's" origin. He was just a bumpkin picked up by a family of religious zealots (nuts actually) in their RV. He's killed but is resurrected as a silent spirit, haunting the highways around the rest stop for victims to torture and kill. It isn't long before the trio of friends is on his trail, tipped off by the creepy owner of a gas station (Steve Railsback). Jared is attacked while inside a port-a-potty as it is run into by the truck, spilling its disgusting contents all over him. Tom is then kidnapped by the Driver and taken to a torture chamber outfitted in an old school bus. With help from Nicole's ghost, Jared and Marilyn will try to find Tom and figure out a way to destroy the Driver once and for all.
Better than the original but still not a good film, Rest Stop: Don't Look Back is filled with inconsistencies. The Driver seems to have that annoying ability to appear and disappear at will which he uses to cheat his victims just when you think they've escaped and yet he seemingly leaves him self vulnerable. The main problem with the film is that the assailant just isn't all that scary or intimidating. He's a hillbilly in a flannel shirt and baseball cap and his attempts at a menacing glare are laughable.
Infinitely scarier and underutilized is the nutjob family in the RV. The sex-crazed mom, the fire and brimstone dad, the two kids in suits who never talk, and the dwarf son who is tormented by his older brothers. The sequel almost entirely abandons the rest stop where much of the action in the first film took place. There are only a couple of short scenes there and most of film takes place on the open road. There's a good deal of gore including victims getting their eyes scooped out, legs drilled into, and other assorted wince-inducing torments.
The cast is certainly better this time. Tillman and Ward give more convincing performances than their predecessors in the first film while Norris and Railsback provide some comic relief. Rest Stop: Don't Look Back isn't must viewing but if the video store pickings are slim you could certainly do worse.
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Explains a lot of the first movie, December 1, 2008
I actually liked rest stop, the first one that is. With the end of the first one giving you the idea that the killer in the truck is a ghost, it is confirmed and expanded on in this sequel.
This time around the brother of the guy from the first movie, his girlfriend and immature side kick go hunting a year after the last movie took place now that the brother has returned from military service.
They track down a few things and end up at the rest stop from the previous film and find themselves in the same situation being hunted by the ghost of a yellow pick up.
This one expands and explains how the ghosts come to be and seeing as how the cats out of the bag, it's more of a ghost story about the whole area surrounding the rest stop, which gives room to get out of the rest stop area that was the scene for about 80% of the original movie, and this one uses that rest stop for like 10% of it and takes you elsewhere to see how all this stuff came to be.
In the first film I didn't understand what the freaky family in the Winnebago was about and thought it should have been cut out of the first movie as it did not fit in with it, this movie explains what that was about and who that Addams Family on acid is and why.
Also a good thing they did is the gratuitous nudity is hardly scene in this, the first movie threw it in for no reason other then to attract an audience of perverts, least they realized they did not need it for this film.
And as I suspected, it leaves open an opportunity for a 3rd sequel which I would like to see if it gets made.
I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first movie, but it's watchable. It's not like it's one of those movies that leaves you thinking, "what did they have to do with the first one" - or "that just kills the rules of the first movie" it actually explains it all and is a fun little ride for the hour and a half it goes for.
I wouldn't say this movie is anything special, but it's a decent pop corn movie for what it is.
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Thumbs Down, November 18, 2008
I was excited to watch this movie after enjoying the first Rest Stop. I should have listened to everyone else's reviews. This movie was awful. Quite humorous at times, but just flat out crappy. Don't waste your time buying or renting. Wait until you can watch it for free on cable.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
DVD ~ Jaimie Alexander
DVD ~ Nicki Aycox
DVD ~ Agnes Bruckner
DVD ~ Laura Breckenridge
DVD ~ Jamie Bamber
on 
