Joyride

*Tobey Maguire comes of age while dealing with a hitwoman* Before he rose to fame with movies like “Race With the Devil,” “The Cider House Rules” and, of course, “Spider-Man” and “Seabiscuit,” he starred in this Tarantino-esque drama/crime thriller set in-and-around a motel in west Texas. To give you a general idea, think of a low-budget version of “True Romance” with touches of “La Femme Nikita” or “Point of No Return.” Not only is it a youthful love story combined with neo-noir, it’s also a commentary on Generation X’s slacker culture in the immoral wasteland of early 1990’s America. The contemporaneous “Lewis & Clark & George” with Rose McGowan is comparable, but that’s more all-around entertaining, although this one is certainly watchable, assuming you can roll with the (unrealistic) comic book tone and dark humor. Besides pre-celebrity Maguire, beautiful blonde Amy Hathaway is a highlight. It’s too bad her star never rose beyond a brief flicker. Adam West is also on hand as her questionable father while Benicio Del Toro is enjoyable as a nonchalant detective. It runs 1h 31m and was shot Jan 1995 in South El Monte/El Monte and Legg Lake Park south of there, as well as over the mountains north of there in Palmdale, Antelope Valley and Bakersfield (generic driving footage). A couple of scenes were done in Hollywood, such as the hitwoman following the bald guy and the scene of JT & James coming out of a school with students obviously in their mid-20s (which looks like a studio parking lot). GRADE: B-