It's probably best not to get on the wrong side of lorry drivers. Particularly long-distance ones who have been on the road all day, their sense of humour offloaded at a truck stop a while back.

However, college student Lewis (Paul Walker) and his black sheep brother Fuller (Steve Zahn) - who he's just bailed out of the slammer - choose to ignore this advice.

Fuller decides they need a CB radio to chat with other drivers, a device he memorably describes as a "prehistoric internet chat room". However he doesn't bank on hooking up with a sex-starved trucker, who goes by the handle of 'Rusty Nail'.

Egged on by Fuller, Lewis gives him the come-on as sexy damsel-on-the-road, 'Candy Cane'. Unfortunately for the boys, 'Rusty Nail' takes the bait. The practical joke gets out of control when Candy Cane arranges to meet Rusty Nail in a motel room, which happens to be already occupied by a short-tempered sales rep.

Fuller and Lewis head to bed, wondering whether they've done the right thing, only to awake to find police swarming the motel after Rusty Nail's date winds up in a coma in hospital with his jaw missing. It seems that Rusty didn't take too kindly to the boys' bit of mischief-making... and now he wants revenge.

With his truck lights on full beam and the engine of his big rig roaring, Rusty Nail's monster truck follows the boys wherever they go. Thinking they have shaken him off, the boys pick up Venna (Leelee Sobieski) - the object of Lewis's desire and, unfortunately, the object of Rusty Nail's renewed interest.

Although borrowing heavily from Steven Spielberg's Duel, there is a pleasing air of self-mockery in this sharply scripted shocker, which never gives up on an opportunity to laugh at itself. It isn't a groundbreaking or original plot line, but it is very entertaining and will keep you on the edge of your seat.

It's pretty much terror by numbers but the pleasing mix of humour, tension and nasty surprises will have audiences looking over their shoulders. Just don't watch it at a drive-in.

Dalia Levy