Josh Duhamel has made a career playing studly leading men. From Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! to Las Vegas to the Transformers films, the man certainly knows how to own the screen and make women and sometimes men swoon. His latest film Scenic Route is actually a major detour from his standard beefy hero roles. It is a psychological thriller which tests the actor’s abilities in a truly powerful way.

Though a direct-to-DVD film, Scenic Route has all the trappings of a gripping theatrically-released thriller. The film focuses on two old friends, Mitchell (Duhamel) and Carter (Dan Fogler) who, while driving in the California desert, their truck breaks down. Once they are stranded and eventually struggle to survive, their friendship is tested as they each slowly begin to lose their grip on reality and resort to truly nasty behavior.

Scenic Route is a very taut and exciting thriller with fantastic performances from the two leads. Duhamel (who also executive produced the film) delivers the best performance of his career. His mental and physical transformation in the film is award-worthy. Hopefully, Mr. Duhamel will continue to pick roles like this because if he does, he has nowhere to go but up. Fogler is also top notch but he is simply playing the usual clumsy oaf he always plays. If you are in the mood for some truly twisted cinema, then Scenic Route is the way to go.

DVD Bonus Features

There is only one bonus feature for Scenic Route, an audio commentary with the Goetz brothers and Duhamel.