The Hitcher (2007)

Strong and Moving!

People are voting emotionally.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Jim (Zachary Knighton) and Grace (Sophie Bush) are college kids going away for spring break. They reluctantly pick up John Ryder (get it) played by Sean Bean. John is a psycho and carnage is spread throughout New Mexico.This is a me-too hitchhiker film which differentiates itself at about 50 minutes into the film as cop cars flip over to the tune of NIN. The gas station stop gave us signs of cleverness and indeed the acting and lines were better than many "B" horror films, but the film needed to go beyond better than most to earn high honors in a crowded genre. John Ryder needed to be a distinct colorful character and wasn't.Guide: 38 F-words by IMDb count. No sex or nudity.

January 20, 2007I never ever began to think that "The Hitcher" would ever be remade. Actually, hoped is a better word. The original film came out in 1986 and should have never seen the light of day. It was a reprehensible piece of violent and cruel trash that showcased brutality and violence with no purpose. A lot of films are being remade lately and I must be led to believe that the producers of this remake have to be really desperate if they are willing to look back on a picture that was truly one of the worst films of the 1980's.It's about a young man, Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) and his girlfriend, Grace Andrews (Sophia Bush) who are driving across the countryside for spring break. While driving, they see a man hitchhiking in the pouring rain and they speed off. Later at a gas station, Jim reluctantly agrees to give, John Ryder (Sean Bean) a lift. when the Hitcher becomes violent, they shove him out the door. Ryder begins tormenting the two kids and forces them to play a cat and mouse game of murder. when Jim and Grace are suspected of the murders Ryder is leaving behind, they make a run for it with the police chasing close behind while trying to figure out what Ryder wants from them.Remakes are starting to become the object of desire and I can see a lot of horror/thriller films getting a reboot, not that that is always a good thing and this film was one we did not need. The original film was about a young man who is chased all through the western countryside by a psychopathic serial killer with no motive, purpose or identity and that made the film sick in its portrayal of violence. The film's sadomasochistic theme between C. Thomas Howell and Rutger Hauer was disturbing enough but now Sean Bean steps into the role of Ryder and plays the same killer who is hell bent on murdering people for no reason. You would think a motive would finally be revealed but no, it's safer for the filmmakers to stick to the original film and on that note, this film is about as disgusting and meaningless as the original.Everything remains the same but they retool a few scenes, one of which I will get to after. If you have seen the original, you know which scene I'm talking about. After the opening credits pass, Jim and Grace are driving through the dark when they see Ryder in the middle of the road near a broken car. After giving a ride, he pulls a knife and becomes violent, sound familiar? After Ryder is pushed out, they continue driving when they see a station wagon with the Hitcher in the back. Again, sound familiar? They changed nothing with the picture. The only difference is that Sean Bean steps into the menacing shoes of John Ryder and he is more of a pain in the ass than Rutger Hauer was attempting to be terrifying. He remains largely unchanged and we are, once again, given a killer whose sole purpose is to murder innocent people for no reason. No motive, nothing. We were not even told where Ryder came from in the original and we are not told with this story either.As you expect, the rest of the story plays out like the original with non-stop mayhem with Ryder framing them and the cops being too stupid to figure out what's going on. I will say, it's less believable with Jim and Grace than it was with Jim and Nash, yet, the cops are hell bent on catching them. Now comes the sequence that truly shocked the hell out me in the original and left me feeling sick. In the original, Jennifer Jason Leigh is tied between two trucks and split into two parts and this time, it's Jim who is tied between the two trucks and Grace being terrified. I had to laugh for a second because when the cops show up, they still think Grace and Jim are the two killers, yet, he's tied between two trucks while Ryder sits in the cab looking like a bat out of hell. You can image what happens next and, yes, he is split in half. This time, they show the two pieces of his body dangling just to further the disgust factor.I was left really angry when Jennifer Jason Leigh was ripped in half in the original and I felt bad for the actress because she is very talented and she was subjected to meaningless torture. Sofia Bush is a talented actress but her role is limited here and I wonder why they didn't cut her in half? Mind you, this is Michael Bay who is producing here and maybe he thought the idea of cutting a woman in half was a bad idea? Who cares? In the end, this remake is an immortal piece of trash much like the original. It does the same thing over again to a lesser degree in terms of content but still stands out as a desperate attempt to revive a film that died a long time ago and that's a sad commentary when entertainment resorts to rebooting a film like "The Hitcher" for a young audience that isn't even old enough to see it and should never see either the original film or this remake.0/10

According to IMDb, Red was credited as a screenplay writer for this movie, but had no part in writing it (aside from writing the 1986 film). I haven't seen the 1986 version, but if it was any good, I don't blame him for wanting to distance himself from this version.This flick starts strong and features competent performances by good actors (except for Bush's second-half performance, which gets out of her range, in my opinion; she just hasn't mastered the thousand-yard stare). However, it's a lot of build-up for nothing. The effects and action are often hokey, it feels as if some major events were skipped (and not in a good, it's-better-to-leave-it-to-the-imagination way), and the payoff to the big question throughout the movie is never realized. If I had to describe this film in one word, it would be "senseless." Also according to IMDb, "Rutger Hauer, who played the character of John Ryder in the original was offered a cameo, but declined for artistic reasons. Hauer has since said in the press that he has yet to watch the remake, and according to some of his friends he shouldn't bother." Smart man.For more reviews and a kickass podcast, check out: www.livemancave.com

Few remakes of old and beloved horror films succeed in winning over the old guard. They sometimes gain some fans from the younger sphere where those not familiar with the old version dwell, but with one or two odd exceptions, they rarely make a hit with the horror faithful even if they make money at the box office. The Hitcher, a remake of the 1986 Rutger Hauer starring film, is another in a sad line of poor horror remakes. Which is a shame because the casting of Sean Bean in the psychopathic hitcher role looked a decent one and we were promised a new take on the story. Sadly the makers have stripped away exactly what made the original film work so well.Gone is the loneliness of a single driver and the rising of terror and confusion that he faced, in place is a sexy courting couple (Sophia Bush and Zachary Knighton) taking on the un-charismatic-by-the-numbers hitcher of the title. It rarely feels like the suspense laden movie it should have been, it's more a picture dominated by yawn inducing passages of knowing what will happen next. Logic and momentum are in short supply, as is the ambiguity so strong in the original, while the final confrontation between good and evil is far too short. Without doubt some of the action and deaths are well executed by director Dave Meyers and his team, there's enough visually to keep this from total damnation in stinkerville. While Bush's heroine shows some resourceful spunk when the unoriginal screenplay allows her to. But really all this film achieves is in making us rue remakes even more. 5/10