The Hitcher (2007)

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 21, 2007

Sup. Yeah? Me neither. Cool. Yeah really? Nooo. Ok. Oh hey there, sorry, didn’t know anyone else was reading this. Man that is a dumb intro, but instead of deleting it, we’re going to move forward. On today’s plate the unnecessarily remade The Hitcher. I know what you’re thinking. He said unnecessary, that means it was bad. Wrong.

The original Hitcher was released in 1986 and it has a sort of cult status, though the average movie-goer probably doesn’t know it exists, so they may think this is a brand new film. Whatevs works man. But the plot is pretty much the same. This one follows a guy (Jim) and a girl (Grace) traveling through the desert going on Spring Break. After first denying the man, and almost hitting them, they decide to give “John Ryder” a, well, ride. And things quickly go to shit.

What follows is a pretty decent chase-type thriller with Ryder always a step ahead and a knife slash away. We get some sweet rides, some sweet car crashes, helicopter action, Sophia Bush in her undies, gunshots, stab wounds, and all sorts of general pain.

Sean Bean turns in a great turn as the psycho killer guy and is easily the best part of the film. I wish he had more lines. Rutger Hauer (the original Hitcher) had many more lines and I think Bean really could have brought a lot more to the film if given the chance. But he puts a lot of emotion into his looks and we really see wheels turning in the hitcher’s eyes.

The other performances are ok, though Bush doesn’t quite pull off her tough girl stance, though she’s pretty enough for us to ignore that. The dude, well, that says it right there. I don’t care enough to scroll up and look at his name. He’s there. Ok.

The directing is slick and borders between well done and music video at times, though the pacing is rip-roaring. Overall we get a pretty decent flick that first timers should enjoy and fans of the original shouldn’t outright hate. I like the original and I found myself enjoying a lot of this. It could have been better, but it also could have been far far worse.

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