Review of The Hitcher (2007) by Timothy S — 19 Nov 2011

As far as the glut of horror remakes go, you can do a lot worse than "The Hitcher". In fact, I came shockingly close to almost recommending this all-but-forgotten picture. The first half holds your interest and makes up for a lot of the film's shortcomings. The two young leads are both very pretty, but that's all they really have going for them. Besides, in this movie, the only important character is John Ryder. Sean Bean is an actor we haven't seen a lot from lately, and he never quite made it to the A-list. This film isn't likely to help that much. The problem here is that he's trying to fill shoes that are too big by taking over one of Rutger Hauer's most iconic film roles. He admittedly has some good moments, but he never even comes close to beating the master.

The screenwriters also fail to explore the relationship between the young heroes and Ryder in the same depth of the original. Much like a lot of other modern movies, things are simplified and dumbed down. And while the original had so many great quiet moments, the style of this is much more bombastic and almost Michael Bay-esque. You don't need to reference IMDB to know that director Dave Meyers specializes in music videos, as everything about this film screams "stye over substance".

Still, the beginning of the film is moderately entertaining despite all of the flaws. I also enjoyed Neal McDonough's performance as a sheriff who's actually smart enough to figure out what's going on. A rarity indeed. Despite some almost shocking promise early on, "The Hitcher" cannot live up to expectations. It just doesn't follow through.