Review of The Hitcher (2007) by Paul P — 17 Jun 2011

Competently made but pretty pointless...

Following the original film beat for beat, there are no surprises to be offered up and whilst it looks fine, crucially it's simply not scary. Our heroes are pretty (Sophia Bush looks amazing) but have no depth or substance to them. As a result the jeopardy they are put in doesn't register. Then we have Sean Bean who plays the titular Hitcher as more of a blank mute. I like the guy but offering up a comparison between him and Rutger Hauer is worthless. Rutger Hauer's villain had a glint in his eye and you knew he meant business when he says 'I want you to stop me'... You just don't get the same feeling with Bean.....

Then we have the truck stop show piece which was so executed so effectively in the original, the option to show what happens in this version ripped the guts (literally) of any tension that was built up... Such a shame.

Whilst I have nothing against remakes per say, this one doesn't really acheive anything and I would definately recommend the original over this one...