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Review #372 of 365
Movie Review of The Hitcher (2007) [R] 83 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $11.25
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 19 January 2007
Time: 8:15 p.m.
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
DVD Release Date: unscheduled
Directed by: Dave Meyers (The Offspring Complete Music Video Collection)
Written by: Eric Bernt (Romeo Must Die) based on screen play by Jake Wade Wall (When a Stranger Calls) from the original screenplay for the 1986 film, The Hitcher, with screenplay by Eric Red (Blue Steel)
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Sean Bean (Silent Hill) • Sophia Bush (John Tucker Must Die) • Zachary Knighton (The Prince & Me) • Neal McDonough (Flags of Our Fathers)
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
First off, let's put the original 1986 film starring C. Thomas Howell (how come he's not been on the Surreal Life yet?) and Rutger Hauer and it's 2003, straight-to-video sequel The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting behind us and, if possible, just pretend we don't know about them. And, while we're at it this game of suspending reality, let's imagine that the top of the poster doesn't blare, "From the Producers of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'The Amityville Horror'". Oh, and one more thing, if we are already monkeying around with all they laws of movie-making, we might as well toy with those of physics too and say, advance the year forward to February or August, take your pick, because the laws of movies verify that the worst films of the year are always released in those two months not January—technically, it is mid-January, and no one releases bad films in January because they would have to compete with the long trail of Academy Award®-contenders that only people who live in LA or NYC got to actually see in 2006 when they were released on a 'limited' basis just under the wire to qualify as a 2006 film making January, actually, one of the best months of they year for movies releases actually. So, keeping with the laws of movies more so than the laws of physics, The Hitcher (2007) would have to fall into one of three categories:
(a) it is a much better movie than one would think based on the previous information we tried to pretend wasn't true, (b) the marketing executives were scrambling to find a replacement horror gore fest film for Hostel 2 that got moved to summer, or (c) the producers are already so financially well off that if The Hitcher (2007) loses money due to it being terrible and released in January to compete against a slate of Golden Globe® winners and Oscar®-contenders, they have a nice little tax write-off. Well, surprise, with all due respect to the few thousand fans of the original film many of whom have alleged was a take off on an episode of the "Twilight Zone" in the first place, The Hitcher (2007) is a surprisingly good film. It pales in comparison to its January competition no doubt, but given the credentials of its cast, director, and crew, and given that these are the same producers of the dreadfully bad Amityville Horror and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hitcher (2007) actually turned out to be a great deal better than any conventional wisdom or adherence to laws would suggest. Of course, it could be because of that nasty law of lower expectations—you know the one where when you go into something with very low expectations and are nearly always pleasantly surprised? In any case, I'm not going to lie and say I didn't enjoy The Hitcher (2007) just because no film critic in his or her right mind should have enjoyed this film. But I did. I enjoyed it because: it kept surprising me (I didn't see the original or the sequel), I thought the three lead actors did an excellent job of sustaining the tension in what otherwise could have simply been a ridiculous film, it made a lot more sense than The Amityville Horror or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, nobody woke up at the end and found that it was all a dream, there were no malevolent ghosts just going around terrorizing hapless Sarah Michelle Gellar, there were only a few cheesy or sickening teen horror movie instances, the on-screen chemistry between Sophia Bush and Zachary Knighton was always believable, Sean Bean was one scary, merciless, driven homicidal maniac; and, finally, while there was never resolution as to the source of the killer's rage, the ending left no room for a logical sequel and no doubt that good trumps pure evil once and for all. Of course, there could always be an illogical sequel if the producers find that Hostel 3 gets moved from the next, next summer to the next, next winter, but let's hope not.
(a) it is a much better movie than one would think based on the previous information we tried to pretend wasn't true, (b) the marketing executives were scrambling to find a replacement horror gore fest film for Hostel 2 that got moved to summer, or (c) the producers are already so financially well off that if The Hitcher (2007) loses money due to it being terrible and released in January to compete against a slate of Golden Globe® winners and Oscar®-contenders, they have a nice little tax write-off. Well, surprise, with all due respect to the few thousand fans of the original film many of whom have alleged was a take off on an episode of the "Twilight Zone" in the first place, The Hitcher (2007) is a surprisingly good film. It pales in comparison to its January competition no doubt, but given the credentials of its cast, director, and crew, and given that these are the same producers of the dreadfully bad Amityville Horror and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hitcher (2007) actually turned out to be a great deal better than any conventional wisdom or adherence to laws would suggest. Of course, it could be because of that nasty law of lower expectations—you know the one where when you go into something with very low expectations and are nearly always pleasantly surprised? In any case, I'm not going to lie and say I didn't enjoy The Hitcher (2007) just because no film critic in his or her right mind should have enjoyed this film. But I did. I enjoyed it because: it kept surprising me (I didn't see the original or the sequel), I thought the three lead actors did an excellent job of sustaining the tension in what otherwise could have simply been a ridiculous film, it made a lot more sense than The Amityville Horror or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, nobody woke up at the end and found that it was all a dream, there were no malevolent ghosts just going around terrorizing hapless Sarah Michelle Gellar, there were only a few cheesy or sickening teen horror movie instances, the on-screen chemistry between Sophia Bush and Zachary Knighton was always believable, Sean Bean was one scary, merciless, driven homicidal maniac; and, finally, while there was never resolution as to the source of the killer's rage, the ending left no room for a logical sequel and no doubt that good trumps pure evil once and for all. Of course, there could always be an illogical sequel if the producers find that Hostel 3 gets moved from the next, next summer to the next, next winter, but let's hope not.
"…potent performances…packs a powerful adrenaline rush…far better than expected…"
So, for those that didn't see the originals, and my take on it is that this film is sort of a cross between the original and the sequel, this Dave Meyer-directed film starts out with Grace Andrews (Sophia Bush) and Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) heading off on a spring break trip from their university life in Texas to Lake Havasu in Arizona. I guess South Padre Island is too close by for Texas college kids to feel like it's a real spring break get-away. Of all the recent on-screen, college kid couples in horror movies of late, these two actually do seem to really, really like each other. There is a cute chemistry between them. Jim is shy about meeting people from Grace's life. They are having fun together. Their relationship seems mutualistically inclined. As they cross into New Mexico not far, incidentally, from Roswell, they encounter a torrential downpour late at night. Jim's probably driving a ltitle too fast for the conditions, but out of no where they encounter a strange man just standing in the middle of the road with his hazard lights on and Jim nearly wipes out his car with the first complete 360 in his life trying to avoid hitting the guy. His instincts are to go back and see if the guy's ok. Grace insists they not do so, but rather, depart and phone for help for him. Her intuition is working over drive, as it happens, for when they get to the nearest gas station and stop for gas, a bathroom break for Grace, and snacks—Grace prefers Ding Dongs® to Twinkies® by the way—guess who shows up? Of course, the creepy guy has hitched a ride from a trucker and appears at the very same gas station by some coincidence. He introduces himself to Jim as John Ryder (Sean Bean) and asks for a lift to the motel where he cas stay the night until he's able to get his car towed. Jim, already feeling guilty that he abandoned the guy the first time, says "Sure" though he's also sure that Grace would not approve. Next thing we know, they are on their way to Tatum, NM to drop him off. Along the way, however, he gets a bit too pointed in his interrogation of Jim for Jim's liking and retorts back with his own probing question about John's wedding ring to which John replies, "I don't have a wife, I just wear the ring because it makes people think I'm trustworthy." Jim gets a deer-in-headlights look on his face, "Well, aren't you?" John replies, "No," as he pulls out a knife, grabs Grace in the back seat, and forces Jim to say four words to save her life, "I want to die." As his true love for Grace would have it, he says the words despite her begging him not to, and then the duo manage to overpower John and kick him out of the car onto the road. Adding to the list of unanswered questions about John Ryder is where he gets his uncanny ability, however, to continue to pop into their lives over the course of the next day two days. Two days that will be the worst and most harrowing of their lives, two days where they will find themselves being framed for one massacre after another, with the inept New Mexico police arresting them and locking them up without listening to them for even a second only to find themselves hours later on the long list of John Ryder victims themselves. John has numerous opportunities just to kill Grace and Jim, but he enjoys toying with them like the way the cat does a mouse in the cliché. Eventually, Jim will come to regret he failed to trust Grace's intuition, and eventually Grace will have to take justice into her own hands.
The strengths of the film lie in the tense and unrelenting action and suspense driven by the maniacal and murderous rampage of John Ryder. Eventually, a higher up in the police dept., Lieutenant Esteridge (Neal McDonough) figures out that Grace and Jim are not the ones behind the rampage, but until then, the two face being wanted at every turn by the police while knowing only too well the capabilities of John Ryder. So, the story packs a powerful adrenaline rush. The actors capably rise above both the potential for disaster in the concept and the genre to deliver potent performances that made them seem at once very real. The casting agents did an awesome job of pairing up the well-established Sophia Bush with the less well-known Zachary Knighton. This combination suited well, also, the eventual outcomes as she is perceived all along to be the stronger of the pair. Sean Bean lacks the creepiness edge that Rutger Hauer adds to his villainous characters, but he replaces it with a devilish charm that works, perhaps, even better. The weaknesses in the film, other than that it's far, far out of league with the likes of Letter from Iwo Jima, Little Children, Children of Men, and etc. are far fewer in number than other like-minded films. Nonetheless, there are a few. Perhaps not wanting to detract from the unrelenting suspense, the script fails to provide answers to two important areas of questioning: (a) What drives John Ryder? He's criminally insane, but why? How'd he get that way? Where'd he come from? How long has he been at this?, and (b) How does he do what he does? How does he seem to pop up everywhere that Grace and Jim go no matter how random? And why does he pick on them of all people to play this cat and mouse game while he's so content murdering plenty of other people? Does he see them as more worthy of his game? As alluded, some internet posters suggested that the original The Hitcher was a rip off of a "Twilight Zone" episode of a similar plot where a hitchhiker is picked up, but it turns out that the driver is already dead and the hitch hiker is Death which explains the plot out a bit better. Some clever twist like this at the end of The Hitcher (2007) might have made it one of the best films actually released in January. Instead, it falls into the 'far better than expected' category.
The strengths of the film lie in the tense and unrelenting action and suspense driven by the maniacal and murderous rampage of John Ryder. Eventually, a higher up in the police dept., Lieutenant Esteridge (Neal McDonough) figures out that Grace and Jim are not the ones behind the rampage, but until then, the two face being wanted at every turn by the police while knowing only too well the capabilities of John Ryder. So, the story packs a powerful adrenaline rush. The actors capably rise above both the potential for disaster in the concept and the genre to deliver potent performances that made them seem at once very real. The casting agents did an awesome job of pairing up the well-established Sophia Bush with the less well-known Zachary Knighton. This combination suited well, also, the eventual outcomes as she is perceived all along to be the stronger of the pair. Sean Bean lacks the creepiness edge that Rutger Hauer adds to his villainous characters, but he replaces it with a devilish charm that works, perhaps, even better. The weaknesses in the film, other than that it's far, far out of league with the likes of Letter from Iwo Jima, Little Children, Children of Men, and etc. are far fewer in number than other like-minded films. Nonetheless, there are a few. Perhaps not wanting to detract from the unrelenting suspense, the script fails to provide answers to two important areas of questioning: (a) What drives John Ryder? He's criminally insane, but why? How'd he get that way? Where'd he come from? How long has he been at this?, and (b) How does he do what he does? How does he seem to pop up everywhere that Grace and Jim go no matter how random? And why does he pick on them of all people to play this cat and mouse game while he's so content murdering plenty of other people? Does he see them as more worthy of his game? As alluded, some internet posters suggested that the original The Hitcher was a rip off of a "Twilight Zone" episode of a similar plot where a hitchhiker is picked up, but it turns out that the driver is already dead and the hitch hiker is Death which explains the plot out a bit better. Some clever twist like this at the end of The Hitcher (2007) might have made it one of the best films actually released in January. Instead, it falls into the 'far better than expected' category.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Other Projects Featuring The Hitcher (2007)
Cast Members
Sean Bean
• Sophia Bush • Zachary KnightonNeal McDonough
Director
Dave Meyers
Writer
Eric Bernt
| Original DVD | ||
| Original Poster | Original Soundtrack | Original Sequel |
The Hitcher (2007) Review-lite [150-word cap]
Setting aside that The Hitcher (2007) is a cross-hybrid remake of the 1986 film and its 2003 sequel, this is a much better movie than one would expect. Dave Meyer helms the film which starts out with Grace Andrews (Sophia Bush) and Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) heading off on a spring break trip from Texas to Lake Havasu. Their excellent, on-screen chemistry is a key ingredient to the success of the film. Unfortunately, their idyllic plans go awry when they narrowly miss hitting and killing a hitch hiker, John Ryder (Sean Bean), during a torrential downpour on a small highway in New Mexico. The strengths of the film lie in the tense and unrelenting action and suspense driven by the maniacal and murderous rampage of John Ryder, the capable performances of the leads, and the adrenalin rush these evoke. The weaknesses come in the form of too many unanswered questions.
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