The Hitcher (2007)

--Reviewed by Lindy Loo

Plotline: A couple of college kids head out on a road-trip for spring break. Along the way they make the mistake of offering a ride to a man whose car has broken down. When they realize that he is psychotic, they manage to get rid of him. But not for long.

Scariness factor: It's a bit white-knuckly in parts.



Gross-Out Factor: One of the more climactic scenes is pretty nasty. Other than that, it's mostly just shoot 'em ups and neck-slittings.

Complaints: Too slick. Like all the remakes of today, they just aren't quite so rough around the edges as the originals. They're a bit more glossied up (including the shitty music). And they just don't feel quite so gritty. The original was definitely better, though it wasn't one of my absolute favorite movies either really. And I prefer Rutger Hauer to the dude who plays the bad guy here. He's not BAD, and creepy in his own respect. But not QUITE so creepy. That and there weren't as many good car-chase scenes.

High Points: There's a good cop-car chase-scene midway through that sucked me into it. But that was about it. And the climactic/shocking moment towards the end of the movie was pretty sweet and caught me off guard. (Apparently I am senile because I don't remember this scene ending the same way at all in the original, which maybe was a good thing since it DID shock me.) It did keep my attention though for the 90 minutes. And I didn't want to go on a stabbing-spree like after I saw the Halloween remake.



Overall: Not particularly good. Not particularly bad.

Grade: C