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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
C Rated R 83 min
Recycled scripts are as common as short-term rehab in Hollywood, especially in the grade B category. This scenario is a remake of a 1986 film starring Rutger Hauer as the psychotic killer, John Ryder, with C. Thomas Howell and the young woman in jeopardy as played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. Cut to 21 years later – today’s producers know that a new generation of twenty-somethings love this genre of slasher-road picture as date night fodder – so the Hitcher rides again.
In an industry skittish about untested product, remakes are relatively easy and inexpensive to shoot using recycled scripts and up-and-coming ingenues. And, for studio moguls, it is a sure thing. Since the death of the drive-in theater, which was the stalwart venue for this genre, more of these psycho-dramas are headed to a theatre near you.
The Hitcher 2.0 involves a young collegiate couple, Grace Andrews (Sophia Bush) and Jim Halley (Zachary Knight), who decide to hit the road in his 1970 Oldsmobile 442 muscle car. The carefree couple is traveling to spring break. La de da. Grace is a naive young woman who is not necessarily in love with Jim, but she’s out for a good time with a guy, and he fits the bill.
While driving at night through the desert, they encounter a man standing in the middle of the road. After slamming on breaks and doing a 360 to avoid hitting him, they decide not to find out what is going on and continue their journey. When they stop for gas, the same man, John Ryder (Sean Bean), gets out of the semi that had given him a ride. Now, here is where Jim makes his big mistake. Didn’t anyone tell him to never, ever pick up a stranger or a hitch-hiker? John finds out it was Jim and Grace who left him stranded. He is polite and asks Jim to give him a ride. Like the dummy he is, Jim says yes. And thus begins the couple’s dance with the devil.
Whether or not John Ryder wants revenge for the couple leaving him on the road, doesn’t explain his sparring, then framing them for his killing spree, leaving dead cops and a family littering the highway. When John pulls a knife and threatens the couple, Jim slams on the brakes, sending John into the windshield. Then Jim kicks him out of the car.
Shaken by the incident, Jim and Grace continue their journey when they pass a station wagon with a family inside and John Ryder in the back. Now they have to warn the family that they have picked up a psychotic killer, but their efforts end in an accident as the station-wagon speeds on down the road. Their car is totaled and they are stuck in the desert with only their backpacks. As they walk down the road they come upon the station-wagon and find an unimaginable scene of horror.
As the killer makes his way, he leaves behind evidence framing Jim and Grace for his crimes. They are now wanted for killing cops and a family. Boy, has this road trip run amok? It all started because Jim didn’t heed the warning–never pick up strangers. The killer is portrayed as a man without a past or future and no motivation for his killing spree. Clearly, he’s intelligent and cunning, but viewers get the idea that he wants to die in a blaze of glory. Until that moment, he intends to cause as much death and destruction as possible, setting up Jim and Grace to take the fall.
As Jim and Grace go through one trauma after another, something snaps in their psyches. Now they are running from the police and the killer. They’ve learned that the police will never believe them that the psycho is doing all the killing, so they are on their own. It’s like a combat version of spring break, turning these flippant college students into hardened battle veterans.
Shot by Dave Meyers with screenwriter Jake Wade Wall using Eric Red’s 1986 screenplay as a template, the movie grinds on, building momentum and cliches to the big finish. As long as young people flock to see these slasher-horror films, then Hollywood will recycle them. (Expect Saw 4.) For producers, it’s a stable market and gives promising young actors exposure. At least this version of the slasher-road picture had some original stunts and Sean Bean’s John Ryder character was one scary dude. Despite its flaws, the movie is oddly entertaining.
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