Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Universal The Hitcher (HD-DVD)
From the producers of "TheTexas Chainsaw Massacre," comes "The Hitcher," anaction-packed, bloody thrill-ride. This movie delivers intense edge-of-your-seat chilling suspense and relentless terror as the race to reveal the terrifying truth about "The Hitcher" ensues, making this definitive DVD for all action/horror fans.

Amazon.com:
20 years is a long time in the lifeline of movie plot-arc necessities. It's also a pretty big generational stretch in the lives of audience demographics, which may be part of the reason the producers of this remake of the 1986 cult horror classic felt the need to update the original spare mano-a-mano backbone into a girl-and-mano-a-mano. The Twilight Zone-ish setup is still a pretty neat idea: regular guy on a lonely highway picks up a hitchhiker who turns out to be a psychopathic killer with some very unsettling supernatural might. Fans of the original could hardly hope for a demon villain with such creepy charisma as Rutger Hauer. But Sean Bean makes a respectable replacement, with his understated stare and stewing rage that brings a new brand of hair-raising devilry to the role of hitcher John Ryder. The lone "good guy" originated by a boyish C. Thomas Howell has been upgraded to a lovesick couple. In a twisty touch, Jim (Zachary Knighton, sorta unknown) and Grace (Sophia Bush, of One Tree Hill fame) trade gender roles, with Jim turning wimpy and feminine and Grace becoming a shotgun-toting testoster-ette. The body count's a little higher and the gore factor increased by the power of 20 (years), but some of the original film's set pieces remain much the same-- body-snapping case in point being an 18-wheeler being put to use as a old-fashioned torture rack. While the original might have placed a bit more emphasis on the philosophical and existential elements of evil passing from soul to soul, it wasn't exactly an intellectual thrill ride. Likewise, 2007's The Hitcher is no art film, and it can't be faulted for choosing fright and might for audiences that are always looking for bigger and more elaborate splats for their horror entertainment buck. And if you stick out your thumb for this one, expect plenty of splat. --Ted Fry

Rating : - Tea: If I knew then what I know now, I'd pass on this one
If you have already seen the original movie from 1986, not the remake which is this movie, you'll probably be watching this flick with a preconceived notion of how the movie is gonna go. And you would be pretty much wrong...all around.
If you haven't ever seen the original movie, then this movie might be okay for you. Might even get a little suspense out of it...might even enjoy it.
Those of us that have seen the original, and thought it was brilliant, are going to be sorely disappointed in this factory version..yet another example of the Hollywood machine's constant need to remake a great movie. And it's wasn't the actors, either. I'd find fault in the studio, executive producer, and the producers. I'm all for updating a movie, if you're going to make it better. I just wasn't feeling that on this one.