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Hitcher, The

5/10

Stars: Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, Zachary Knighton, Neal McDonough

Director: Dave Meyers

One of those road movies where the hero and heroine are relentlessly pursued along desert highways by unseen or malevolent forces, this has only tenuous connections with the 1986 Rutger Hauer film of the same name, despite being co-written by Eric Red, who penned the original.

This time it's Sean Bean as John Ryder, a psycho who hitches lifts and kills those who pick him up, for reasons that never become apparent, apart from the fact that he finds it 'feels good'. Our young couple (Bush, Knighton) survive his first attempt, but can't shake off Ryder, who seems to have an endless supply of guns and ammunition and kills off everyone - cops included - who stand between him and his young prey.

It's highly predictable and, though efficiently made, with some impressive landscapes thrown in, hardly up there with such classics of the genre as Duel and Roadkill.

David Quinlan

USA 2006. UK Distributor: Universal. Technicolor.
83 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 30 May 2007