People are voting emotionally.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I would have rated this one higher if the ending was different. I didn't like them trying to make a super-heroine out of the girl - that was lame, other than that it's a decent watch. 7/10

As of me typing this, I have not seen the original movie from 1986. There, I figure I'd get that out of the way before anything else. So because I don't have the original to compare it to, I'm able to approach this movie from a blind perspective. I won't be comparing characters, plot points, endings, or anything like that to the original. So, lets dive right into the pros and cons shall we? I'll give the film a couple of positives, Sean Bean and the uniqueness of the story. There are so many slasher movies out there, but I haven't heard of one where a couple is chased along a highway by a maniac before. If you've seen movies with this concept though, it probably won't be as unique to you as it was for me. Sean Bean on the other hand, is pretty damn menacing in this. I've always loved Sean because he can play a great bad guy, but also a sympathetic character. See his performances in "Goldeneye" and "LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring" respectively for those. Sean's able to stay one step ahead of Grace and Jim, making the first half of the movie a suspenseful game of "Cat and Mouse". There are even some moments of pretty good suspense, like the first time Sean's in the car with the couple, and when he murders the religious family (including the little kid). The religious family scene is probably the highlight of the film. It managed to not be insanely gory, and instead let you use your imagination to piece together how he killed them. Sure there's a jump-scare during it, but the build up of suspense was good, so it makes the jump-scare work.The second half of the film, is where it starts to fall apart. If you want to know where exactly that starts, it's when the cop gets held up by Grace in the trailer park. I know there's a lunatic after you, but holding a cop at gunpoint and then trying to convince him you didn't kill anyone, is beyond a reasonable response to a stressful situation. Then there's the car chase with the cops where Sean is basically the T-1000 and takes out three cop cars, and a helicopter with a pistol (with of course ridiculous car flips that are totally not possible). And for some reason, when Grace and Jim see him during the chase, they don't stop. If they'd just pulled over, and he had started shooting at them, that would have stopped his little killing spree with six cops and a helicopter overhead now wouldn't it? The motel scene is pretty good, until Jim gets chained to the trucks and Grace starts doing what Sean wants. Um, excuse me, you have a gun pointed at his head, shoot him! I know he said if he gets shot his foot'll go off the clutch and Jim'll die, but couldn't you shoot him in the head and then reach in and depress the clutch with you're hand or something? The climax of this just goes way overboard, and is the final nail in the coffin. Sean manages to kill three more cops, escape handcuffs, survive a roll-over car crash, and trap Grace in what's left of the cop van. Grace then survives the van blowing up (because Michael Bay), and kills Sean after he's killed Esteridge (Neal McDonough). Also, McDonough and Bean were the only positives left at this point.In conclusion, the movie starts out promising, with some pretty good suspense and tension, but starts to collapse by the half way point and becomes predictable. "How predictable was the final scene," you ask? I got the ending right, before the van pulled out of the station. In better hands, this probably could have worked, but at least it was short, it kinda softens the blow a little bit.

Considering that "The Hitcher" from 1986 was a very well-made film, remaking the movie would have been unnecessary. And although there are remakes which could potentially be good movies, this is definitely not one of them. Not by a long shot. Now getting into the movie itself, I thought that this movie was boring and didn't contain a single scene which was remotely as emotional or as suspenseful as the original. C. Thomas Howell gave in a brilliant performance as the lead in the original, while Rutger Hauer played an excellent villain. In this movie, none of the actors did a good job with their roles. While Sean Bean is good in other movies, he was definitely a forgettable villain as The Hitcher in this movie. And as for the other two main leads; absolutely forgettable characters as well, whom you didn't care for because they were so horribly miscast and badly-written that you didn't connect with them on an emotional level at all. Horrible, horrible casting. Another problem with this film, besides the casting, is the mere fact that it's almost a carbon-copy of the original (except for a couple of changes). Almost every scene from this movie seems to have been plucked out of the original, which defeats the whole purpose of suspense, not to mention that almost every scene which was copied is absolutely inferior to the original. All in all, I have no idea what the director Dave Meyers was thinking when he decided to make this film. As others have said, you might as well just show 1986's "The Hitcher" in cinemas again and it won't make a difference. Why Sean Bean and Neal McDonough decided to even bother starring in this film is beyond me. My advice is to stay away from this film and just watch the original instead. 1/10. Absolutely dreadful.

I am a HUGE fan of the original Hitcher so I approached this with a lot of caution especially given how so many reviews were slamming it. But I think people are being overly harsh here. This is a terrifically shot & directed little movie. The lead actors all do well and there is great action & suspense throughout. I was very impressed with the cinematography especially in the first half. There were some especially clever & 'beautiful' (tho slightly gory) sequences involving animals and insects. I can see why they made the changes they did and while they take away a lot from the original story by introducing a couple instead of just the lone "hero" it's actually got it's own appeal. On the down side, the music they used was mostly inappropriate unfortunately, more suited to a romantic drama than a thriller and completely ruined the mood. One exception - I thought the NIN track worked beautifully when that came in. Similarly sinister music in the rest of the flick would have been a lot better than the MTV fluff they seemed to run with. Apart from anything else, if you use the latest top 10 songs as your musical score you end up dating the movie very quickly.The ending could have been done better - it seemed a bit unrealistic - perhaps a little less "super-heroic" and more damage to the hero would have been in order. But apart from the above few niggles, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It's not quite as good as the original but who cares really? And it's good in it's own right. I also liked that they didn't make the female lead useless and pathetic & that neither of the two acted like morons. Their actions were perfectly logical and believable in the circumstances they found themselves in. Not always the wisest decisions were made but that's realistic & understandable for two traumatised college kids & if the characters didn't take the wrong path occasionally there'd be no story now would there!!Oh and there's nowhere near as much "gore" as people have suggested. There's a bit of blood & guts but nothing too outrageous. Very tame in that respect compared to many other horror flicks I've seen. Altho there was one scene where I was wise enough to look the other way at the crucial point. Unless you're hard core I'd recommend you do the same!! LOL You'll know what I mean when you get there.Don't look at this flick as a remake of a classic and set it up to fail no matter how good it is. Just watch it as a movie in it's own right and I guarantee you WILL enjoy it. It's 100x better than most of the rubbish around lately. My actual vote is somewhere around the 6 mark as I think it's an above average action/horror movie but not brilliant. But I've rated it higher to make up for the mean-spirited and unjust low ratings this is getting from many people. :)