In my eyes the original is a classic. The tense action begins from the very moment it starts, and there aren't any annoying characters. It's a wonderful example of a horror film. So then, can anyone tell me what is the point of remaking a classic if you're just going to copy everything from it but no where near as effective and your going to add bits in which just add to the boredom?! CAN YOU TELL ME THAT! Sorry, I need to calm down :)

Rob Zombie's "Halloween" and the remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" are two examples of how to do a good remake. They take the idea of the original but completely change what happens in the film to make it there own. "The Hitcher" is inadequate. The director turns a classic into a dopey teen movie. It's unengaging, unsurprising and laughable.

Sean Bean is miscast as the hitcher. I'm sorry Sean Bean fans (Caroline :) but he just isn't menacing enough. I mean Mr. Bean can't act anyway ( well THE Mr Bean can, Rowan Atkinson does a fine job as that character) so that casting is all wrong!

I must say that I did enjoy the final 10 minutes, I thought that was quite tense, but its still a damn copy. Its a replica and isn't as good. It's not exactly shot for shot but you know what's going to happen. Please, if you have any sense go and watch the original. Skip this one, its full of stupid characters, clichéd moments and Michael Bay produced it.

Dear Michael Bay, please be original. Is that too much to ask?

The horror industry has had quite a big boom in the past five years or so, and most of the horror films you see today are remakes of older films. Some of them are really good, some of them are atrocious - but "The Hitcher" is one of the better remakes I've seen. This movie focuses on Grace (Sophia Bush) and Jim (Zachary Knighton),who are on a road trip during spring break. While driving one stormy night in the desert, they almost hit a man who is having car trouble, but speed off in fear. Later that night, they meet the man who they almost hit at a gas station, and end up offering him a ride to the nearest motel. Little do they know, the man who calls himself John Ryder (Sean Bean),is a maniac, and ends up pulling a knife on the couple. They manage to escape at the time, but the following day they are terrorized by the murderous hitchhiker along the highway, and become framed for a series of killings that he has been committing.

Barely twenty years old, the original "Hitcher" was a great horror movie that wasn't really in need of a remake - but most of the horror films that are remade aren't in need of it either, so I suppose that's irrelevant. I'm glad I saw the original film (just days) before I went to see this remake, because it was interesting to compare the similarities and differences between the two. In some instances, this remake pulls things right out of the 1986 film, but also reworks the story and adds and removes certain elements. The reworking of the plot here is done really well - it stays faithful to the original movie while making it something of it's own as well, and I was happy with the way that everything was done in the writing department. There was plenty of action and some great scare moments, so people with short attention spans (which is probably the majority of this film's primary audience) will never get "bored" or find themselves unenlightened. The action and kills were very well executed though and the gore factor is brought up a few notches from the original, but doesn't go overboard. The classic chase sequence from the 1986 film is done here very well and is just as (if not more) exciting than the sequence was in the original.

I have to admit, some of the action sequences were a little far-fetched, but the same goes for the original film too, so I can't criticize that. The cast wasn't bad. Granted, some of the acting was a little underdeveloped, but all in all the performances weren't bad. Sophia Bush plays the heroine, Grace, and while she doesn't give a great performance, she's likable enough to hold up her role and keep the audience sympathizing with her. Zachary Knighton plays her boyfriend, Jim (who is a variation of the original movie's hero),and is very good. Sean Bean probably gives the best performance though, playing the menacing John Ryder very well. He has the perfect look for the role, plus he's a good actor. I thought it would be hard to live up to Rutger Hauer's great performance, but I was surprised at how well it was done.

Overall, "The Hitcher" is one of the better remakes out there. It could have been better, but not by a whole lot. It doesn't live up to the original film, but I wasn't expecting it to so I was pleasantly surprised with the way this film turned out. If you're a fan of the original, you may or may not want to see this, but I can say that I really liked the original myself and thought that this was an above-average remake. 7/10.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this film when I set out to watch it. I'd already heard all of the negative press, and two further things stood against it in my opinion: the first was the involvement of producer Michael Bay, whose work I'm not a great fan of (that bloated mess TRANSFORMERS, anyone?),and the second was that I saw no reason for a remake to begin with. The original THE HITCHER, made in 1986 and starring Rutger Hauer, is a perfectly good little thriller with plenty of scares, shocks, and suspenseful moments. So why remake it just twenty-one years later?

The reason is obvious: money. And this version of THE HITCHER is little more than a cynical ploy to make more of it, without putting much thought or effort into the movie to begin with. However, despite all these flaws, negatives, and problems, I was left feeling genuinely surprised, because I thought this film wasn't too bad. Sure, it's no classic, and it's not one I'll ever really want to watch again, but it passes the time. It doesn't muster up much suspense but as a film reliant on 'jump' scares, it works a treat, with sudden characters bursting onto the screen, or bursts of sound or music, making me start from my seat time after time. It may not be art, but if it's what you're looking for...

I'll admit right now that I have a soft spot for Sean Bean, one of my favourite actors. Maybe it's his working class origins or his rugged look, but I always enjoy seeing this guy up on screen. Having watched him act the hell out of the other cast members in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, it was no surprise seeing him give a great performance here. He's subtle, scary, and very much deranged, an absolute psychopath with no emotion or care for his own safety or the lives of others. Bean doesn't fascinate like Hauer did, but he's perfectly good in the role.

The other cast members are okay. Sophia Bush and Zachary Knighton aren't given much to work with other than react to the various menaces, but they convince as the young college couple. Character actor Neal McDonough is on hand playing the lawman investigating the crimes but he's criminally wasted here, especially after he gave such a good performance in BAND OF BROTHERS – he could well have played the Hitcher himself with those staring eyes.

As far as remaking the original movie goes, some bits are the same while others are different. One action set-piece in the middle of the film really got my goat, because of the decision to play some stupid, intrusive piece of pop music right in the middle of it. I know they did it for effect, but it really doesn't work – I'm a traditionalist when it comes to soundtracks, give me an orchestra any day. Elsewhere, it's predictable fun, with characters hunting around in dark basements or being confronted with bloodied corpses. The gore and violence is amped up, crucially in a moment near the climax where a character is tied between the cabin and trailer of a lorry, and it provides a welcome distraction from the plot holes and lack of logic you see elsewhere.

Despite a rushed ending, I still enjoyed this movie. It keeps you watching and Bean, although he doesn't exactly set the screen alight, is an able menace; the escape from the prison van is well handled and disturbing. THE HITCHER is the kind of film I can take or leave, but I've seen worse – a lot worse...