This is underrated gem an underrated sequel and that not a bad one, and that a good one. I enjoy it, I never hated the film like fans of the first film does. Kari Wuhrer was a good scared girl a victim who turns in to heroine on the end of the film and stops the killer. C. Thomas Howell is back as Jim Halsey and he does a good job, I love his character. He saved young boy's life from a maniac and he saved Maggie from been killed. I like this film a lot, doesn't love it, like I love the first one but I like it a lot. It is so bad that is good.The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting (2003) is a good fun sequel not better than the first original movie, or the greatest one, but a good one. C. Thomas Howell returns as Jim Halsey from the first film and he is respectfully in the film and he is for the rest 40 minutes in the film and he does his job well. His character is respectfully treated in this movie from a scared boy to a cop who saves people. The first movie is a cult classic action film while this movie in my opinion is a step down from the first film but a good sequel and I don't think it is horrible. I understand why fans of the first 1986 film hate this sequel and are major disappointed. That is because this film killed off the two main characters from the first film. That was a bad idea and they shouldn't have done that. Jake Busey is a terrible psychotic hitchhiker he is no Rutger Hauer. John Ryder was a stone cold psychopathic maniac killer on a highway, while Jack is a sociopathic killer and he is no John Ryder I understand that. His character is not stone cold, he talks way too much and he is goofing around, that hurts the film. Eric Red should have return for the script, in stead it was written by three people. The film faithfully follows the first film and does not copy the formula from the original film or copy the cult classic film at all, I like that. You have a truck been chased by an airplane and a great showdown between the heroine and the villain. A bad-ass scene I like that scene in the film so much. They are low budget but a good practical effects, the film doesn't copy the original end of the film and you have a huge explosion on the end. Jack is not John Ryder's son sorry fans, and he is not different or better than Rutger Hauer, but a lame version of a hitchhiker killer.I really wish to get this film on DVD, I will make a copy of this film for myself. I have two version of the first Hitcher on DVD and I love it. I saw this film on VHS tape in the video store many years ago when I was in high school and this movie got me in to "The Hitcher" movies.6/10 not a bad horrible sequel like everyone says, it is a good film. I love The Hitcher 1 and like The Hitcher 2. I like, like a lot this sequel, Kari Wuhrer is still a good heroine to me. The film is Rated R and still try's to be a horror movie with suspense, it is blood and nasty horror film tough. :P

It's getting to the point where I really shouldn't watch anything with C. Thomas Howell (The Hitcher) in it, because invariably the film is going to be a big pile of garbage (see Dead Fire and The Shepherd). I thought with this one being shoe themed, and having famed shoe actor Jake Busey (or Jake Shoesy, as he's known) in it, The Hitcher's Shoe might be okay. I was wrong.We first see Jim Halsy (C. Thomas Howell, from the Hitcher), as a policeman/cobbler stopping a kidnapper and shooting him in order to retrieve a small kid and his shoes. Jim gets kicked off the force and ordered to hand in his badge and police issue boots, and he's also suffering from PTSD due to the events of the last film. His girlfriend/shoe designer/pilot thinks Jim needs a holiday, so they both set out wearing sandals to go and meet a cop from the last film, which involves driving cross country, but that's where hitchhikers are! Before long, they're passing a crashed RV with all shoes scattered everywhere, but Jim doesn't want to stop as his shoe senses are kicking off. A motorcycle zooms by and crashes (due to the driver not having the correct footwear), and Jim's missus convinces him to pick up the guy, who turns out to be toothsome Jake Busey (The Doc Marten Murders, High Heel Shoe Musical, and, inexplicably, playing the blonde chick out of Abba in Abba: The Movie).For no reason (other than he's got a Busey in his car), Jim has a flash-forward to Jake pulling a giant gun out of his shoe, freaks out, and throws Jake out of the car. Get this – in his vision, he even gets the make of Jake's gun correct! Turns out Jake is indeed totally insane and may even be the Hitcher from the first film reincarnated into the body of a thirty year old man, somehow. As Jim explains: "I don't know how, but it's him…I can tell from his shoes." What follows is…basically what happens in the first film, only terrible. A cat and mouse chase where Jake leaves all sorts of corpses (and shoes) everywhere and frames Jim and his wife for murder, loads of cops in boots chasing people about, a severed finger getting deep fried and two stand out scenes: one in a shoe warehouse and another where Jake and Jim's wife face off, jousting with long poles with shoes dangling off the end.The first Hitcher was a good, tight thriller with Rutger Hauer being all menacing and that. Jake Busey (from "There's a Narwhal In My Soup", "The Tiger that Sued The Vatican", and "ET 2: Extra Testicle") is just goofy. Goofier than Wings Hauser. That said, he's got some character, and I can't say that about See Thomas Howl (from "Carpet Sample Man", "The Arse Pincher" and Disney classic "Intergalatic Whelk Voids It's Bowels over Manhattan").Not even good bad, just bad bad. Shoes. Also: Tom Skerrit.

Still severely traumatized by his near fatal run-in with deranged roving serial killer John Ryder, Jim Halsey (ably reprised by C. Thomas Howell) decides to surmount his demons by returning back to the lonely stretch of West Texas backroads where the initial agonizing ordeal occurred. Jim's gutsy and loving girlfriend Maggie (an engagingly feisty Kari Wuhrer) tags along for moral support. The pair encounter another shrewd psychotic hitchhiker named Jack (essayed with marvelously maniacal relish by Jake Busey), who naturally proceeds to put Jim and Maggie through absolute nerve-shredding bloody hell. This belated straight-to-video follow-up turns out to be a surprisingly solid, suspenseful and satisfying sequel: It's directed with style and gusto to burn by Louis Morneau (who previously scored with the superlative "Retroactive"), acted with comparable aplomb by the entire cast, with sumptuously adept, gliding, sinuous cinematography by George Mooradian, a bracingly swift rat-a-tat-tat pace that never drags for a second, a shivery, pile-driving score by Joe Kraemer, a considerable amount of gut-ripping tension, a sharply sardonic sense of humor, and a hair-raising lump-in-your-throat shoot-the-fireworks bravura action finale. A surefire winner that almost matches the sterling quality of the simply astonishing original, this honey's a whole lot better than expected and definitely worth checking out.

I like to give films a chance when I first watch them, but this sequel to the brilliant 1986 film is rather weak. It may contain some stomach-churning scenes and other startling moments, but it still proves a failure.I don't know why sequels are made if I'm honest, because they just seem to go on and on....Some superior movies are terrific without sequels, and The Hitcher was one of them. The Hitcher 2: I've Been Waiting simply ruins the whole aspect of the first movie, although the fact that Jim Halsey is now a policeman is an interesting premise. Kari Wuhrer is rather convincing in her role, even if Jake Busey is not.Flashbacks from the first film is a strong point, as well as the new plot being based along the same stretch of road, but as a whole, The Hitcher 2: I've Been Waiting is extremely unconvincing. It isn't that bad a movie, but the budget was wasted (not surprising the film went straight-to-video really). I certainly had NOT been waiting for a sequel to The Hitcher, hence my rating of just 2/10.