THE HITCHER was a good thriller of the 1980s that's been well remembered by a lot of fans, not least thanks to Rutger Hauer giving one of his best performances as the ice-cold, stop-at-nothing serial killer. In more recent years, Hollywood has tried, unsuccessfully, to have another slice of the cake, first by releasing this straight-to-video sequel and then by releasing a bigger budgeted remake with Sean Bean in the Hauer role. I've seen the latter, and it's nothing special, so this undistinguished sequel was the last of the 'hitcher' films (not counting the countless rip-offs) that I had to see. I wasn't missing much.The most interesting thing about the film is that C. Thomas Howell reprises his role from the first film. I didn't like him much in THE HITCHER, but he's grown up a lot since then and I actually found that he gave a pretty good performance. For me, he was the most interesting person on screen. He provides a nice, fitting link between the first and the second films, and as the sole returning actor, a lot rests on his shoulders, but he doesn't let that stop him.The worst thing about this sequel, though, is the story, which is just a blatant copy of the first film's plot. A hitcher is picked up and then dropped off after being revealed to be a psychopath. There's shtick with severed fingers, roadside cafes, and somebody who gets tied up between a truck cab and its stationary load. Once again, the intrepid sheriff department don't believe a word of what's going on, so it's up to our youthful hero to stop the hitcher in his tracks. Yep, we've seen it all before and done better, so aside from the plane vs. truck climax (which I liked, and which is something new), don't go expecting originality here.This time around the hitcher himself is played by regular bad guy for hire Jake Busey, son of Gary. Jake's been burning up the screen in the likes of ROAD HOUSE 2 and IDENTITY, so he seems an obvious choice for the part. He doesn't come close to Hauer's performance, though, or even Bean's for that matter. Busey's encouraged to go way over the top at all times, with plenty of wisecracks and humour along the way. I appreciate the vitality he brings to the film, and I do like him as an actor, but he just doesn't sit right here. Better is Kari Wuhrer, as the attractive heroine forced to go up against the maniac. Many women in modern horror films are pretty, young and poor actresses to boot, but not so Wuhrer. She really delivers her part and it was a delight to have her on screen.Anyway, things play out as you'd imagine, and there's nothing in the way of shocks or indeed surprises (although the film does open with a most effective twist). Saying that, the desert locations are well used and the action has a certain slickness about it that makes it appealing, so I can't say I didn't enjoy this one; for a straight-to-video sequel made almost twenty years after the original, I think it does okay.

One of the worst movie ever. Period. That should be the title of the film. I haven't seen the original. But I saw the remake, which was still bad but not the worst thing ever. Anyway when you see a low-budget movie with bad actors, crappy shooting and boring action scenes you know that there is no real purpose of making such a film. Well though that's the case of the Hitcher 2, you start reading the ''directed by...'' at the end and then you ask yourself: what did I learn from this? Well nothing, nothing at all my friend. You just wasted your time seeing this crap.This movie is bad. Don't watch it. To avoid at all cost.

Unwarranted film is another reason sequels suck. What's worse is our leading man Howell dies in the middle, where sexy Wuhner is left to carry the movie off, no easy task given the material she has to work with. After Howell dies, while protecting girlfriend Wuhner, the movie sours. The story's just the same. A double whammy for Howell's character who made the mistake of picking up Hauer in the first. The movie's set fifteen years later. Howell mentions at the start that he's a cop to a little a boy, (this sounds so phoney and overdone) giving him reassurance, after saving him from a kidnapping, where at first Howell getting sloshed in the rain, has a dark look, you actually think he's the bad guy. His girlfriend owns an aerial spraying business, with Howell flying the planes. That terrible incident, who he's never mentioned to his girl, is still eating him up inside, and this has been affecting his police work. At the advice of old Captain Esteridge, after Howell seeks help from him, again overacted, thus not believable, him and Wuhner return to the territory where it happened to finally face his demons. They travel in one of their planes, commuting to a pick up spot to obtain a waiting car. There's a real nasty dust storm ahead. To Howell's disapproval, another standing figure, thumbing it, is picked by Wuhner, so you know what follows, madness, and mayhem, plus some real grisly violence if in respect to the violence in the original. As with so many unnecessary remakes of late, and some of it's sequels, this is a teaching tool to why films should stop at the original, or in the minority case where the sequels are good, they should draw the line at number two. The wacko they pick up is Busey, another one that overacts some, but it's relevant to his nutball character, that he puts energy and vim into it, giving a half creepy performance, but he's no Rutger. He does tend to get bloody annoying, but I'm glad he did this. Again what dampened this movie, and made me a dark sight angry, as being an avid fan of the first, was Howell's departure. He way overacts, another example having him, threatening Busey to get out of his vehicle, where he then tells Howell to seek psychiatric help. Even his girl, doesn't believe this hitchhiker's a psycho, where he's reliving this hell all over again, his death, may'be a better option to rid himself of this mental burden he's got. Howell too, seems to be playing a different character. Busey's such an over the top psycho, he even chops his finger off, putting the blame on Wuhner, that again has the cops thinking she's the baddie, filling Howell's shoes as it were in the original. Like the arid surrounds, this is what the film becomes. It's climax of Busey being pulled apart while strapped to a tanker is even foiled. Awful, hey. But so is the movie.

the main problem i found with this movie is it is not original,whereas the first one was.there is lots of action and some excitement and a pretty high body count,but there is very little in the way of gore.in my mind ,most of the kills were lame.i like the fact that the heroine is a woman,and she a pretty strong character.the movie felt much liter in tone the the first one.it was sort of missing that scenes of foreboding.also,there are not any real scenes of peril or suspense.i do think the movie was entertaining,and the villain was not a bad character,although it would be hard to beat Rutger Hauer"s portrayal of the psycho in the fist movie.when all is said and done,i'd have to give "The Hitcher 2" 7/10