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yendiThe Hitcher 2: I've Been Waiting. 2003. Directed by Louis Moreau. Written by Molly Meeker, Charles Meeker, and Leslie Scharf. Distributed by Universal.
Yes, Kari Wuhrer week continues! Alas, not all films starring the lovely Ms. Wuhrer are actually worth watching. The Hitcher 2: I've been Waiting is most definitely one of the lesser films she's made*.
If you're somehow not familiar with this franchise, I'll offer a little background. The Hitcher was a great little film, a masterpiece of brutality and terror that's one of my favorite Rutger Hauer vehicles. I won't go extensively into the plot, as I'll likely review it later this year. Suffice to say, however, Hauer's character does not make it out of the movie alive, but heroic Jim, played by C. Thomas Howell, does**. Howell, incidentally, was at the peak of his career at the time, having tossed off E.T., The Outsiders, and The Hitcher, and was poised for a breakout hit. Then he gave the world Soul Man, and his career has never been the same.
Seventeen years later, someone decided that the world really wanted to see a sequel to the previous movie. Amazingly enough, Howell had some free time, and was able to fit the sequel into his tight schedule.
Howell, having been indirectly responsible for the deaths of so many cops in the first movie, has now become a police officer out of some sort of guilty reaction, we assume (hey, it's better than becoming a psychotic hitchhiker instead). He still, however, hasn't gotten over the events ofSoul Man the first movie. But he's not just a cop; he's a Cop On The Edge. Naturally, he gets in trouble for his excessive use of force (there's this rule against shooting unarmed suspects), and when he's told to seek help, he refuses and is fired. He calls the one cop who lived through the last movie (now a Texas retiree), and decides to visit him to try to work out his issues.
Let's pause for a second here. He knows he's seven kinds of fucked-up as the result of the events of the first movie. And he's unwilling to seek therapy, even though it cost him his job. But he's willing to travel Backwater, Texas to confront his demons? Um? Granted, his girlfriend Maggie (Wuhrer) encourages him and accompanies him, but the therapy option still makes a little more sense.
But if horror movie characters did the sensible thing too often, the genre would fall apart.
By the way, the fact that Maggie runs a crop-dusting company (and can thus fly small planes) is mentioned plenty of times. So count on seeing it as an important plot point later on.
In a move that will surprise no one, as soon as Maggie and Jim make it to Texas, bad things happen. At Maggie's insistence, they pick up a hitchhiker (Jack) played by Jake Busey, and Jim starts having visions of being killed by him. Eventually, Jim forces Jack out of his car, and finally explains to Maggie what happened to him years ago. Maggie is, no doubt, relieved to learn that her boyfriend isn't just a garden variety psycho. The hitchhiker, meanwhile, gets a ride on a truck.
A few miles later, when Maggie and Jim are pulled over for Not Being From 'Round These Parts, the truck pulls up next to the cop, who tells the driver he's kind of busy. But wait! Turns out that the "driver" is really Jack, wearing the clothing and scalp of his victim! Ewww! The heroes get away even as the cop is gunned down.
What follows is, for the most part, a remake of the first movie's concepts, without much of the same pizzazz. They find the sheriff and his wife dead, and Jack hiding in the barn. The latter shoots at the local cops, making it seem as if Maggie and Jim are the perpetrators, and thus creates the same "framing the good guys" situation we saw in the first movie. We then get the usual chase (with Jim dying soon enough, leaving more screen time to Kari), yet another severed finger fried up nice and tasty, and (surprise!) a scene in which Maggie comes across a crop-dusting plane and attempts to kill Jack with it. Eventually, she blows him up real good, and the movie ends with Texas short another fifteen or so cops and one psychotic hitcher.
The thing that made the first movie work so damned well was the wonderful intensity that Hauer brought to his role. Throughout the movie, there was really a sense that he wanted to die, and that he saw Jim as his only hope of some twisted form of salvation. Here, Busey simply doesn't convey anything other than typical Buseyian psychosis (a trait that he and his dad do have a unique mastery of). There's no sense that the killer here is anything special (other than the one scene in which he calls himself "John," leading Maggie to believe that he's somehow the resurrected villain of the first movie). That's not to say that a psycho who cuts off his own pinky isn't fun to watch, but Hauer was just so much better.
Wuhrer does a fine job shifting from girlfriend to heroine, and my eternal crush on her -- launched during those halcyon days of Remote Control -- allows me to forgive her for her involvement in such a weak movie. Howell clearly has lost all motivation, and pretty much walks through this movie; much as I think killing his character is a mistake, plot-wise, it's something of a relief to see him shuffle off and give Wuhrer and Busey more screentime.
The Hitcher was written by Eric Red, who also gave us the wonderful Near Dark. The Hitcher 2: I've been Waiting*** is written by three people -- Molly Meeker, Charles Meeker, and Leslie Scharf, who have written a combined zero other screenplays before or since. In place of director Robert Harmon (who, admittedly, didn't do much else on the level of The Hitcher), we have Louis Morneau, who gave us the modern crapfest Bats, as well as Carnosaur 2. The lack of any creative vision turns this into just another by-the-numbers stalker flick, without any of the spark that made the original shine. It's good enough to watch if it's on TV and your Tivo is empty, but it's not nearly good enough to be mentioned in the same breath as the original.
*Although far from the worst. Kari's taken pretty much every script that's landed in her lap.
**There's also a 2007 remake of this movie, which I won't say much about, other than to note that it's a giant ball of suck wrapped in even more suck, and topped off with a bonus layer of suck. It also makes me want to bitch-slap Sean Bean. A lot.
***And that's another thing. What the fuck's with the title? Is the killer possessed by Foreigner?
Yes, Kari Wuhrer week continues! Alas, not all films starring the lovely Ms. Wuhrer are actually worth watching. The Hitcher 2: I've been Waiting is most definitely one of the lesser films she's made*.
If you're somehow not familiar with this franchise, I'll offer a little background. The Hitcher was a great little film, a masterpiece of brutality and terror that's one of my favorite Rutger Hauer vehicles. I won't go extensively into the plot, as I'll likely review it later this year. Suffice to say, however, Hauer's character does not make it out of the movie alive, but heroic Jim, played by C. Thomas Howell, does**. Howell, incidentally, was at the peak of his career at the time, having tossed off E.T., The Outsiders, and The Hitcher, and was poised for a breakout hit. Then he gave the world Soul Man, and his career has never been the same.
Seventeen years later, someone decided that the world really wanted to see a sequel to the previous movie. Amazingly enough, Howell had some free time, and was able to fit the sequel into his tight schedule.
Howell, having been indirectly responsible for the deaths of so many cops in the first movie, has now become a police officer out of some sort of guilty reaction, we assume (hey, it's better than becoming a psychotic hitchhiker instead). He still, however, hasn't gotten over the events of
Let's pause for a second here. He knows he's seven kinds of fucked-up as the result of the events of the first movie. And he's unwilling to seek therapy, even though it cost him his job. But he's willing to travel Backwater, Texas to confront his demons? Um? Granted, his girlfriend Maggie (Wuhrer) encourages him and accompanies him, but the therapy option still makes a little more sense.
But if horror movie characters did the sensible thing too often, the genre would fall apart.
By the way, the fact that Maggie runs a crop-dusting company (and can thus fly small planes) is mentioned plenty of times. So count on seeing it as an important plot point later on.
In a move that will surprise no one, as soon as Maggie and Jim make it to Texas, bad things happen. At Maggie's insistence, they pick up a hitchhiker (Jack) played by Jake Busey, and Jim starts having visions of being killed by him. Eventually, Jim forces Jack out of his car, and finally explains to Maggie what happened to him years ago. Maggie is, no doubt, relieved to learn that her boyfriend isn't just a garden variety psycho. The hitchhiker, meanwhile, gets a ride on a truck.
A few miles later, when Maggie and Jim are pulled over for Not Being From 'Round These Parts, the truck pulls up next to the cop, who tells the driver he's kind of busy. But wait! Turns out that the "driver" is really Jack, wearing the clothing and scalp of his victim! Ewww! The heroes get away even as the cop is gunned down.
What follows is, for the most part, a remake of the first movie's concepts, without much of the same pizzazz. They find the sheriff and his wife dead, and Jack hiding in the barn. The latter shoots at the local cops, making it seem as if Maggie and Jim are the perpetrators, and thus creates the same "framing the good guys" situation we saw in the first movie. We then get the usual chase (with Jim dying soon enough, leaving more screen time to Kari), yet another severed finger fried up nice and tasty, and (surprise!) a scene in which Maggie comes across a crop-dusting plane and attempts to kill Jack with it. Eventually, she blows him up real good, and the movie ends with Texas short another fifteen or so cops and one psychotic hitcher.
The thing that made the first movie work so damned well was the wonderful intensity that Hauer brought to his role. Throughout the movie, there was really a sense that he wanted to die, and that he saw Jim as his only hope of some twisted form of salvation. Here, Busey simply doesn't convey anything other than typical Buseyian psychosis (a trait that he and his dad do have a unique mastery of). There's no sense that the killer here is anything special (other than the one scene in which he calls himself "John," leading Maggie to believe that he's somehow the resurrected villain of the first movie). That's not to say that a psycho who cuts off his own pinky isn't fun to watch, but Hauer was just so much better.
Wuhrer does a fine job shifting from girlfriend to heroine, and my eternal crush on her -- launched during those halcyon days of Remote Control -- allows me to forgive her for her involvement in such a weak movie. Howell clearly has lost all motivation, and pretty much walks through this movie; much as I think killing his character is a mistake, plot-wise, it's something of a relief to see him shuffle off and give Wuhrer and Busey more screentime.
The Hitcher was written by Eric Red, who also gave us the wonderful Near Dark. The Hitcher 2: I've been Waiting*** is written by three people -- Molly Meeker, Charles Meeker, and Leslie Scharf, who have written a combined zero other screenplays before or since. In place of director Robert Harmon (who, admittedly, didn't do much else on the level of The Hitcher), we have Louis Morneau, who gave us the modern crapfest Bats, as well as Carnosaur 2. The lack of any creative vision turns this into just another by-the-numbers stalker flick, without any of the spark that made the original shine. It's good enough to watch if it's on TV and your Tivo is empty, but it's not nearly good enough to be mentioned in the same breath as the original.
*Although far from the worst. Kari's taken pretty much every script that's landed in her lap.
**There's also a 2007 remake of this movie, which I won't say much about, other than to note that it's a giant ball of suck wrapped in even more suck, and topped off with a bonus layer of suck. It also makes me want to bitch-slap Sean Bean. A lot.
***And that's another thing. What the fuck's with the title? Is the killer possessed by Foreigner?