Thursday, September 24, 2015

The Review: The Hitcher


I checked out the 1986 movie The Hitcher at the suggestion of the same coworker that suggested The River Wild and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. This movie has a very simple premise that goes right off the rails as the movie goes on. Don't get me wrong, this was a cool 80's movie I'd heard of but never seen before. But at a certain point I just kept going “These are cartoon characters!”


It starts off with this young guy named Jim played by C. Thomas Howell who is driving a car from Chicago to San Diego. He is falling asleep at the wheel like an asshole when he spots someone hitchhiking. And that someone is John Ryder played by Rutger Hauer who is in full on crazy mode. Within moments of being in the car he whips out a knife and threatens the kid. He eventually boots his crazy ass from the car while its moving and cheers.


Its not over because he spots this son of a bitch chilling in the backseat of a family wagon. He tries to warn them and almost gets killed only to later find them all dead. This Ryder guy is just hopping from car to car killing people and somehow making sure Jim stays alive and free. He's just fucking with him. Jim meets this girl played by Jennifer Jason Leigh and as soon as I saw her I said “I see a victim!” Every time she is on screen the movie stops to have her be dumb. I was not upset at her death. That isn't even a spoiler. She is there to die!


Like I said, as the movie goes on it gets weirder and more like a cartoon. There's a scene where Ryder dives from a prison bus he escapes after killing about three cops, goes through the window of Jim's stolen police truck, says hello, gets shot out the window from which he came, gets up firing a shotgun, gets hit by the same truck, flies through the air, and stands right the fuck up smiling! This movie was fucking insane.

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