Seedy Edgewick
09-22-2003, 11:20 AM
Well, I haven't been waiting for a flick like this. I'm really starting to regret that Blockbuster Movie Pass.
The biggest sin this film commits is its failure to live up to its promise. There's plenty of story fodder here -- 15 years later, the kid from the first flick is still dealing with the trauma inflicted on him by Rutger Hauer. (and who here isn't?) The opening sequence provides a well-done bit of misdirection, making me believe the screenwriter, Eric "Near Dark" Red, knew what he was doing. Boy, was I wrong!
As the story unfolds, C. Thomas Howell is working as a cop and dating Kari Wuhrer, the hottest crop duster in the country. Howell's struggles with his past get him suspended from the force, so he calls his old buddy from the first film, the only cop who believed him way back when. The pair fly out to Texas, where the airport is so remote it's abandonded. The desolation proves advantageous, however, because the cop leaves a car with keys just sitting next to the runway. Howell and Wuhrer must now drive the rest of the way. Guess what happens next?
Well, you're half right. They pick up a blond hitchhiker in a long leather coat who proceeds to menace them inexplicably. Just like the original. What ISN'T like the original, however, is the mind-numbing stupidity that suddenly overtakes Wuhrer's character. This stupidity then drives the REST OF THE MOVIE.
The breaking point for me was when Wurher makes the same mistake twice. First, before the hitcher is picked up, Howell warns her that he's a psycho with a gun and they shouldn't give him a ride. She ignores him (typical woman) and lets the hitcher in the back seat. He then turns psycho and they kick him out. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you," she says. Sure enough, later in the film, Howell AGAIN tells Wuhrer what's going to happen based on his own experience, but Wuhrer AGAIN ignores him. That was it. She told him earlier she shoudn't have doubted him and then proceeds to doubt him. What a stupid crop duster!
Joe Bob Briggs has a term for this: The Attack of the Stupid White People. Here, the Stupid White People are the only reason the movie last longer than twenty minutes. Time after time, Wuhrer makes the wrong move, even CATCHING the shotgun just used to kill several cops when the hitcher tosses it to her (saying "Catch!"). She knows how the original hitcher set up Howell, yet she continues to fall into the same traps and basically gives the hitcher all the evidence he needs to succeed.
There are only two positive aspects in this film: C. Thomas Howell gets killed, and the hitcher is played by Jake Busey. No one could be creepier than Jake "Mouth-Breathing Son of a Crazy Man" Busey.
The biggest sin this film commits is its failure to live up to its promise. There's plenty of story fodder here -- 15 years later, the kid from the first flick is still dealing with the trauma inflicted on him by Rutger Hauer. (and who here isn't?) The opening sequence provides a well-done bit of misdirection, making me believe the screenwriter, Eric "Near Dark" Red, knew what he was doing. Boy, was I wrong!
As the story unfolds, C. Thomas Howell is working as a cop and dating Kari Wuhrer, the hottest crop duster in the country. Howell's struggles with his past get him suspended from the force, so he calls his old buddy from the first film, the only cop who believed him way back when. The pair fly out to Texas, where the airport is so remote it's abandonded. The desolation proves advantageous, however, because the cop leaves a car with keys just sitting next to the runway. Howell and Wuhrer must now drive the rest of the way. Guess what happens next?
Well, you're half right. They pick up a blond hitchhiker in a long leather coat who proceeds to menace them inexplicably. Just like the original. What ISN'T like the original, however, is the mind-numbing stupidity that suddenly overtakes Wuhrer's character. This stupidity then drives the REST OF THE MOVIE.
The breaking point for me was when Wurher makes the same mistake twice. First, before the hitcher is picked up, Howell warns her that he's a psycho with a gun and they shouldn't give him a ride. She ignores him (typical woman) and lets the hitcher in the back seat. He then turns psycho and they kick him out. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you," she says. Sure enough, later in the film, Howell AGAIN tells Wuhrer what's going to happen based on his own experience, but Wuhrer AGAIN ignores him. That was it. She told him earlier she shoudn't have doubted him and then proceeds to doubt him. What a stupid crop duster!
Joe Bob Briggs has a term for this: The Attack of the Stupid White People. Here, the Stupid White People are the only reason the movie last longer than twenty minutes. Time after time, Wuhrer makes the wrong move, even CATCHING the shotgun just used to kill several cops when the hitcher tosses it to her (saying "Catch!"). She knows how the original hitcher set up Howell, yet she continues to fall into the same traps and basically gives the hitcher all the evidence he needs to succeed.
There are only two positive aspects in this film: C. Thomas Howell gets killed, and the hitcher is played by Jake Busey. No one could be creepier than Jake "Mouth-Breathing Son of a Crazy Man" Busey.