The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting (2003)

I wanted to but couldn't!

Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely Fantastic

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Suspenseful and violent. C. Thomas Howell plays Jim Halsey, a cop recently dismissed for his roughness and advised to take a break and get away. Jim and his girlfriend Maggie(Kari Wuher)fly to west Texas to see one of Jim's mentors. The couple are rolling down the same rural highway that Jim suffered trauma as a child. He has flashbacks of his being kidnapped and rescued on this same lonely highway; and it can get lonely in west Texas. A hitchhiker named Jack(Jake Busey)causes grave suspicions in Jim's mind, but Maggie convinces him to lighten up and give the hitcher a ride. Mistake; this guy is a sadistic psycho hell bent on continuing his serial killing. Most of the time nothing makes a lot of sense. The violence kicks into higher gear during the final ten minutes; but this movie just doesn't seem to have a whole lot to brag about. Filmed entirely in Canada; and this will have my friends in Midland out searching for more rugged and elevated terrain.

I watched this sequel with an open mind, only to be disappointed. Not only was The Hitcher 2: I've Been Waiting a weak sequel, but also an unnecessary one.Things got resolved at the end of the first film, with Jim Halsey killing his tormentor John Ryder. That really should have been the end of it. While it certainly was the end of John Ryder, it wasn't the end of the overall Hitcher story. Instead, our tormented hero crosses paths with another psychotic hitchhiker, a man named Jack (played by Jake Busey). Worst of all, Jim Halsey, the central character of the original Hitcher film, is killed midway through the sequel, and is replaced by his girlfriend Maggie, who now has to contend with Jack.The way I see it, The Hitcher 2: I've Been Waiting was an idea that should have remained just an idea.

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.

SPOILERS WITHIN! C. Thomas Howell returns as Jim Halsey, the kid from the first Hitcher who has now become a police officer due to the trauma experienced at the close of the last film. However due to psychological problems Howell is suspended and is convinced into coming to Texas where it all happened and having learned his lesson he refuses to pick up hitch-hikers but because he brought Kari Wuher with him, she makes him do so and it all happens again, except the action is with Kari Wuher. Let me explain that I heard that they are making a remake of The Hitcher with a woman in C.Thomas Howell's part. Now of course this is an extremely bad idea since well a woman being chased by a psychopath is so derivative it sucks away any tension from what could be done with such a premise. Back to Hitcher 2, by making the lead hero a woman it becomes derivative before it can even take off. Also one of the things completely lame is that as others have mentioned, Howell would have been a far more enjoyable actor to see play the Hitcher, after all Howell is older and looks far more worn than Jake Busey. Busey is too cartoonish and never for a microsecond institutes anything scary. Howell and Wuher do manage to give credible performances but mainly once Howell exits the picture (Because the movie kills him off!) the movie lacks any continuity it has with the original. Therefore this is a sequel that comes off more as a hack remake than it does a sequel. In fact it's all just so ghastly as the chase sequences recall the vast superiority of the first movie and worst of all, the movie is utterly boring. I'm giving it only a one star because it starts off reasonably watchable but after that it's just painful garbage to sit through.* out of 4-(Bad)