The Hitcher (HD DVD)

It's far from perfect, but at only 84 minutes you can't complain about the entertaining ride that is The Hitcher. Granted, I never saw the original (yeah, blasphemy), so I have nothing to compare to when it comes to Sean Bean's performance and Rutger Hauer's, but I will say Bean is a convincing baddie and Sophie Bush and Zachary Knighton work as the scared teens being chased as they try to make their way to Lake Havasu for spring break.

Directed by music video helmer and first time feature filmer Dave Meyers this film certainly has the feel of a music video the entire way and he really caps it off with a very cool car chase scene set to "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails, which is now old enough to be cool again for two minutes on screen.

As for this HD DVD it comes equipped with all the special features of the DVD as well as the now typical HD DVD feature the Universal U-Control picture-in-picture feature.

The deleted scenes offer up a little over 22 minutes of deleted, extended and alternate takes, several of which are various versions of one specific scene toward the end of the film and they get a bit redundant. The making of featurettes focus on just about everything in the film including the casting, the variety of ways they come up with the crash a car, the make-up effects used and the general making-of stuff we have come accustomed to. If you want to get the making-of stuff over with in an edited form just activate the U-Control feature during playback and throughout the film the picture-in-picture option will pop-up giving you the behind-the-scenes info on the specific scene you are watching. Of course the featurettes do go a bit more in-depth, but they can also get a little annoying at times.

The Hitcher is a film to rent and then decide if you want to own it. Granted, I like the film and even gave it a "B-" when I reviewed it in the theater, but you may feel different since this isn't a masterpiece. The dialogue can get cheesy at times and the ultimate ending leaves a lot to be desired, but the gratuitous violence helps you get over it... a little bit.