Grace and Jim (Bush and Knighton) are a college couple on their way to spring break. About three minutes after leaving Los Angeles (the same song is still playing on the radio), they're in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico, where they pick up a scary looking hitchhiker (Bean) who calls himself John Ryder and then proceeds to frame them for a series of increasingly grisly murders. Now a tenacious cop (McDonough) is after them, the body count is growing to epic proportions and it's looking increasingly hopeless that they'll get out alive.

The first mistake director Meyers makes is to play the whole thing dead straight, without even a hint of irony or wit. This only highlights every cliché and leaves the movie painfully over-serious and overwrought. It's all black trenchcoats and darkened windows, plus corny Michael Bay-style car chases with crazily flipping cars and exploding helicopters. And without any camp value, it merely feels like nihilistic nastiness.

Bush and Halsey really work for their money, struggling to make their characters sympathetic in the middle of each predictable, contrived, over-violent set piece. Bean merely coasts through the film with his steely glare, so the real villain of the piece is McDonough's relentlessly and inexplicably vile lieutenant.

And while Meyer does manage some clever references to the original, he can't resist loading the film with elements that leave a stale taste in the mouth. Such as the way both Jim and Grace use guns as a first resort (she even proves to have great aim from the hip with a shotgun). And with all of the malevolent monster tractor-trailers, we begin to think Meyer might actually be a pseudonym for Stephen King. Frankly, despite a few exciting or horrific sequences, this film is physically painful to watch. Meyer's real achievement is in making 83 minutes feel endless.

themes, strong violence, language

15.Mar.07