The Hitcher

Jun 1 2007 By Graham Young, Birmingham Mail

SHOCK, horror - Mr Bean has become a serial killer!

Yes, Sheffield's most famous exwelder Sean Bean is now on the loose in New Mexico ready to butcher anyone who gets in his way, even if they're willing to help him.

Produced by Bad Boys' director Michael Bay, this is an inevitably glossy remake of Robert Harmon's 1986 Rutger Hauer video which really ought to have been left in peace.

Some late teens, though, will enjoy the thrill of the 84-minute chase with the attractive young leads.

Even they will soon realise the farcical nature of a film which crucially lacks the greater tension and sense of claustrophobia.

It is laughably ludicrous in places, both in terms of police ineptitude and the villain's motivations/Mystic Meg qualities.

Still, Bean is menacingly plausible as the killer still known as John Ryder.

And, with Sophia Bush (Grace) and Zachary Knighton (Jim) playing as good a couple in peril since the brother and sister who opened Jeepers Creepers, more's the pity that this turn out to be as equally silly.