Psycho

Directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), stars Vince Vaughn (Clay Pigeons, The Lost World), Julianne Moore(Boogie Nights, The Lost World), and Anne Heche(Six Day Seven Nights, Return to Paradise).

It takes some serious nerve to remake a classic, and it looks like this has definitely touched a nerve. Without having seen it, critics are already laying into this film, simply for existing. This is intended to be a shot for shot remake of the original Alfred Hitchcock classic. Only minor changes to update it to the 90s are being made, plus it will be filmed in color. Rumors flew about that a new twist was added to shock audiences but these rumors appear to be false. Recently more bad feelings were stirred up when it was announced that there would be no press screenings. Usually this is an indication that the movie is a disaster and the studio hopes to avoid bad reviews that could keep away customers. The spin is that there aren't any press screenings because that is the way Hitchcock originally did it. Only time will tell.

Full Trailer available here: 6.9MB MOV
Commercial: 1.8MB MOV
Teaser: 3.8MB MOV

Review:

The recreation of Psycho was not badly done. In fact it was an astoundingly accurate reproduction. This doesn't mean I enjoyed it.

The biggest problem was that I had seen the original. Because of that there was no surprise or shock factor involved anymore. The other problem was that it was such an accurate reproduction. This caused me to spend much of the film mentally comparing scenes instead of just watching the movie. There were a couple of instances where it strayed from the original. I won't go into detail but I will say that they added nothing to the movie. In fact they were the low points.

As for the actors, they generally did a good job. Some, like William H. Macy and Viggo Mortensen, were improvements over their counterparts. Others, like Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, didn't measure up to the original actors. I'm not saying Vince Vaughn was bad. He just wasn't as good as Anthony Perkins. Perkins played the part perfectly, with just the right mix of innocence and menace. Vaughn made a valiant effort, but simply couldn't match a superb performance. Anne Heche on the other hand seemed entirely wrong for the part. She never really looked comfortable as Marion Crane.

I was reluctant to go see Psycho. I didn't want to encourage Hollywood to do things like this by giving them my money. A gift certificate to the movies fell into my hands, so I didn't feel so bad about the money anymore and went. If you've seen the original, you aren't missing anything by going to the remake. Aside from being shot in color with different actors, it is little different.

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