Heche doesn't come off any better and the scene with her and Norman eating is just a terrible sight to see considering how brilliant this sequence was in the original. At times he plays it shy, at times going for a bad stereotype of a homosexual and at other times he just plays Norman as a downright loon. Vaughn is all over the place as Norman and at times he appears to be playing a SNL spoof.
For the life of me I can't understand what Van Sant was thinking when he okay'd the cast to deliver some of the performances here. Turns out, the film comes off even worse on a second viewing because at least the first time you were curious as to what would be different but once you know that very little is, you can't help but see the film as pure camp with some downright horrendous performances. This was my first viewing of this film since 1998 and my main reason for going back was just to see if my eye rolling was the same today as it was back then. Everyone should know the story so there's no point going through that again. Well, it turned out they didn't change a thing and instead just delivered a scene for scene remake with Vince Vaughn doing Norman Bates and Anne Heche playing the doomed Marion Crane. Psycho (1998) * (out of 4) I still remember walking into the theater to see this on opening weekend just wondering how on Earth they were going to try and top Hitchcock's original film or what they were going to change in order to throw viewers. But on the whole, it is badly acted and falls well short as a remake. In fact, the only redeeming quality was the modern reference about the dangling earphones, that was hilarious.
Psycho 1998 imdb plus#
Plus William H Macy in a ridiculously over-sized suit and hat looks uncomfortable as the private detective. And Julianne Moore deserves better, she was wasted really as her Lila was too aggressive. Anne Heche lacks the determination of Janet Leigh, and is more reminiscent of a kookie cutie. However Vaughan plays the character like an effeminate hunk and is very monotonic throughout. Anthony Perkins's performance was phenomenal, with his face, his voice and his mannerisms it was one of the most chilling performances of all time. Vaughan is simply not creepy enough as Norman Bates. I just like him, but it is fair to say it is dependent on the film. I don't love Vince Vaughan and I don't hate him. The script was clunky at best, and the murder sequences that were so traumatising in the original are so badly botched thanks to the redundant flash flames. The black and white cinematography was perfect in capturing the creepy mood in the original Psycho. The cinematography was rather jerky and rushed in places, and the lighting is too bright for a very dark and murderous tale. he is a good director, however every scene in the film lack suspense and consequently the whole film came across as bland and lifeless. I know it is thought as unfair to compare originals to its sequels/remakes, but I feel that I need to compare to show how inferior it was to the Hitchcock. It is a remake, minus the terror and suspense of the original, and came across as pointless, even more pointless than the remake of the Wicker Man.
Everything! This is a perfect example like I've said already of a remake that is inferior in every possible way to the classic original. I'll tell you what went wrong(for me that is). So what did go wrong? By the way this review has no intention of offending those who love this movie, but in my mind this was not a good movie. This remake on hearing about it didn't seem too bad I mean it has a talented cast, a good director and promised to be faithful to the original plot. I just want to say that I love the original movie, then again I love Hitchcock.