![\"Deja](\"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/psycho.jpg\" "\\"psycho\\"")
Deja vu not all over again: Anne Heche can't recreate Janet Leigh's primal terror in Gus Van Sant's "Psycho"<\/p><\/div>\n
Psychobabble<\/span><\/em><\/h1>\n[xrr rating=2.5\/5]<\/p>\n
Psycho<\/em><\/strong>. Starring Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy, and Philip Baker Hall. Cinematography by Christopher Doyle. Edited by Amy E. Duddleston. Music based on an original score by Bernard Herrmann. Orchestrated and conducted by Steve Bartek. Screenplay by Joseph Stefano. Based on the novel by Robert Bloch. Directed by Gus Van Sant. (Universal Pictures, 1998, Color, 105 minutes. MPAA Rating: R.)<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m not such a Hitchcock purist that I shun everything out there in the suspense genre, lest they be directed by the Master himself. Last year\u2019s The Spanish Prisoner<\/em>, which borrowed a lot of plot mechanics and the use of the MacGuffin from Hitch, is one example of a movie that lives up to its billing as a suspense<\/em> picture. However, this so-called remake from Gus Van Sant is an abomination.<\/p>\nI mean, how could Van Sant have so royally screwed the pooch on this production? He shot directly from Joseph Stefano\u2019s original script almost verbatim, right down to the camera setups, sound effects, Bernard Herrmann\u2019s original score, settings, and even Saul Bass\u2019s original titles.<\/em><\/p>\nWell, where there\u2019s a will, there\u2019s a way, and Gus Van Sant has just proven that Hitchcock\u2019s genius was not so much in how he designed the schematic for his movies, but rather the exacting attention to detail and passion for his craft he invested in them. Just because Van Sant is adept at painting by the numbers does not make him a master painter. Rather, his clumsy attempt at recreating Hitchcock\u2019s Gothic masterwork only demonstrate how difficult is must have been for Hitchcock to make his movies look so effortlessly natural. By contrast, Van Sant\u2019s take looks belabored and fake, a cubic zirconium from the jewelry section of K-Mart next to the fat man\u2019s priceless gem.<\/p>\n
In this ill-advised waste of celluloid, the acting is worse than the High School for the Deaf Thespian Troupe. There are no costumes by Rita Riggs or Edith Head\u2014I think they were picked out by a blind man walking through the Salvation Army thrift shop. The movie has been printed on color film: That makes a whole lot of sense for showcasing the film\u2019s star, the chalky and pasty Anne Heche who butchers Janet Leigh\u2019s defining role (played with much incisive intelligence by Leigh) worse than Norman’s mother does unsuspecting bathers.<\/p>\n
Viggo Mortensen, who turned in a great supporting cameo in Carlito\u2019s Way<\/em>, is miscast here, turning John Gavin\u2019s competent and utilitarian performance into the worse redneck schtick I\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s even worse than when Robert deNiro (otherwise an excellent actor) tried to do a believable Southern accent in the botched remake of Cape Fear.<\/em><\/p>\nBernard Herrmann\u2019s score is one of the saving graces of the film, but is as incongruous with the action on the screen as it would be if scored to The Little Mermaid<\/em>. Further, Steve Bartek and Danny Elfman try to \u201cimprove\u201d upon Herrmann\u2019s straightforwardly blunt and brutal score by adding echo-effects, doubling notes and adding eerie sounding strains on the upper strings. These gratuitous notes wreck<\/em> the whole effect of Herrmann\u2019s \u201cblack and white music.\u201d Imagine Andy Warhol being commissioned to \u201cimprove\u201d the Mona Lisa with day-glo acrylic paints, and you get the drift of this bad re-orchestration.<\/p>\nBut the worst part of this flick is Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates. Not because he’s a bad actor; he\u2019s not. In fact, he sort of reminds me of Orson Welles. He\u2019s just been miscast. He\u2019s way too big and masculine for the part, and comes across almost as\u00a0much as a mama’s boy as does Mike Ditka. However, as if on cue to remind us of his neuroses, Van Sant has him force a hackneyed and unconvincing \u201cnervous\u201d laugh every few seconds.<\/p>\n
Julianne Moore (in Vera Miles\u2019s role as Lila) and William H. Macy (as Arbogast, the detective) give solid, competent performances, but Macy\u2019s wardrobe makes him look boyish. No, not in the James Dean or Danny Kaye kind of way, but rather in the a-four-year-old -just-tried-on-daddy\u2019s-clothes manner. Unfortunately, Daddy must have been a cheap pimp from the 1980\u2019s trying to look like Don Johnson from \u201cMiami Vice\u201d on a Family Dollar store budget. They flop about Macy\u2019s frame like a G.P.-medium tent. Julianne Moore has been modernized by toting a Sony Walkman hither and yon. At the point where she and Sam are about to see Sheriff Chambers, to report a missing person (Heche), Lila punctuates her exit from the scene with \u201clet me get my Walkman.\u201d Her sister and $400,000.00 (inflation) are missing, but can\u2019t forget the tunes!<\/p>\n
That’s because this movie has been made relevant for the MTV generation: Dumbed down, so that even in life and death situations, the viewer has Attention Deficit Disorder. Many other lines have been dumbed down, such as Martin Balsam\u2019s \u201cif it doesn\u2019t gel, it isn\u2019t aspic.\u201d From Macy\u2019s mouth, it becomes \u201cJell-o,\u201d apparently because aspic would be over the heads of the McDonald\u2019s crowd.<\/p>\n
Despite trying to modernize the look of the movie, the dialogue is 98% from Joseph Stefano\u2019s original script. That script was written in 1959-60, during the Golden Age of Television, when shows like \u201cThe Twilight Zone,\u201d \u201cPerry Mason,\u201d and, yes,\u00a0 \u201cAlfred Hitchcock Presents\u201d gave viewers intelligent fare, from writers such as Roald Dahl, Paddy Chayefsky, and Rod Serling. Van Sant\u2019s attempt to use the same script falls flat on its face, because there aren\u2019t many actors available any more who can deliver a straight line, without all the sighing, giggling, breathing, huffing, puffing and ironic twinges that have infested today\u2019s acting (some call it \u201crealism,\u201d I call it \u201cersatz emotion\u201d).<\/p>\n
This movie is about as suspenseful as an episode of \u201cBarney.\u201d Except, it took more talent to create and execute \u201cBarney\u201d than it did to resuscitate this corpse.<\/p>\n
Robert L. Jones is a photojournalist living and working in Minnesota. His work has appeared in\u00a0<\/span>Black & White Magazine<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Entrepreneur<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Hoy! New York<\/span><\/span>, the New York\u00a0<\/span>Post<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>RCA Victor\u00a0<\/span>(Japan)<\/span><\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Scene in San Antonio<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Spirit Magazine<\/span><\/span>\u00a0(Canada),\u00a0<\/span>Top Producer<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0 and the Trenton\u00a0<\/span>Times<\/span><\/span>. Mr. Jones is a past entertainment editor of\u00a0<\/span>The New Individualist<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Psychobabble [xrr rating=2.5\/5] Psycho. Starring Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy, and Philip Baker Hall. Cinematography by Christopher Doyle. Edited by Amy E. Duddleston. Music based on an original score by Bernard Herrmann. Orchestrated and conducted by Steve Bartek. Screenplay by Joseph Stefano. Based on the novel by Robert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,66,3,61,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dramas","category-horror-movies","category-mreview","category-remakes","category-suspense-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I\u2019m not such a Hitchcock purist that I shun everything out there in the suspense genre, lest they be directed by the Master himself. Last year\u2019s The Spanish Prisoner<\/em>, which borrowed a lot of plot mechanics and the use of the MacGuffin from Hitch, is one example of a movie that lives up to its billing as a suspense<\/em> picture. However, this so-called remake from Gus Van Sant is an abomination.<\/p>\n I mean, how could Van Sant have so royally screwed the pooch on this production? He shot directly from Joseph Stefano\u2019s original script almost verbatim, right down to the camera setups, sound effects, Bernard Herrmann\u2019s original score, settings, and even Saul Bass\u2019s original titles.<\/em><\/p>\n Well, where there\u2019s a will, there\u2019s a way, and Gus Van Sant has just proven that Hitchcock\u2019s genius was not so much in how he designed the schematic for his movies, but rather the exacting attention to detail and passion for his craft he invested in them. Just because Van Sant is adept at painting by the numbers does not make him a master painter. Rather, his clumsy attempt at recreating Hitchcock\u2019s Gothic masterwork only demonstrate how difficult is must have been for Hitchcock to make his movies look so effortlessly natural. By contrast, Van Sant\u2019s take looks belabored and fake, a cubic zirconium from the jewelry section of K-Mart next to the fat man\u2019s priceless gem.<\/p>\n In this ill-advised waste of celluloid, the acting is worse than the High School for the Deaf Thespian Troupe. There are no costumes by Rita Riggs or Edith Head\u2014I think they were picked out by a blind man walking through the Salvation Army thrift shop. The movie has been printed on color film: That makes a whole lot of sense for showcasing the film\u2019s star, the chalky and pasty Anne Heche who butchers Janet Leigh\u2019s defining role (played with much incisive intelligence by Leigh) worse than Norman’s mother does unsuspecting bathers.<\/p>\n Viggo Mortensen, who turned in a great supporting cameo in Carlito\u2019s Way<\/em>, is miscast here, turning John Gavin\u2019s competent and utilitarian performance into the worse redneck schtick I\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s even worse than when Robert deNiro (otherwise an excellent actor) tried to do a believable Southern accent in the botched remake of Cape Fear.<\/em><\/p>\n Bernard Herrmann\u2019s score is one of the saving graces of the film, but is as incongruous with the action on the screen as it would be if scored to The Little Mermaid<\/em>. Further, Steve Bartek and Danny Elfman try to \u201cimprove\u201d upon Herrmann\u2019s straightforwardly blunt and brutal score by adding echo-effects, doubling notes and adding eerie sounding strains on the upper strings. These gratuitous notes wreck<\/em> the whole effect of Herrmann\u2019s \u201cblack and white music.\u201d Imagine Andy Warhol being commissioned to \u201cimprove\u201d the Mona Lisa with day-glo acrylic paints, and you get the drift of this bad re-orchestration.<\/p>\n But the worst part of this flick is Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates. Not because he’s a bad actor; he\u2019s not. In fact, he sort of reminds me of Orson Welles. He\u2019s just been miscast. He\u2019s way too big and masculine for the part, and comes across almost as\u00a0much as a mama’s boy as does Mike Ditka. However, as if on cue to remind us of his neuroses, Van Sant has him force a hackneyed and unconvincing \u201cnervous\u201d laugh every few seconds.<\/p>\n Julianne Moore (in Vera Miles\u2019s role as Lila) and William H. Macy (as Arbogast, the detective) give solid, competent performances, but Macy\u2019s wardrobe makes him look boyish. No, not in the James Dean or Danny Kaye kind of way, but rather in the a-four-year-old -just-tried-on-daddy\u2019s-clothes manner. Unfortunately, Daddy must have been a cheap pimp from the 1980\u2019s trying to look like Don Johnson from \u201cMiami Vice\u201d on a Family Dollar store budget. They flop about Macy\u2019s frame like a G.P.-medium tent. Julianne Moore has been modernized by toting a Sony Walkman hither and yon. At the point where she and Sam are about to see Sheriff Chambers, to report a missing person (Heche), Lila punctuates her exit from the scene with \u201clet me get my Walkman.\u201d Her sister and $400,000.00 (inflation) are missing, but can\u2019t forget the tunes!<\/p>\n That’s because this movie has been made relevant for the MTV generation: Dumbed down, so that even in life and death situations, the viewer has Attention Deficit Disorder. Many other lines have been dumbed down, such as Martin Balsam\u2019s \u201cif it doesn\u2019t gel, it isn\u2019t aspic.\u201d From Macy\u2019s mouth, it becomes \u201cJell-o,\u201d apparently because aspic would be over the heads of the McDonald\u2019s crowd.<\/p>\n Despite trying to modernize the look of the movie, the dialogue is 98% from Joseph Stefano\u2019s original script. That script was written in 1959-60, during the Golden Age of Television, when shows like \u201cThe Twilight Zone,\u201d \u201cPerry Mason,\u201d and, yes,\u00a0 \u201cAlfred Hitchcock Presents\u201d gave viewers intelligent fare, from writers such as Roald Dahl, Paddy Chayefsky, and Rod Serling. Van Sant\u2019s attempt to use the same script falls flat on its face, because there aren\u2019t many actors available any more who can deliver a straight line, without all the sighing, giggling, breathing, huffing, puffing and ironic twinges that have infested today\u2019s acting (some call it \u201crealism,\u201d I call it \u201cersatz emotion\u201d).<\/p>\n This movie is about as suspenseful as an episode of \u201cBarney.\u201d Except, it took more talent to create and execute \u201cBarney\u201d than it did to resuscitate this corpse.<\/p>\n Robert L. Jones is a photojournalist living and working in Minnesota. His work has appeared in\u00a0<\/span>Black & White Magazine<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Entrepreneur<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Hoy! New York<\/span><\/span>, the New York\u00a0<\/span>Post<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>RCA Victor\u00a0<\/span>(Japan)<\/span><\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Scene in San Antonio<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Spirit Magazine<\/span><\/span>\u00a0(Canada),\u00a0<\/span>Top Producer<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0 and the Trenton\u00a0<\/span>Times<\/span><\/span>. Mr. Jones is a past entertainment editor of\u00a0<\/span>The New Individualist<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Psychobabble [xrr rating=2.5\/5] Psycho. Starring Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy, and Philip Baker Hall. Cinematography by Christopher Doyle. Edited by Amy E. Duddleston. Music based on an original score by Bernard Herrmann. Orchestrated and conducted by Steve Bartek. Screenplay by Joseph Stefano. Based on the novel by Robert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,66,3,61,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dramas","category-horror-movies","category-mreview","category-remakes","category-suspense-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}