| ||||||||||||||||||||||
From director J.J. Abrams comes the next installment in the Star Trek saga, Star Trek Into Darkness. See it at Cinemark theaters now and pre-order on Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, DVD, and the Exclusive Starfleet Phaser Gift Set. Shop Star Trek Into Darkness and more in the Star Trek Store. Learn more |
Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Special Features
Editorial Reviews
Customer Reviews
You can't.
But you can do it justice, and PSYCHO II accomplishes that. Its most important key to success, coming over 20 years after the first film, is the return of the same performers - Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, and the HOUSE. Using the same exact house/motel set lends this sequel incalculable credibility and continuity. Without it, the movie probably would have been "just another sequel."
Perkins is simply outstanding as Norman (gotta love the way he says "cu- u- utlery") and Meg Tilly and Robert Loggia are nicely cast in their roles. The plot has a nice handful of twists throughout, and a whopper of an afterthought ending. Jerry Goldsmith provides a fine score, wisely avoiding the temptation to mimic Herrmann's original.
The DVD presentation is full-frame, but DON'T let that stop you from buying it. The film is open-matte, which means a widescreen version would simply MASK the top and bottom. In other words, this is NOT a pan-and-scan presentation. There is nothing chopped off at the sides. Instead, you're seeing MORE picture here than you would if it were presented in widescreen format.
Picture and sound quality are good, and the lack of extras is not too disappointing, really, and it's a decent price.
To sum up: great acting, good direction from a Hitchcock apprentice, good score, good plot, good picture and sound, and excellent continuity from the original film. If you're a devotee of Hitchcock's film and you've never seen this, I urge you to give it a try. It really does do justice to the original.
The movie picks up many years later, after the horrific murders at the Bates Motel, and Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) has just been released back into the world despite harsh protest from Lila Crane (Vera Miles), the sister who stopped at nothing to find her sister, Bates's shower victim. He returns to the motel, a drug-ridden sex house run by a sleazy man, and to his home, the place where his mental problems all began.
And soon they begin resurfacing. He is haunted once again by the voice of his mother, as well as by images of events gone by. At his new job, he is befriended by Mary Samuels (Meg Tilly), who, after being kicked out by her boyfriend, moves into Norman's house. From the beginning, she feels very uncomfortable there, even more so when strange, incriminating things occur. Of course, all eyes look to Norman, but we know that he is not responsible. But who is?
It's hard to believe that this movie is as good as it is, though it's not so hard to explain why. The movie gets it right by choosing to place most of the movie in the Bates home, which was rarely seen in the first film. Recalling the way in which that house looked so foreboding from the outside, it's absolutely intriguing to actually see the guts of it, to get to see the inside of the house. Seeing everything inside makes the voices and images that haunt Norman believable and convincing.
Perkins must also be commended for the film's surprising success. He is able to keep the timidity and degree of gentility that his character possessed in the first outing, and that's what makes us able to care more for him in this film.
There's also a very nice suspense and mystery factor to be dealt with, something unusual in horror sequels. The movie wastes no time in setting Norman up for a fall that is not his fault, and up until the point when we know who is actually behind everything that goes on, the movie is very tense and interesting.
And then we have a nicely done climax, in which all is revealed to the viewer, and we realize what has been going on. But just as we can begin to feel some sort of slight sympathy for Norman, the movie goes on, and in the final, anticlimactic sequence involving a woman claiming to be his mother, the movie ends with yet another possibility of a sequel, and things go sour.
But, for what it's worth, "Psycho II" stands on its own as one of the better horror sequels to come along ever. It stays in touch with the nuances of the original, and plays on its old tricks in new ways. The mystery and intrigue can sometimes reach a fever pitch, though the ending is a bit unfitting. All-in-all, a well-crafted thriller.
star in this 1983 thriller sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960
classic. Read more
The movie begins with a lit neon sign: "Bates Motel Vacancy". Inside a woman strips nude for a shower. [A repeat from the 1959 movie. Read more
After twenty-odd, very odd, years Anthony Perkins stepped back into his watershed role as' Norman Bates', possessed by his dead mom- `Mrs. Bates'. Read more
Look for Similar Items by Category
|
