Word: psycho
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Story lines have become so formulaic that studios are recycling old stories at a record rate. Sometimes they try to trick us by changing the title (The Prince of Egypt), and other times they unabashedly flaunt their lack of originality (Godzilla, Psycho...
Remember the big masturbation scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho? The shot of a George Jones-Tammy Wynette record? The visions of a naked woman and a sheep during one of the murders? The spider crawling out of Mother Bates' mummified mouth? All these are in Gus Van Sant's new version of the 1960 horror classic--which suggests he hasn't been quite so slavish as expected...
...this is a nearly shot-by-shot recapitulation of the film and an almost verbatim rereading of Joseph Stefano's terrific screenplay. Why do it? One reason: it's never been done. Another: Psycho, which spawned a festering genre of slasher films, has been ripped off a zillion times--surely it can be remade just this once. And finally: let's set a test for today's actors, encrusted with decades of Method mannerisms. Can they assimilate the smooth delivery of the 1960 cast...
...Psycho...
From the Manhattan skyline to Woody driveling anxiety to his shrink, the first moments of Antz suggest a film destined to become another prototypical Woody Allen movie, until Woody (now an ant named "Z") gets off the psycho-analyst's couch and walks into "The Colony." The makers of Antz seem particularly interested in demonstrating their ability to depict water and human movement, disregarding the fact that the plot must make some rather forced detours in order to accommodate these animated showpieces. Though the character of Allen as well as those of the other actors (voiced by Dan Akroyd, Anne...