Reviews

The story behind this movie is one that is sadly all too common in today's society, young people being preyed upon on the internet. It does an overall good job of showing just how dangerous the internet can be for youngsters but lacks something when it comes to reality in other ways.

I found myself laughing more than once due to various scenes just being out right silly, if you know anything about computers you will likely find yourself shaking your head more than a few times during the course of this movie. The performances by the actors are pretty good, but some of the situations said acting takes place in are again, laughable and unbelievable. They could have done much better had they focused less on dramatics and focused more on what would likely happen in such an event. A word to parents, educate your children about the dangers of the internet and supervise them online, this will prevent such problems from happening to your child and your family.

For those curious, here were my main problems with this movie:

***SPOILERS*** OK, so mommy tracks her little girl down to the bad guy's warehouse where she is being held captive, and of course, it's right at the moment her daughter is about to be murdered by mr. bad guy. Her daughter breaks out a window and begins screaming for help, and who happens to be driving down that lonely alley at that moment? MOMMY! We get a finale that I suppose was supposed to be filled with tension but wasn't because since everything else up to this point had been predictable and unrealistic, you just knew mommy and daughter would escape just fine.

Before this exciting ending we have scenes of mommy getting away with stuff that no civilian would be allowed to do when it comes to police work/being involved with the police. Sorry, I don't care how much of a powerful woman you are or how much you want to find your child, there are rules; had the director/writers thought of this it would have made the movie much better, I would have been approving of their accuracy instead of rolling my eyes.

I first saw the original Psycho when I was nine years old, right away it became my favorite film and remains so to this day. In 1998 when I was fourteen I saw the preview for the re-make and was excited to see it, I knew it wouldn't be as good as the original but it being my favorite movie I had to give it a try. Big mistake, but hey I was fourteen.

None of the actors really fit the roles they were given, most importantly Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates. I personally have nothing against Vaughn as an actor, and I certainly wouldn't expect him to top Perkins in this role but they could have done much better. Perkins portrayed Norman as a shy and withdrawn man, the product of an abusive childhood. Vaughn's Norman is more sinister and seems to have more evil intent throughout the movie, you just can't feel sympathy for him like you do Perkins. They also take it a step way too far by having Norman masturbate while watching Marion undress before her shower. This leaves you with the feeling that Norman is little more than your average pervert who would probably expose himself to you while wearing a trench coat some night. It was degrading to the character and useless, it's not hard to tell that Norman has issues with women and his sexuality from his first interactions with Marion. I suppose that's modern day cinema for you though, nothing will pass unless there is blatant sexual overtones.

Do yourself a favor, see the original and stick with that.