A young female embezzler arrives at the Bates Motel, which has terrible secrets of its own. Although this version is in color, features a different cast, and is set in 1998, it is closer to a shot-for-shot remake than most remakes, Gus Van Sant often copying Hitchcock's camera movements and editing, and Joseph Stefano's script is mostly carried over. Bernard Herrmann's musical score is reused as well, though with a new arrangement by Danny Elfman and recorded in stereo.
The movie lacks the chutzpah to even be a travesty.
– J. Hoberman,
Village Voice,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
The movie is an invaluable experiment in the theory of cinema, because it demonstrates that a shot-by-shot remake is pointless; genius apparently resides between or beneath the shots, or in chemistry that cannot be timed or counted.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
Van Sant clearly knows that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and his own smooth touch is neatly sympathetic with his predecessor's.
– Mary Elizabeth Williams,
Salon.com,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
Hitchcock probably wouldn't tell this story if he was making films today, and he certainly wouldn't tell it this way, with internal 'voices', back projection, minimal nudity and violence.
– Derek Adams,
Time Out,
9 Feb 2006
rotten:
Contains nothing to outrage or offend partisans of the original, yet neither does it stand to add much to their appreciation.