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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake (1998)

Posted in Alfred Hitchock, movies, Norman Bates, pop culture, Psycho, reviews with tags Alfred Hitchcock, AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Halloween, holiday, movies, Norman Bates, Psycho, reviews on October 5, 2012 by Paxton

In 1998, Gus Van Sant set out to film a remake of Hitchcock’s classsic, Psycho. Van Sant used a shooting script from the original movie which included notes from Hitchcock himself.

Psycho remake

I saw this remake when it hit video for the first time. Being a huge fan of the original, of course, I was set to not like it from the beginning. Honestly, at the time, I didn’t hate it, it just felt superfluous. Like why even bother? So I filed it away and really never thought of it again.

So now that I’ve decided to have this Psycho week, I decided to rewatch this remake (as well as the original). I still feel the same. Even more so after watching this right after the original. Why bother, Van Sant? It’s so close to the original there is literally NO NEED to watch this movie. Sure, Julianne Moore tries to bring a little different to the Crane sister character and Vince Vaughn definitely plays Bates a little different, but not enough to warrant watching this. Anne Heche does NOTHING different with Marion Crane which makes her performance even less. You not only get nothing new out of this you are also watching an almost literal copy of the dialogue and scenes from the 1960 original. SO WHY NOT JUST WATCH THE ORIGINAL?

Like I said, I don’t hate this remake. It just makes me sad. It has to be one of the most useless movies ever made. When Van Sant was asked why he did it, he just said that he did it so no one else would have to. NO ONE ELSE WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF DOING IT, DUDE. He must have been high off his big 1997 hit Good Will Hunting and thought he was invincible. Apparently not.

Here’s the trailer:

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Psycho by Robert Bloch (1959)

Posted in Alfred Hitchock, movies, pop culture, Psycho with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Book Report, books, Halloween, holiday, movies, Norman Bates, Psycho, reviews on October 3, 2012 by Paxton

Robert Bloch’s seminal thriller, Psycho, was published in 1959. While viewed as dime store schlock at the time, Alfred Hitchcock recognized the great story within and bought up the movie rights as well as however many copies of the book he could find so no one could read it.

While Hitchcock’s movie based on the book would become a smash hit and essentially begin the slasher genre, the book itself would mostly become lost in the shuffle. I am a huge fan of Hitchcock. I am also a huge fan of Hitchcock’s Psycho. Particularly the performance by Anthony Perkins. He is so Mayberry, boy next door in the beginning and then switches to bat sh*t crazy in a heartbeat. Psycho is such a great movie and I love it so much that I’m surprised I’d never gone back to read Bloch’s original novel. So I did.

I was surprised how faithful in story the movie was to this book. The story is essentially the same, Mary Crane (Marion in the movie) steals $4,000 from her boss to help pay her boyfriend’s debts and travels to see him. She gets detoured along the way at the Bates Motel. Mary meets Norman Bates and spends the night at the hotel. When she essentially disappears for a week, Mary’s sister travels to see her boyfriend and they both go looking for her. A private detective shows up as well, all asking questions of Norman Bates. What actually happened and who is to blame?

Honestly, like I said the story beats are the same. The main differences involve Norman Bates himself. The book makes him the focus. The book begins with a discussion between Bates and his mother Norma. We see the abuse she piles on top of him. It’s almost uncomfortable. We don’t meet Mary until the end of Chapter 1, beginning of Chapter 2. In the movie, we begin with the Mary character (or Marion). I like that this book fleshes out the inner workings of Bates’ mind. We come to understand how he reasons and what happens when he becomes “mother”. Reading it this way, you see the signs much earlier that there is something wrong with Bates.

Not only is Bates more the focus in the novel, his appearance is completely different. In the novel he’s short, overweight, balding and wears glasses. This is the polar opposite of Anthony Perkins who is tall and lanky. I like Hitchcock’s choice of the unassuming “boy next door”. Casting to the description in the book would have just screamed, “this guy is creepy”. Perkins does a great job of hiding the creepy until the very end.

Before I read, I was concerned this book was going to be too slow and noir-y. I tend to think a lot of Hitchcock and that he elevated a lot of the material he brought to the screen. So I was essentially thinking this book would be a boring schlocky crapfest that Hitchcock recognized the potential of and molded it into the classic movie we now have. I was wrong. This book is well written, moves along very swiftly and wraps up nicely at the end. The building blocks of the movie were there, Hitchcock really only had to change a few things and add a few classic visuals (like the shower scene) to get his movie. I should read the book The Birds was based on to see if it’s as good.

Bloch would write two sequels to Psycho. Psycho II would be published in 1982 and the third book in the trilogy, Psycho House, would be published in 1990. Neither of the book sequels were adapted into the movie sequels. Psycho II the novel would follow Norman Bates as he escapes from the mental institution and travels to Hollywood to visit the set of the movie based on the original Bates Motel murders. Psycho House would see the Bates Motel become a tourist attraction in which murders begin happening again.

The second book sounds a little bit like Scream 3. I wonder if Psycho II the book is where Kevin Williamson got his inspiration for that movie. It sounds pretty good and I can see why Hollywood didn’t want to make that movie. Psycho House also sounds familiar. Maybe Halloween Resurrection or even Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2? Considering how much I enjoyed the first book, I’ll definitely read these sequels.

But those are tales for another Halloween…

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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Bionic Reviews: Cyborg #3 – High Crystal by Martin Caidin (1974)

Posted in Bionic Man, books, pop culture, Six Million Dollar Man, TV shows with tags Bionic Review, Book Report, books, pop culture, reviews, Six Million Dollar Man, SMDM Book, TV shows on September 27, 2012 by Paxton

The third book in Martin Caidin’s Cyborg series starring Steve Austin is Cyborg #3: High Crystal. It was published in hardback in 1974.

High Crystal hardback High Crystal US pb

The story for this book has it’s origins in another popular book from the early 70s called Chariots of the Gods, which I read many years ago. Essentially, Chariots involves an investigation of ancient civilizations that display a certain “technology” they had no way of obtaining. And the theory of how these early civilizations got that technology was…aliens. Yes, that book is a little ridiculous. The situations it investigates are very real, but the theories used to explain the situations are “out there”. But High Crystal takes the ancient civilization and their access to “high technology” and uses it to form an interesting mystery. Honestly, based on the fact that this book had it’s roots in Chariots of the Gods and revolved around what seemed to be a “magic energy crystal”, I was not looking forward to reading this book. It sounded straight up 70s and Bohemian. Not exactly what I was looking for in a Six Million Dollar Man book. But due to my current obsession with all things bionic, I read the book anyway.

High Crystal UK pb

The story begins with a spy plane being downed in the mountains of Peru. The one surviving member of the crew discovers a man-made roadway traveling through the mountains where no civilization currently exists, or any civilization has existed in thousands of years. So, when he returns to his superiors, they are obviously interested in what’s going on. Steve joins a group of scientists and soldiers on a mission to discover the road and find out where it came from and where it leads. Along the way they discover that a criminal organization will do anything to keep the discovery to themselves.

I was surprised how much better this book is than Operation Nuke. There are still some problems with Caidin’s overly descriptive writing, which is odd considering his books are usually sub-200 pages. But the feel of this book was fun and much more energetic than the last book. This book’s events had the historical roadtrip feel of something like Matthew Reilly’s 7 Deadly Wonders or even Raiders of the Lost Ark. And there is lots of bionic action by Steve Austin. Since they are trudging through the Peruvian jungles, there are plenty of places for Steve to methodically chop through underbrush or stare down a cougar (yes, that actually happened). And it helped that Steve and his group were being chased by the criminal organization throughout their trip which gives you the “ticking clock” suspense that was lacking in the second book. Once they discover what is at the end of the road, it isn’t disappointing. And the group seems to barely escape whatever happens to them. The book even leaves a sort of “not quite finished” ending you expect from a story like this. So this was a MUCH better read than the last book and it felt like it could have been a later season episode of the series. However, unfortunately, this book was not adapted into an episode of the TV series. There were some elements like the ancient civilizations that made it into the third Six Million Dollar Man TV movie, Solid Gold Kidnapping, but it was just one small element and none of the rest of the story made it. It’s a shame, this would have been a good episode (or TV movie).

There’s only one more book left in the original Caidin Cyborg novels, Cyborg IV. I look forward to reading it. It sounds like it could be amazing.

Review of Oz Book 8: Tik-Tok of Oz (1914)

Posted in books, pop culture, reviews, Wizard of Oz with tags books, movies, Oz books readthru, pop culture, reviews, Wizard of Oz on September 18, 2012 by Paxton

Baum wrote the 8th Oz book, Tik-Tok of Oz, in 1914, one year after The Patchwork Girl of Oz.

This book is titled after Tik-Tok, the mechanical man. The character of Tik-Tok first appeared in the third book, Ozma of Oz, but has also appeared in each subsequent book. Tik-Tok may be more familiar to people based on his appearance in the 1984 movie, Return to Oz.

A year before this book, in 1913, Baum attempted to stage a play based on a story that was heavily adapted from the third Oz book, Ozma of Oz. He called it The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. It was this play that would serve as the basis of this eighth book in the Oz series. However, despite being named in the title, this book isn’t really about Tik-Tok, it’s more about the Shaggy Man and his quest to find his brother.

The story starts off with Queen Anne of Oogaboo forming an army to conquer the Emerald City. However, Glinda mixes up the roads between Oogaboo and the Emerald City forcing the army to March around Oz aimlessly. The group meets up with Betsy Bobbin and her mule Hank. Queen Anne wants to have them arrested but Shaggy Man comes along and convinces her not to. Shaggy Man explains that he’s out looking for his brother who has become a prisoner of the Nome King (last seen in The Emerald City of Oz). When Queen Anne learns of the Nome King’s riches, she instead decides to conquer him instead of Ozma and the Emerald City. The group then travels to the Nome King’s domain to get Shaggy Man’s brother back and they have several adventures along the way.

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Review of Oz Book 7: The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913)

Posted in books, movies, Wizard of Oz with tags Book Report, books, movies, Oz books readthru, pop culture, reviews, Wizard of Oz on September 3, 2012 by Paxton

As of this book, I’m halfway through the official original run of Baum Oz books. I’m not including “extra” stories Baum wrote like The Woggle Bug Book or Little Wizard Stories of Oz. I’m talking about the main “canon” Oz books. There were 14 of them and today’s book is number 7, The Patchwork Girl of Oz.

This seventh book begins with two munchkins, Ojo and his Uncle Nunkie living in seclusion in the forests of Munchkinland. They are about to starve so they leave in search of help. They go to Nunkie’s old friend the Crooked Magician. While there, the two witness a demonstration of “The Powder of Life” which was previously used in The Marvelous Land of Oz to animate Jack Pumpkinhead, the Sawhorse and The Gump. However, Nunkie and the Crooked Magician’s wife are accidentally turned into marble statues when the Magician tries to use the Powder to animate a patchwork rag doll for his wife to use as a housekeeper. So Ojo volunteers to search the Land of Oz to find the five rare ingredients the Crooked Magician needs to reverse the marble spell on their loved ones. The five ingredients Ojo needs are 1) Six leafed clover found only around the Emerald City 2) Three hairs from the tail of The Woozy 3) Water from a Dark Well 4) Drop of oil from a live man’s body 5) Left wing of a yellow butterfly found only in Winkie Country. Along the way, Ojo meets many crazy characters and eventually makes it to the Emerald City and meets Ozma, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Nick Chopper (Tin Woodsman) and the whole gang who help Ojo to find the items and free his Uncle.

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