Rating: 
Summary: Best Film Ever Made
Review: Never before - or since - have direction,screenplay,score and
casting converged so perfectly.My favorite scene : Janet Leigh stops car at pedestrian crossing
as she is escaping with stolen money and is glared at by her boss
crossing the street(after telling him she would be home sick).
Notice how other movies (Pulp Fiction) have used this.
Rating:
Summary: "We All Go A Little Crazy At Times!"
Review: ...and this EXCELLENT DVD will drive you wild! Everything is top notch and the documentary is terrific! No doubt about it, Norman Bates certainly has a home in my DVD collection!
Rating:
Summary: groundbreaking film with many dvd extras
Review: Hitchcock's Psycho shocked filmgoers in many ways -- he had the sympathetic lead killed early in the movie, a gruesome (though nearly bloodless) murder scene, strong symbolism (look at all the 'bird' images in the film), a return to stark black & white filming accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's strings-only soundtrack, and sophisticated marketing. Hitch was always a bit ahead of his time, and this is one of his pictures that really makes that point. This DVD edition looks and sounds great, and has many bonus features: the excellent one-and-a-half hour documentary, 'The Making of Psycho', which includes interviews with Hitchcock's daughter and leading lady Janet Leigh; a small but interesting set of production notes; information about the cast and filmmakers; theatrical and re-release trailers and newsreel footage of the film's release; the shower scene with and without music -- this was very interesting. There were also some bonus features that I couldn't get to run on my G4 Macintosh: production and behind-the-scenes photos; shower scene storyboards; lobby cards; posters and ads. The film can be heard in English or French, and subtitles are in English or Spanish. This is a landmark film. It looks and sounds good. The bonus features are very good. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller is often credited with fathering the modern slasher flick, but it must be kept in mind that this top-notch film is far more than that. The innovative plot structure, which can never be repeated with the same effect, is a masterful way of making the viewer empathize with the victim and feel the shock and loss of murder. Too many of the films that followed chose to empathize with the killer. This is a crucial difference that allows Hitchcock's film to retain a certain humane quality, even as terrible things are happening on-screen.
Rating: 
Summary: this was actually his worst Film.
Review: No wonder this was followed by four bad sequals and even a worse remake. Filmed on a low budget. Wooden acting by Leigh and Perkins.Scenes that were too violent and gave rise to so much of today's gory films. There is nothing to like about this film, both it and Verigo are two of the worst films Hitchcock ever made.
Rating:
Summary: Watch it, re-watch it, and re-watch it!
Review: Little can be added to the hundreds of reviews that tell you how good Leigh and Perkins are in their roles, how their innocent facades belie their hidden feelings of guilt, how Hitchock wisely shies away from showing us too much, and lets our imaginations frighten us instead, so instead I will concentrate on a couple of amusing continuity errors I haven't seen anyone mention before. Firstly in the shower scene (filmed over several days) Leigh's hair changes from shot to shot. Second, in the scene in the Sherriff's house, the Sheriff's wife acts 'understanding' by tipping her head to one side. This would be fine, but every time there is a cut (and there are many) her head is at a different angle!
These are of course tiny niggles and the film is deservedly known as a masterpiece. Just one more thing. If you listen to the music in I Know What You Did Last Summer, made as recently as 1997, you can tell how enduring and powerful an influence Bernard Hermann's score for Psycho is, as certain parts are near-identical.
Rating:
Summary: It Continues To Shriek Loudly To This Day
Review: Alfred Hitchcock was a legendary perfectionist. He believed in pure cinema. The cinematic expression through images of a film and not through the common usage of words was his forte and his godsend, and not in any one other of his films (Other than Vertigo, Strangers on a Train) did this show up more than in his black comedy "Psycho". Hitchcock always believed that all the hard work to a film was done in the production of the screenplay and the storyboarding. Read the insightful books by Donald Spoto, Truffuat, and others and you will notice and comprehend their constant attention to Hitchcock's numerous film
motifs, allusions, and philosophical consistencies that add variance, complexity, overabundant detail, and seemingly unobtainable fullness to every one of his fifty- four films. Psycho is a cinematic experiment to see how the audience
would react to Hitchcock killing off the leading lady one-third into the film. Hitchcock noticed the abundance of low budget film thrillers in the late 50's that were receiving extremely good business. Films by Roger Corman, William Castle, and others seemed to represent a low budget send off of Hitchcock. So with using his Shamely Productions from his Alfred Hitchcock's Presents television show crew, Alfred Hitchcock created the definitive psychological horror film and one of the most sensationally crafted films of all time. Despite forty-one years since it's theatrical release, 'Psycho' remains a magnificent artistic document chronicling America's obsession with exaggerated Momism and phobias revolving around the bathroom. Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" is filmdom's most exquisite look into the unsavory aspects of humanity and brilliantly exploits it. A review of Psycho would NEVER be complete without due praise and profound respect for Anthony Perkins tour de force audacity and seemingly endless nerve in playing Norman Bates. A role that was initially exceedingly unsympathetic in the Robert Bloch novel (in the novel Norman was an extremely overweight balding alcoholic who Bloch portrayed more as an unredeemable deviant than a human being), Hitchcock and Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano mutually agreed that for the film version of Psycho the Norman Bates character needed to be thin, moderately attractive, and advertently agreeable from his very first second of exposure in the film itself. When Hitchcock originally hired Anthony Perkins to play the "anti-hero" for his dark comedic thriller, Hitchcock permitted Perkins complete creative autonomy, as Hitchcock allowed for most of his actors in his films save the icy blonde female types of course (Tippi Hedren, Very Miles), for the role of the meekly sensitive emotionally unstable momma's boy, as long as Perkins could manipulate and contort his performance into the structure of Hitchcock's canvas. Voraciously relished with limitless freedom with his character, Perkins fashioned the archetypal template for all psychologically grounded horror films to follow. A role of apparently eternal nuances, infinitely perceivable levels of pathos, ravenously savage ironies, and an incalculable human tragic sincerity that endeared his doomed character to the hearts and minds of the audience. Perkin's Norman Bates, along with Karloff's portrayal of Frankenstein's monster, characterizes
the absolute optimum emotional intensity, sincerity, and blatantly real authenticity feasibly possible in a performance. Perkin's slouched body language (signifying years of heinously excessive abuse), the bird-like chewing of candy corn, the inconsistent stuttering, and Perkins elastically flexible facial figures all contribute to one of cinema's most profoundly fundamentally indispensable performances in last hundred years. The fact that Perkins didn't even receive an Academy Award nomination for the role in 1960 is a repugnant oversight in itself. Unfortunately typecast by the monumental impact of this role, Perkins was forced to play psychotic madman roles for the rest of his career. Not just the film's magnificent craft, Perkin's renowned ingenious performance, or Hitchcock's hideously tight narrative of Psycho are completely responsible for the film's rampant success, Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 gothic horror classic
changed the way filmmakers viewed their occupation and enhanced film audiences' expectations as far as what the movies could do. Before Psycho, Hollywood was in the dying days of the age of sentiment. Hollywood produced pictures that were sentimental, emotional, and concerned about showcasing the human condition. Psycho with the savagery of Mother Bates butcher knife hacked through Hollywood sentiment and created the age of sensation. 60's movies such as Bonnie and Clyde, the Birds, Rosemary's Baby, Midnight Cowboy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and the Wild Bunch are among many examples of how sixties filmmakers became liberated due to Hitchcock's magnificent defiance of conventional film guidelines with Psycho. As for the film's structure, musical accompaniment, direction, film editing, and acting performances, the film masterfully excels at all levels and is one of the important films in the last 100 years. The granddaddy of the modern horror movie and the inspiration for modern screen violence, Psycho is still a one of a kind Hitchcock masterwork. The DVD is superb edition to your DVD or video collection.
Rating:
Summary: Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO
Review: I think once, at least once, everyone should here about Hitchcock's Psycho. If you haven't, you've been living under a rock or something. The plot is sort of simple, but underneath, there's a vast world of information, and terror. Let me add that Psycho, is probably the most well acted, well shot, and just about the darn scariest film on the planet. I know every one says it's not scary compared to today's stuff, wich is a total untrue remark. Right before the shower scene, i was so intense, that I screamed.
Oh, and the PERFORMANCES!!! Tony Perkins (in an oscar deserving role), is so great, i'd say about 20% of the films greatness comes from him. Janet Leigh (who never looked lovlier), is a knockout as Marion Crane, and so is Martin Balsam as the private dick who walks up the wrong stairs. And let me conclude that PSYCHO, is one of the most important films ever made, and ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, never forget that "a boy's best friend's his mother.....
Rating:
Summary: A boy's best friend is his mother.
Review: If all you remember from "Psycho" is the infamous shower scene, you owe it to yourself to revisit this grandaddy of all slasher films. Pay attention to the stifled relationship between Marion Crane and her boyfriend Sam, whom she cannot marry because he is deep in debt. This frustration, coupled with a desire for change, prompts her to steal 40 grand from her job and to flee town. She ends up at the Bates Motel, where she meets up with Norman Bates. Pay close attention to the conversation between Marion and Bates; it sets the tone for the rest of the movie, and it's the scene where Marion is finally convinced that this Norman dude is a total nutjob. At some point, Marion's conscience gets to her, and she plans to return the money, but Norman's mother has other ideas for her. This movie is a timeless classic, and also serves a huge influence to directors like Brian De Palma, who, essentially, owes his entire career to this movie and the work of Hitchcock. A great and dark follow-up to the Master's prior film, "North by Northwest," and should not be missed. If you've already seen it, then by all means run (not walk) to the store and grab this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: A Blast!
Review: Everyone knows of the shower scene "Psycho," and most people know the ending even if they haven't seen it. Even so, I won't reveal it here. Unfortunately, I knew the ending before I watched it, and even so, the film is amazing. The black & white photography gives it just the right look, and the acting is right on target. Sometimes in old movies, the acting comes across as cheesy, but in "Psycho," it's totally believeable. Norman Bates and the unseen "mother" are great. Janet Leigh has a good scream, and that musical score gives me chills every time (REEE! REEE! REEE! REEE!). If you're not into horror movies or haven't seen any movies by the Master of Suspense, then be sure to see this one first, and then take a shower! We all go a little mad sometimes!
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