Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: The film is polished when it should be edgy and impersonal when it should be seductive. Read more
Janet Maslin, New York Times: It remains the most structurally elegant and sneakily playful of thrillers! Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is a lifeless, workmanlike project; all tension has been leeched away. Also, it's in color. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: 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. Read more
Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com: 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. Read more
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: Vaughn and Heche bring energy and freshness to the parts originated by Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. Heche is so good, in fact, and so frisky and watchable in her role, that after her grisly demise in the shower you miss her for a long time. Read more
Derek Adams, Time Out: 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. Read more
Godfrey Cheshire, Variety: Contains nothing to outrage or offend partisans of the original, yet neither does it stand to add much to their appreciation. Read more
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: Read more
J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The movie lacks the chutzpah to even be a travesty. Read more