I've got a great idea!
I could take a classic Alfred Hitchcock movie, remake it, modernize it and make it even better.  I think I'll start with Psycho. Let me see…this time I'll make it in color. I could shoot it frame for frame and word for word identically to the original.  It couldn't possibly go wrong.  What?  It's been done? And it was worse? I wonder if anyone has remade "Gone With The Wind"?

It is completely beyond my comprehension as to why someone would remake a classic movie.  It's done all the time.  Steve Martin somehow thought he could play the Inspector Jacques Clouseau character better than Peter Sellers…twice. We all know how well that went.

It's less than rare that a remake comes close to the standards of the original.  Did you ever get that deja vu feeling while watching a movie? That "Hey wait a minute. I've seen this before" starts filtering through the old gray matter. 

A Perfect Murder was based on Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film, Dial M for Murder. It starred Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings.  Although A Perfect Murder wasn't a bad movie, wouldn't you assume Warner Brothers knew it would always be compared to the original (Dial M for Murder)?

There were things to like. I liked the cast.  Michael Douglas' character, Steven Taylor, probably wasn't much of a stretch. He's done that character before.  Gwyneth Paltrow (Emily Bradford Taylor) is an extremely good and convincing actress who always gives a top-notch performance.  She not bad on the eyes either.

The cast took this rehashed script and probably made it a little better than it was.  Another area that I did like was the look of the film.  I thought the sets were great.  They caught the personality of Douglas' character nicely.  His New York City apartment had that cold, organized and filthy rich look, kind of the opposite of my place. I also liked how the camera work intertwined with the music.  They captured the tension nicely.

So what went wrong?  It's a remake!
There were too many moments where the script dragged. It was also obvious that the last portion of the movie lacked fresh ideas.  There was the quintessential last-minute scrap between the two main characters. That's been done over and over in countless film which made for an anticlimactic conclusion.  I happen to like Viggo Mortensen (David Shaw), in spite of being kind of a one note actor. How's that for a back handed complement?

The ending was about as satisfying as a rice cake to a starving person. As a matter of fact, there were two endings. The one that made it to the final version apparently passed the audience litmus test. If interested, you can see the alternate ending in the DVD Extra Features. Unfortunately, I've seen alternate endings that were better than the theatrically released ending. How sucky is that? I have to assume the directors who engage in that practice must have commitment issues. The theatrical released ending for A Perfect Murder was not that good. The alternate ending was even worse. Perhaps the director, Gus Van Sant, should make about five or six alternate endings for the test audiences. That would increase his odds for a better conclusion. Then again, maybe not.

I don't want to give the idea that this was a bad movie. Mediocre is more appropriate. Look, there is no way to do a remake without it being compared to the original. This was a good rental. However, you'll probably want to grab Dial "M" for Murder instead.