Gus Van Sant isn t the only nouveau director to tackle a sequel. He s simply the latest in a long line of imitators, starting 22 years after the original scraped our senses. This addition only proves how the human mind fills in the blanks. It s scarier because only we can imagine the perfect blood-hue. We might even mistakenly see it on the screen.
Color tends to date an image, depending on the day s taste and technology.
All this stylistic aggressiveness can t fix a clunky performance. Familiar actors flub their lines and pretend they ve adapted some new dynamism. Vince Vaughn is the film s most egregious error a swaggering lummox with a malfunctioning giggle. Unhunky Perkins looked like a bird and moved like one as the Mama s boy who made a hobby out of stuffing feathered friends. William H. Macy can t decide.