Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

nicole10221991 I am only giving this a 2 because of Bud Cort who did a great job at playing a character that I felt sympathy for. (Which is hard to come by especially now) From the start of this I knew there would be issues. As soon as the credits are done rolling we are shown the front of the courthouse in black and white and at the bottom of the screen we see ''Fairville'' any fan of ''Psycho'' knows the town is Fairvale. Fairville sounds like a game we would be playing on face book. Then we are told a story of a little boy named Alex who is befriended by Norman Bates. Norman Bates from ''Psycho'' alone is shown as a loner. I say it like that because we are supposed to forget about ''Psycho 2'' and ''Psycho 3'' but any true fan can't do that. So these two become friends and skip ahead to the present, Norman has died and left his property to Alex. Alex to me is such a quiet and timid character I couldn't help but feel bad for him, his friend has died and not only does he get the Bates motel and the house he even gets Norman's ashes, which he talks to. I found that to be silly. The rest of the movie goes on as a long joke, Lori Petty plays a girl who has been sleeping in the abandoned home that was once Norman's and now is ''forced'' to mingle with Alex. I say forced because anyone would just kick a wacky girl who dresses as a chicken for work, out of the house! It was a slow movie with silly elements and a ''scooby doo'' ending. Any true fan of the ''Psycho'' franchise should avoid this. I only watched it because it was the only ''Psycho'' thing I had not watched. Want to watch something good related to ''Psycho'' then watch ''Bates Motel'' on the A&E channel. Skip this!!!

Mike Saltzman Hmmm...what would Norman Bates say about 'Bates Motel?' Perhaps, "We all go a little mad sometimes." Except I really don't think it was all that crazy to give the TV audience a taste of Psycho. I have to admit, I've been fascinated with the character since the first time I saw Psycho in the '80s and I loved the crazy sequels that followed. I also liked Jason Bateman as an actor (still do). However, I think this show was somewhat doomed from the start. I think it's hilarious that 25+ years later, I am hooked on the 'Bates Motel' TV series, which is better because I think a prequel is a better way to go. You know what they say about hindsight though. In any event, I'd like to see this again as I only saw this version in 1987. I think in light of the fact that the new show on A&E has done so well, why not show it for giggles? I'm sure Anthony Perkins won't mind...now.

Scarecrow-88 "This place ain't no motel..it's a burial ground."What's most interesting about director Richard Rothstein's Bates Motel(..besides the fact that it was actually a proposed television pilot for a series which has something to do with why it's practically impossible to find without the proper resources)is how his script(he also wrote the screenplay)disregards the other sequels, adapting a separate story from the series where Norman never left the asylum, with amiable, lovable geek Bud Cort inheriting the Bates Motel from him because of their close relationship together inside the place. So Bud gets out, heads for Fairvale, procures a loan to renovate, and the Bates Motel is open for business once again. But, of course, such a grand decision hits a snag when an ominous presence maintains around the property. Rothstein's story puts more emphasis on the setting unlike the movies which focused on Norman Bates and the situational developments which surrounded him.There's a lighthearted side to this movie which differs from the darker nature of the series, and you can see how those involved in Bates Motel, the production, wanted to capitalize on the iconic status of Psycho without exploring the sub-textual material which made Norman such an intriguing character. Bud is as innocent and gentle as a lamb, and you never, once, consider him a threat to anyone. We witness how circumstances arise as construction continues(..such as the skeletal remains of Norman's parents, the sinister figure of a lady in black turning up to give Alex the willies)perhaps offering spooky warnings against reopening the Bates.The cast sure is an interesting group assembled. Lori Petty is her usual perky, spunky self, attempting to educate Alex(Cort)on life outside the enclosed environment he once lived. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed her interaction with Cort's Alex, because she has pep and fire and he needs that kind of strength. And, the fact that she has nowhere to go, having lived in the Bates Motel as a squatter, only provides for reason for her to vocally worm her way into his good graces, by forming a wedge between Alex and those which might take advantage of his meager nature. Moses Gunn is an old timer whose house is to be bulldozed over due to progress(..condos and suburban communities), for which Alex seeks as a contractor to help build Bates back into a properly running establishment. Gunn brings a veteran presence that actually helps things along. Gregg Henry also shows up as a bank executive who provides Alex with a loan to build the Bates back to prominence.While I do find the idea of building a continuing story around the Bates house and motel an interesting idea, without it's emotional core, Norman, I'm just not sure it could ever have taken off, despite the noble efforts of the cast to make it work.Introduced towards the end of the pilot movie is aerobics instructor Barbara(..she's introduced by a matchmaker to a young Jason Bateman), a product of three failed marriages, no children, and lost dreams, desiring to be an author, contemplating suicide, renting a room at the Bates, and you can see, conceptually, what Rothstein was up to..the series would have those from all walks of life popping up at the Bates, perhaps seeking new leases on life. Kids, right out of the 50's, show up to rent rooms and party at the Bates, but there's a specific purpose for their presence and it concerns Barbara. This is rather an intrusion into the story-line regarding Alex, but, as I mentioned before, it seems to be here as a method for future potential episodes regarding characters who might stop by the Bates. The final minutes, regarding someone responsible for attempting to spook Alex away from the Bates, is executed rather clumsily. I will say that it was nice seeing this again after all these years..I hadn't seen it since the night it aired!

TelevisionJunkie I've been getting bugged for years for copies of this film -- since it hardly ever got played after it bombed on TV back in '87. As a piece of Psycho history, I taped it in '87 and foolishly let people know that I had a copy.... I'm so glad Sci-fi is airing it so I don't have to sit through it anymore. Made as a potential pilot for an anthology series, the movie flopped badly and a show never materialized. Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates himself) boycotted the production. Not that he really needed to, since the public hated it as much as he did....I'd like to say this film is awful. But I can't really say that, since I've seen so much worse. But as an attachment to the Psycho films, it IS awful. It ignores the two sequels that had been made and even makes mistakes based on information from the original. Bud Cort gives a mind-numbingly dumb performance as the friend of Norman's who inherits the motel after his death. You never really have sympathy for him 'cause he just plays it so dumb. Lori Petti, who I usually love, is rather annoying as the squatter that befriends him. She does an okay job with her part, but the problem is that all the main parts were poorly written. We get more than half of the way through the movie, focusing on Cort and Petti trying to get the motel running again, and then we enter the first of the Twilight-Zone-ish stories: a woman who wants to kill herself is befriended by some strange teens. The writing and acting in this segment isn't bad, but after sitting through the Cort/Petti story, it hardly seems worth it. There's really only one creepy segment in the film -- the presence of the woman in black at Mrs. Bates funeral (but the discovery of her corpse is nonsense, since they found her body in the basement in the original film). The whole Jake Bates story seemed like it was jammed in so they could add a few more scares, though the scares fell flat. And the black-and-white segment at the film's climax could have been great -- if they hadn't went the Scooby-Doo unmask-the-villain route -- but as another reviewer wrote, it seemed to be the inspiration for "Scream 3" (which I love, by the way). Though the film is a piece of Psycho history, I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, except maybe fans of the actors -- even then it wouldn't get a strong recommendation....