The reason I thought it detracted from the movie was because it was like watching two different movies, a drama and comedy combined into one. He does multiple accents including a U.S. Western accent.
I heard the second movie was good as well, I'll be getting that off iTunes as wellOh that's a fantastic movie and so is the sequel! I totally love that movie and agree it's one of the best martial arts movies out there.
Now I want to watch it again.
Being a student of martial arts I'm more of a fan of karate movies then I was prior to doing karate. Now that I'm pretty much neck deep in karate I'm finding a new level of appreciation of the action scenes
Otherwise, I find his stuff full of cheap tricks, ostentatious, but meaningless, directorial tricks, mediocre acting, uninspired casting (his obsession with the "icy blond" was a big pain in the ass) and with a few exceptions, not particularly suspenseful.
Just one man's opinion...
Great performances in North by Northwest and Rear Window, two of my favorite Hitchcock films, along with Torn Curtain, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Admittedly I'm too much of a Hitchcock fan. 
Have you seen Virtigo? I'd say this has to be an exception to your critiques above. An intriguing story about obsession wrapped in a murder mystery. This is his masterpiece imo.
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Once again, with a few exceptions (mostly his early British films) I find his stuff bloated and superficial. All gloss, no depth at all. Character development is shallow, and often the acting is below par (only partially the directors fault...you can only work with what you have).
His cinematography is tricky for no particualar reason, other than to call attention to himself. Often, the tricky camera angles (e,g, the early POV shots in "Notorious" of Bergaman lying hung over on the bed looking at the Grant character) carry no useful significance, don't tell us anything about the character, don't particularly do much for mood or anything to carry the story forward...they are just self stimulatory and self indulgent.
I, too, liked "Psycho", but mostly for the fact that Hitchcock broke an unstated agreement between film maker and audience, which created an atmosphere of unpredictability...anything could happen. That unspoken rule he broke was the audiance expectation that big name stars always make to to the end of the movie...and he killed off Janet Leigh in the fist half hour. That created a feeling of unpredictablilty in the audience.
Otherwise, I find his stuff full of cheap tricks, ostentatious, but meaningless, directorial tricks, mediocre acting, uninspired casting (his obsession with the "icy blond" was a big pain in the ass) and with a few exceptions, not particularly suspenseful.
Just one man's opinion...
Have you seen Virtigo? I'd say this has to be an exception to your critiques above. An intriguing story about obsession wrapped in a murder mystery. This is his masterpiece imo.
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- at least there are some strong (almost ) independent women on screen). This and Torn Curtain are the two by Hitch I watched quite a lot of times.
I've seen them all, and I didn't like any of them very much, for the reasons stated above. I know mine is not a widely shared opinion of Hitchcock. You enjoyment of Hitchcock is in no way "too much" and I certainly respect the differences of viewpoint...that's what makes it a horse race!
I enjoyed "The Rope" for it's use of VERY long takes and invisible editing, although I thought Jimmy Stuart was horrendously and laughingly miscast. I also thought "Strangers On A Train" was OK. Once again, they were in black and white, my preference over color. It was also before his "icy blond" casting obsession, and only the beginning of his "trademark" tricks and shtick.
BTW: The image you included in your post didn't show up...you got that blue box with the ? in it...at least on my computer.
A prime example of a movie with all sorts of director gimmicks but no heart and terrible acting would be David Lynch's Blue Velvet, an abomination of a movie, yeech! I walked away from the movie thinking that Laura Dern was in it only because she was someone's connected daughter. Huntn, I can recommend The 36 Steps very much (don't know about Shrink and scepticalscribe though
I love that movie!!! Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear are amazing! I've seen it several times, and I'll still watch it again. It's that good
Oh yeah, I've watched it dozens of times too. Gotta love Jack, I mean who doesn't?
