Rating: 
Summary: Great Movie
Review: American Psycho is indeed psycho. It has a great cast and plot. Being a teenage guy I can some what relate to Christian Bale's character, having to do things for your physical appearance is very important. Most of the movie he is shirtless or in the nude. That is just fine with me. He has several sex scenes and I just went crazy over the one when he was looking in the mirror at himself and moaning and showing his arm muscles. His running around naked with only shoes and a chainsaw was great too. He wears tight undies when he has them on...LOL. His crazy character makes this a very enjoyable movie. Look for Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto, and William DeFoe to be Christian's supporting cast.
Rating: 
Summary: This film fails as both a social satire and a splatter flick
Review: The argument was that "American Psycho" was not really a look at a serial killer but rather a satirical expose on yuppie executives circa the mid-1980s. However, as far as I am concerned this 2000 film fails on both scores. There is a lot of blood but neither a sense of horror nor suspense, which is usually what you want to find in a thriller. As for the social satire, the problem is that the character of Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) and the rest of his wall street execu-yuppies are all so fake, more reminiscent of a comedy sketch on "Mad TV" than anything else, and I would think the point would be to capture more of the real essence of such a life (e.g., "Glengarry Glen Ross" or "The Boiler Room"). The film was directed by Mary Harron ("I Shot Andy Warhol"), who also did the screenplay, which probably explains why the Bret Easton Ellis novel has been toned down for the silver screen. The point being made, as near as I can tell, is that Patrick Bateman kills people, not because he is so very different from everyone else around him, but essentially because he is just like the rest of his cohorts, only more so. Some of the murders appear to be random and others the result of jealousy, but sometimes the best answer is that the death speaks to Bateman's vanity. The whole opening of "American Psycho" is an introduction to his narcissism, which means it provides the prime motivation for not only his murderous outbursts but also everything else in his life. Because everything fits the pattern I have to work from the premise that the film is what the director intended, but it just does not achieve the desired result. My prediction is that if you bother to watch this film, then at some point you are going to burst out laughing and dollars to donuts it will be for some unintentional reason. Furthermore, as you watch the film you will find yourself thinking of a whole lot of films that suddenly look a lot better when compared to "American Psycho" ("I Spit on Your Grave" and "Showgirls" were just the first two that came to mind). I am willing to grant that Harron was trying to do something to redeem the original novel, but this film just fails across the board, whether we are talking the sex and violence or the psychological insights and social satire.
Rating: 
Summary: Schrewd, Dark and very, very Funny
Review: what a wild in your face dark comedy about the excess of the 80's lifestyle. Bale is excellent at depicting a character who has become so shallow and empty that he rebels in his American Psycho way. Scenes like Bateman in the shower and his morning prep routine and the business card comparisons are hysterical in the way the point out some of the absurdities and foolishness of this era. Bale is so slick and so wired in his extremes in behaviour and his voice over dialogues are performed to perfection. It is so subversively witty - that the social aspects of this time come across as almost more scary than the violence. Were we that bad? Other performances are great here too: dafoe, mathis, leto, and Chloe Sevigny who is the only one who can actually steal her scenes away from Bale. I used to work with a bunch of Patrick Batemans who had too much too early and too easy - I wonder what happened to them.
Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT FILM
Review: there are no words to describe how good this film is. this film depicts 80s excess and insanity like ive never seen it before!christian bale gives a amazing performance as patrick bateman. patrick has everything going for him, he's young, rich and ceo of company and has it all but you would never know how crazy he was and what was really going on inside his head. the film is set in 1987 and patrick depicts everything about the rich yupies of that era. but theres a deeper side to the film you have to really watch it to know what im talking about. at first you think the guy is just crazy but he is a serial killer but as you watch the film and as it gets towards the end you have to ask yourself was he really a serial killer or is it only in his head? id recomend this film to anyone who loves the 80s or a good suspense movie or black comedy. this is 5 stars!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliance in Every Frame: The American "Psyche" Revealed
Review: American Psycho may well be one of the most misunderstood films in recent history. First off, this film is a comedy, albeit a very dark one; second, the violence takes place offscreen, allowing the symbolism of the film to take center stage.
The film is not so much about the excess of the 1980s, as it is the emptiness of the sheer pursuit of all things superficial. The central character, Patrick Batemen (played by the brilliant Christian Bale), epitomizes emptiness, something he himself knows. He comments early on that while he may seem to be as human as everyone else, there is merely "an idea of a Patrick Bateman," and in truth, he just "isn't there."
The film follows Bateman's odyssey through what appears to be a violent killing spree, motivated, it seems, sheerly by the desire for sensation. Whether the violence is actually happening, or merely a metaphor, the lingering question gives the film its depth. It's hard to imagine an actor more perfect for this role than Christian Bale, who finally got a chance to show off his chops in AP. It's equally hard to believe Bale is actually British, as his accent is so flawlessly perfect. (He's also quite easy on the eyes, which certainly doesn't hurt.)
American Psycho is one of those films you can watch over and over, and continually see new things. Every frame seems to have been carefully designed, and the visuals are stunning. Bateman's apartment, for example, is all white, startlingly sterile, and shows no sign of personality or individuality whatsover. The apartment, like many other images in the film, speaks volumes.
Ambiguity about gender, sexual preference, reality, meaning, and nearly everything is clearly deliberate. Does anything mean *anything*? Is life inherently meaningless? Can external beauty disguise internal ugliness? Does it? Should it?
American Psycho, in any format, is a ride and a half. It's entertaining, hilariously and frighteningly funny, and powerfully thought-provoking. I believe American Psycho is one of the greatest films of the latter half of the 20th century, and will be considered so, if only in retrospect. See it expecting greatness, and, guaranteed, you'll find it.
Rating:
Summary: Pulling off the almost impossible
Review: American Psycho, the book, seems like an easy fit to the screen in terms of visuals. But what's difficult to transfer to the film is the actual excess of style. For instance, in the book you can note the actual style in which the book is structured. There are entire chapters that, by the style they're done in and the placement they're given, tell the reader that they are non-essential. The rants on Phil Collins, Huey Lewis and the News--these run 5-6 pages in the book and are best skipped. (Though if you go through them you find some great lines.) In a film it's difficult to do that because they would equate to 5 more minutes on the running time and a bored audience. Anyway, onto the film. I thought American Psycho was as good an adaptation as anyone could hope for if they're a fan of the book. Mary Harron (a female director making the ultimate movie about "men behaving badly" as she puts it in the featurette) does two things: she makes the film a real treat for those who read the book, and she makes the film funny and witty enough for those just wondering what the fuss is. Plenty of people will figure out what the book must have been like once they see the movie. I don't where to start except to say you owe it yourself to see this excellent independent film. ... Christian Bale is amazing as Patrick Bateman. The accent is great, the facial expressions priceless (that look he gets when examining a rival's business card), the whole play he does on the character. It looks like everyone gets what Ellis was doing with the book. Everyone may hear about the notoriety of the book, but in the end American Psycho was the blackest of comedies, forcing the reader to try and laugh at moments that are interspersed with some of the most disturbing passages I've read in a long time. The filmmakers do an incredible and difficult job of cutting the book down to filmable size. It's a great job of picking scenes from the book for the screen, meanwhile leaving out entire sections and characters (Bethanie, his ex-girlfriend) but not compromising the whole thing. This could be a 3 hour movie, instead it's under 100 minutes and feels just right. Christian Bale is so commanding as Bateman that he gives a real face to the narrator of the book. The film even keeps some of the violence, but watching those scenes from the book played off they take on a humerous tone that the black and white page was hiding well. For instance, the murder of Al, the bum, becomes funny when Bateman starts saying those lines. The film is not a comedy, it's a not horror movie, it's not a drama. It's a very vicious satire that combines all of those elements and stays smart. I don't see a more famous Hollywood or not-Hollywood director making this without compromising more of the book in favor of personal style. Interesting to note: For some reason the UK region DVD (which you can't play over here) has 6 deleted scenes! The American DVD has a number of nice extras, but why would they leave off the deleted scenes? Sure, they're cutting room floor, but at least 2 of the scenes would have fit nicely into the film, and the other bits are funny as well. ... This is a highly recommended film for anyone with a little dark side, no matter how little. It's funny and visually provoking enough for many people to fall in love with this small production and appreciate cruel satire and the blackest humor.
Rating:
Summary: Huey Lewis and the Reasons We Love Him
Review: Possessed by the American Dream described to denizens of the 1980s, Patrick Bateman looks and acts the potentially powerful part that everyone seems to want. Showcasing himself as an almost perfect member of the human species possessed by intellect and a higher class superiority, he lives the part of the showman and many a person seems to buy into this presentation. Simply ask his secretary or the droves of females that flock about him, or the ones he approaches and finds thrown aback by the presentation of sophistication and charm within his demeanor. And what's not to like, really, about a member of the upper echelon of society with power, prowess, money, and a keen understanding of how the inner workings of the fraternally upper-class pecking order at his disposal? Besides, he is predisposed when it comes to echoing the sentimentality of success; owning the perfect ensemble, working out to fine-tune the garb underneath those wrappings, and taking great care to ward off blemishes that would others attempt to assail his skin and hair. On top of that he owns a seemingly grandiose apartment, a vast array of electronics that would cost a small fortune, and is fully equipped to feast on the entertainment of the time - especially in the realm of music. Going further, he also understands the ins and outs of wining and dining, partying and the prospective drug use that seems to follow closely in suit, and how to use the vacancies existing within others to benefit himself and further his own needs, and how to starkly mark his territory in the heat of the moment. And then there's his other hobbies... Based loosely on the trails and tribulations echoed throughout Bret Easton Ellis's book, American Psycho - and then only in the fact that some scenes are mimicked in an out-of-order fashion and that disfunctionalities of our main character, Mr. Bateman, are reproduced with stunning beauty -- this movie offers something different to people looking for more than mundaneness housed within murder. While its true that the level of violence that feeds Bateman between the books edges isn't showcased here and is instead left in commentary and implied snippets that sometime explode into the occasional outburst that tries to coat the screen, there are still windows looking into the beast inflicting Patrick's mentality. In fact, American Psycho is, in many ways, a breath of fresh air in a genre that otherwise suffers the platitudes of many and many a directorial mind, feeding its viewer images of a numbing world in which Bateman compares the quality of business cards, the needs to maintain his body, and indulges the monster within the illusion maintained by the man. Readers that approved of the character and his barbed wit will no doubt enjoy Bale's portrayal of the malicious mindset inflicting our upper-class killer, and might actually be surprised at the number of scenes they recognize from the book's pages. Even those who found the book disturbing should enjoy this softer, less graphic portrayal of Bateman's candor, seeing only bits and pieces of the man that is destined to be remembered as a social stamp dictating the excesses of the 80s for generations that weren't privy its influence firsthand.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting suspense/satire of greed on the 1980's
Review: Pat Bateman is an intelligent, Harvard educated yuppie who has a sense for fasion and works on Wall Street. His life is centered around material things. He has to have the best of everything, and on many levels, he does. He tries his hardest to fit in, and in the most part, he succeeds. But in the back of his head, the sense of not being good enough in his high-class environment is eating away at him, and sends him into uncontrolable violent frenzies, that may or may not have just been dreamed up in his troubled brain, and never actually happened. Based on, and highly toned down from, Brett Easton Ellis' extremely graphic and controversial novel, American Psycho is a suspense/thriller that does not even come near the realm of subtlety (except when compared to the book). This film characterizes the lives of a pack of rich, young urban professionals (or Yuppies, if you rather), in a satirical way, but also does not make us forget that it is a suspense film. Their greed and disgust are their only emotions, but only seemingly more so in our protagonist. Some of the amusing little scenes (ex. Bateman and his friends bickering over who has the most tasteful business card) may just seem like interesting filler to the untrained eye, but when thought about deeply, makes you think about how mentally different these people are. If squeamish, I suggest you read the book first, to make the movie seem a little tamer. But if you want it more shocking and suspenseful, by all means, see the movie first. I did.
Rating:
Summary: Underrated satirical work of brilliance
Review: This may be THE American satirical work of the nineties, and has a special resonance following the ENRON and WORLDCOM sagas that ended that weird decade. We do need to keep reminding ourselves that a film is a film not another version of a book. More than anything, Ms Mary Harron must be given full credit for the work whilst acknowledging her source material. She needs to be spoken of in the same way as Julie Taymor whose brilliant work on Titus Andronicus should bear comparison. But in terms of satire, which I believe is at the heart of the greatest comedy, only Mr Todd Solondz perhaps is a worthy contender. I found the set pieces in AMERICAN PSYCHO superb, the acting pitch perfect, and the mis en scene a model of its kind. As there is over 300 reviews preceding this, I keep my comments brief -I only hope that Ms Harron has the opportunity to direct much more.
Rating: 
Summary: I really didn't understand it
Review: I got this movie for a friend for chirstmas and she loved the movie. Me on the other hand hated it. I really didn't understand the end of it.
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