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American Psycho

American Psycho

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Just bloody awful
Review: I tried, I really did. I expected to enjoy this movie, even just a little. In the end, I watched most of this in fast-forward, hoping that something just a few minutes later into the movie would redeem it. Heck, not even the soundtrack helped, and I love 80s pop. Don't bother hitting "pause" when you go to the bathroom - you won't miss anything. The was-it-real-or-imagined aspect was rather neat, but the characters were just too weak. It's hard to make a movie work when none of the characters has any more depth than a shedded snakeskin and you just can't care if they live or die. Yea, I know the characters are supposed to be shallow (they are, after all, 80s stockbrokers - Hollywood's ultimate soulless weasel stereotype), but they lack even that much depth. They're wet-paper thin. It's almost possible to generate some sympathy for the prostitute or the secretary - almost. In the end the apathy wins and it doesn't even matter that it's only a movie. Who cares?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: LOVED IT GO SEE IT
Review: When this movie came out in April of 2000, I didn't have any expectations. My friends and I were talking about this movie a couple months before it came out. We thought this was going to be the best movie since Stanley Kubricks A Clock Work Orange. With the title of this movie already disturbing, American Psycho guaranteed to horrify and disturb the audience; I couldn't wait to see it. I really enjoyed this movie because I am really into this genre of dark and twisted movies. It also showed us a person trying to find himself in the New York City society, and a great view of the eighties.
The main characters are Christen Bale as Patrick Bateman, Reese Witherspoon as Evelyn Williams who is Patrick's fiancé. The story is very hard to follow, abstract and extremely dark. The movie is about a good-looking pretty boy, Patrick Bateman, who has everything going for him with a great job, lots of cash, a hot girlfriend and even a hotter mistress. The only thing lacking in his world is any appearance of a soul. In his own words, he just "doesn't exist". Patrick has many hobbies: He loves music, going to clubs, charming the ladies, cocaine and of course killing, Mutilating and beating innocent people for the shear joy of watching them bleed. His lust for blood gets stronger and his sanity slowly slips away, that is what drives him to kill.
I really enjoyed this movie from start to finish. I really be keen on these weird twisted, dark movies because it keeps me entertained and usually laughing throughout the whole movie. This is one of the best horror movie I have seen in a while. I don't know why I am into these dark and twisted movies, I just am. I love the way they just bluntly show the gore and violence without masking it at all. The way they portrayed his life is perfect in everyway, to everyone's eyes but his own. Through his eyes, his life seems boring and nothing can excite him anymore, except to kill someone and then paint it. In his eyes, blood, gore and death are beautiful. This is why this movie gave great visuals to the dark and twisted part of it.
This movie is based on true story of a man trying to find him self in the high-class New York City society. When he finds himself, he figures out that, to be in this society is absolutely boring. The only way to stay sane in his eyes is listen to great eighties music artist like Huey Lewis and the News and to kill people for no reason. In this society, people rate you on what you wear, where you can get reservations and how good your personal business card is. For example, the main character, Christen Bale brutally killed his co-worker just because he had a better business card then him. This movie puts you on a dark and twisted search trying to find who the "real" Patrick Bateman is.
This movie also gives a great representation of life in the eighties and how money isn't everything but everybody thinks it is. In the eighties in New York City, it was all about where you ate, who you hung out with, and what drugs you did. Back then, the drug of choice was cocaine. In the eighties, cocaine ran ramped and you could purchase in almost any bar or restaurant. During this time, the crime rate skyrocketed and prostitution was big thing during this time. This movie gave great visuals of the eighties. It really focused on what people thought about each other. Everybody thought that money was very important, but people threw it away like old leftovers. This movie gave in depth examples of all these things.
This movie is either a love it or hate it type of movie. You might get it or you might not. If you do get it you will go for a 2-hour roller coaster ride of horror, gore and little comedy. This movie gave a great story of a man trying to find himself in the New York City society and when he did he didn't really care for it. This movie also gave a great description of the eighties in New York city. In conclusion, I really enjoyed watching this movie and I still enjoy watching this movie. Over and over again. I hope after reading my review you will go and watch this movie and like it as much as I do.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: As good as it could have been
Review: The film changes plenty of Bret Easton Ellis's wonderful novel, but thankfully it retains the all-important ambiguity: does Patrick Bateman really engage in acts of unspeakable brutality, or are these merely the fantasies of a mind increasingly unhinged by the excesses of high-rent American hedonism? A brave Christian Bale is unforgettable as the tragi-comic Bateman, and will have you thanking the fatally cautious Leonardo DiCaprio for passing on the role. Writer/director Mary Harron perfectly captures the ambience of the novel, and the design by Gideon Ponte and Andrew M. Stearn goes a long way to making low-budget look high class.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Yes Paul, this is a raincoat
Review: it is amazing how well the book translates onto the screen! One does get the same high and that rarely happens.
`I'm trying to listen to the new Robert Palmer tape, but my fiancée Evelyn keeps buzzing in my ear'...
Exellent acting, exellent everything!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Undeniable Masterpiece
Review: I watch the unrated DVD almost every week and it invariably never gets old. No film can duplicate the wittiness, the black humor, the satire of the decadence and excess of the Reagan 80's, the sadism, the delusion of the megalomaniacal characters, the soulesness, the nihilism, the narcissism, & the dichotomy of sheer madness and genius that is Patrick Bateman. For anyone remotely fascinated by the movie even if you are not an avid reader, the Bret Easton Ellis book will cut you to pieces - pardon the pun. The cast is dead-on(sorry again) from Christian Bale to Chloe Sauvingny to Reese Witherspoon to Jaret Leto to Willem DeFoe et al.

It is important... crucial really, that one must see American Psycho more than once to fully grasp the complexity that comprises Patrick Bateman. View it as an investment, not merely a purchase.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Thankfully, Nowhere near as bad as it could have been
Review: This movie is well handled, to say the least. This movie could have gone in so many different directions from the book. I think it maintains the spirit of the novel. There is some consolidation of characters, and thus some of the details are changed, but overall it is a pretty faithful production. There is a little more humor in the movie, but I wouldn't go so far as to call this a "dark comedy". It is not very gory, which is extremely good, since I think graphic gore would have distracted from the messages.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hidden Game
Review: Go to "Extras". There press the up button one time and then hit "Enter". Now you can test yourself with two hidden games.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: What was I thinking when I bought this film?
Review: Well, I was thinking that I would be getting a visual interpretation of the incredible novel that swept through America like an unwanted fire, plaque, or insect invasion. Only the _Village Voice_ recognized the book for the marvelous, fun-filled romp through insanity and the light-hearted nature of purchases and acquisitions in the business world.

I was also thinking that it would be fun to watch the kid who was just great in _Empire of the Sun_. Well, the little devil grew up and isn't allowed to fall into being typecast as a boy entering puberty in a Japanese concentration camp. We do, however, get to see what hell post-puberty can be when it is mixed with far too much salary for far too little work in New York.

You *must* read the book first: this is required because the only serious flaw in the film is its inability to clearly let you know what really happened as opposed to what the psycho thought happened or, worse, what he wanted to happen but didn't!

Unfortunately, for common decency, the "best parts" did not appear in the film. You are cheated out of seeing all sorts of things that would be better discussed in a teenage serial killer chat room over in Yahoo. Let's just say that one of many highlights in the book but not in the film involved the things one can do with a sharpa (not sure of the spelling, but it is that dog from China that has thousands of wrinkles) before and after its senseless death. Does dinner sound good about now?

The obsession with food is not clearly explained in the film: let's just say for common decency here that our lead character is a man of extraordinary tastes--tastes that make Hannibal Lector come across as Julia Child.

Finally, the film mistook satire for parody: far too many scenes are so off-the-wall that they come across as humor. On the other hand, more often than not, good satire causes introspection and an uneasiness about a situation. In this case, the uneasiness is the awful feeling that our society is creating monsters because of its insane worship of power and the obscene display of wealth.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Very Jeffrey Dahmer-ish type of film.
Review: Just as the title implies, this guy is a PSYCHO. But I enjoyed it just as much. It had a very creepy quality, especially with the idea that his behavior, his life is easily feasible in our money-is-power- driven society. THAT'S what makes this movie creepy. I recommend this movie to everyone.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Read the book first........
Review: I am a Christian Bale fan but have never seen American Psycho. So, I bought the book, read it, loved it...... Then I bought the dvd. Christian Bale played Patrick Bateman exactly as I would have imagined. I am sure it was hard to fit the entire context of the book into a film, as the book uses a lot of narration, but it was done very well. My only suggestion is that everyone read the book first to understand the characters and their motivation. Without the prior knowledge of what the story is about, some of the scenes seem overacted although they really aren't.


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