Rating: 
Summary: All in all, satisfying
Review: It would seem that very few people are getting adaptations from novels right these days (case in point: read John Irving's "The Cider House Rules", then watch what HE did with his own screenplay). Brett Easton Ellis' novels explore a dark side of elite society...those people in the uppercrust who have everything, know everyone, and couldn't be more bored with their lives. With his razor-sharp insight, you'd think Ellis speaks from firsthand experience and perhaps he does. Many people have faulted this movie, claiming it was insensitive, stupid, gross...and it is, in many ways. But it's also clever, insightful, smart...and wickedly funny and true. That Christian Bale's character, Patrick Bateman, spends as much time dwelling on the suits he and his friends are wearing as he does on discussion of anything remotely "important" just drives home the idea of indifference. Ellis' novels are full of these amazingly detailed accounts of clothing and fashion...this is what these people know! Without bluntly saying so, it points out just how shallow society can be...and the film (and novel) point out just what one bored young man is capable of. Don't let a negative review stop you from making your own decision about this film. Rent it, borrow it, buy it, but decide for yourself whether this is a gem or a rock.
Rating: 
Summary: Often overlooked film of 2000
Review: Unfortunately for "American Psycho," the book has already garnered such a notoriously controversial stature that the film itself has a difficult task in trying to win over viewers. Like "Natural Born Killers," many people may have already made up their minds about this movie long before they even consider watching it.Like "The Fight Club, "American Psycho" is a movie that could not be more misunderstood. Sure, this is about a psychopath on the most childishly obvious of all levels, but most of all this is satire on the yuppies of the mid to late 80's. It is an exploration in the hollow, meaningless existence of a rich Wall Street stock broker. A man who's life is so consumed by greed and power lunches that he can only find salvation whilst murdering someone. All the best scenes of "American Psycho" occur in the first three quarters of an hour. Christian Bale meticulously describes his morning routine with hilarious results and constantly tries to explain the significance of 1980's pop music. "The Greatest Love of All's transcendant beauty makes it by far Whitney Houston's most accomplished record" he claims, before butchering two girls. There is also a perfect scene in which Bale and his peers spend ten minutes arguing over who's business card font is better. The violence (and sex) may be unsettling to some but is often times hilarious if you are willing to take it with a grain of salt. How can you not laugh when a bank machine asks Bale to "feed me a stray cat?" This is a very clever and sophisticated film that could be perceived incorrectly. It is one of 2000's finer movies and deserves something better than to be overlooked because of the book's notoriety.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Satire.
Review: While American Psycho may seem a little dated now, it is still right on the money when it comes to corporate America's greed, corruption and materialism. If you want some top notch satire with a dark and violent twist, American Psycho is your film. The surreal nature of the film brings it to a higher level than your run of the mill social commentary. American Psycho is a must see for any non-conformist who appreciates cutting wit.
Rating:
Summary: MY GOD. THIS IS A GREAT MOVIE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: "Do you like Genesis? I have been a huge Genesis fan since their 1980 album, DUKE", states batemen. AWESOME. I would put American Psycho along with Office Space as the two most underrated movies of all time.
Christian Bale is absolutely brilliant as Patrick Batemen. How did this guy not get nominated for an Oscar from this role? The movie's ending kinda wrap's up if the violence is real or imagined. The movie showed just enough restraint to keep you guessing though. Amazing cast. Hilarious dialogue. This film is black comedy, not a horror film at all. The UNRATED version has longer threesome sex scene and some subtly changed dialogue.
This girl I went out with described me as being similar to Patrick Batemen. Must be my Phillippe Starck themed living room and my fondness for 30 dollar facial products. Anyway...GET THIS MOVIE. IT IS A MUST TO ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION.
Rating:
Summary: Christian Bale is Phenomenal!
Review: Although the movie is overall dark in subject matter, it's a must-see-movie thanks to Christian Bale. The character he plays is hellacious, but Christian is heavenly. Not only does he look so beautiful from head to toe, but his acting skills far surpass most others. And luckily, for people like me who don't like gruesome material, the director cuts away from the violence taking place in the film.
Rating:
Summary: Oh so dark
Review: The more I think about Bret Easton Ellis's novel "American Psycho," the more I consider it a member of the exclusive "Great American Novel" club. Perhaps I'm being premature in arguing that this graphic novel about a rich but soulless young man in the throes of materialistic excess ranks alongside such monumental novels as Sinclair Lewis's "Main Street" or Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy," but that's exactly what I am saying. I predict that the coming decades will see Ellis's novel elevated to the pantheon of great American literature, a novel so indicative of its time and place that future generations will read it in order to gain insight into certain segments of our culture. Like other great novels about the American experience, "American Psycho" doesn't cover all the bases--America is too diverse for a single author to capture its total essence in a single novel. But what it does touch upon strikes at a central tenet of our society, namely our greed for things and our inability to strike a balance between laissez-faire capitalism and regulated market systems. We learned in the 1980s that "Greed is good." Ellis's novel shows us how that greed taken to its farthest extension is anything but good.
Predictably, someone made a film based on the book--a director named Mary Harron to be exact--starring Christian Bale as the titular psycho Patrick Bateman. Pat seems to have everything the American dream promises: good looks, money, a good lineage, an ivy league education, beautiful women, nice digs, all the accoutrements that come with being a member of the American social elite. He is also, according to his own observations, a raving lunatic prone to outbursts of horrific violence. The smallest incidents cause our anti-hero to embark on epic excursions of bloody mayhem, from a colleague producing a better business card than the ones Patrick carries to a homeless man on the street who has the temerity to ask for money. He has a propensity to blurt out the most outrageous statements to his equally slick pals and numerous girlfriends, statements about heads on sticks and how he works in "murders and executions," but no one seems to notice or care that much. Even more amazing, no one seems to notice Patrick Bateman lapsing into murderous insanity. But why would they? He's one of them, one of the cream of the crop, and is certainly not the sort of scoundrel who would murder and maim harridans, business associates, or anyone else who happens to cross his path.
In fact, we can never be entirely sure the murders and tortures are reality or just figments of Bateman's fragmented and vacuous personality. More likely these egregious acts, acts which include chasing a woman around an apartment building with a chainsaw or burying an axe in the noggin of an associate named Paul Allen (Jared Leto), represent attempts to feel something beyond the mere superficiality provided by material goods. Then again, maybe not. A cop named Donald Kimball (Willem Dafoe) does turn up at Bateman's office from time to time to inquire about the whereabouts of the aforementioned Allen. It's to the film's credit that we can never quite say for sure if Bateman is responsible for all of these atrocities, but that is also the conclusion we reach with the book. What we know for certain is how useless this guy's life really is. All he does is show up for work so he can goof off, listen to music, try and obtain reservations at the latest hip restaurants, and exercise. He's really nothing and he knows it. Watching these yuppies preen and prance through expensive set pieces evokes an equally useless class of do-nothings, i.e. the European nobility of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Come to think of it, some of those barons, dukes, and earls engaged in mass murder as well.
The only problem I had with the film version of "American Psycho" isn't really a major problem at all. In order to get a rating that would allow theaters to show the picture, Harron had to tone down the gore considerably. The book is loaded with stomach churning descriptions of Bateman's atrocities that only get worse as his insanity increases. Even an unrated version of the film couldn't begin to bring to the screen many of these nightmares, but that's o.k. What we do get is highly disturbing thanks largely to the marvelous skills of actor Christian Bale in the lead role. In a film loaded with talent--including Chloe Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, and Willem Dafoe--Bale easily holds his own and then some as the savage psychotic. His voiceovers describing his inner sensations send chills down the spine yet he's equally at ease with the book's black humor. It's amazing there are times you won't know whether you should laugh or shriek in terror at Bateman's latest escapade. If you haven't read the book, which I recommend before watching the film, you might need to view the picture several times to absorb the bleak social commentary.
Extras on the disc include production notes, cast biographies, a trailer, an interview with Bale, and a making of featurette. I'll leave you with a typical Bateman statement: "There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone, in fact I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape, but even after admitting this there is no catharsis, my punishment continues to elude me, and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself. No new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing." Enough said, eh?
Rating:
Summary: Don't just stare at it, eat it!
Review: A young, well-to-do man isn't quite as normal as he seems....once you notice all the body parts of women he keeps in his apartment. Nevertheless, the story teeters between greatness, and mysterious. This is a movie with an ending that either twists you into thinking it was great, or you feel, "ah, that was ok, nice twist."
One thing Mary Harron (Oz "Animal Farm" episode) accomplished in directing this movie was making you think. American Psycho is a title that comes off as a strait line movie. A serial killer running around, doing crazy things, killing woman probably, and is going to get caught by some sly, attention to detail police officer. Harron does not take American Psycho down that road. You feel you know the killer, but you don't.
American Psycho was really a launching pad for Christian Bale, which allowed him to be taken as serious candidate for the upcoming Batman movie, which I personally am extremely excited to see. Bale had to truly act in this movie; he could not get it done with good looks and a hard body (though it may seem the movie tries at times). Bale had to play his role to a "T," or the movie would flop, and he did.
American Psycho also starred Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto (Requiem For a Dream), Matt Ross (Rose Red, Face/Off), and Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama). As you can see, Harron had an all-star cast. However, none of them are truly focused on in any true form in this movie. All cameras are on Bale at all times, and as stated above, he delivered an all-star performance that left his extremely talented co-stars almost unnoticed.
I would not call this movie a must own, or a must have in your DVD collection. However, I would say this is a must watch one time. It is also a movie that deserves a solid viewing, with no interruptions, or you will be completely lost. So, do not try to watch this when you have company over, because if you start talking, you will miss something. Also, try to remember all the names Bale refers to his character as.
Grade: B
Rating: 
Summary: Sterile adaptation of a wonderfully twisted novel
Review: Having been blown away by Brett Easton-Ellis' novel some ten years ago, I finally got around to watching this (at least partly inspired by the positive reviews here); I have got to say, I found it a pretty flat, disappointing adaptation.
Fair play to Mary Harron for her noble efforts to bring this most unfilmable of novels to the silver screen. I have enjoyed her other stuff eg. 'I Shot Andy Warhol', which is definitely a much better film than this one.
'American Psycho' ultimately lacks a certain spark, though it is hard to say why - possibly because of the fact that Harron has dispensed for the most part with the gore of the book. But there are more subtle things - for example, Bateman's constant internal dialogue is only really hinted at here, I felt - particularly his endless comments on his and others clothing.
While the book features a vast smorgasbord of toe-curlingly violent scenes, the only point in the film which was remotely reminiscent of this unpleasantness was when Bateman holds a nail-gun to his secretary's head in his penthouse apartment.
Of course, the violence in 'American Psycho' is metaphorical, used to underline Bateman's yuppie-scum inhumanity rather than define it outright. But by pussy-footing with it, the film becomes toothless - reminiscent of that other slightly painful adaptation of a classic Me-Generation novel 'Bonfire of the Vanities' (shiver).
2 1/2 stars overall, because it remains broadly faithful to the book. But it is hard to recommend a film that seems so flat - especially when compared with the vivid, unsettling hyper-reality of Brett Easton-Ellis' original novel.
Rating:
Summary: Be Honest
Review: Please, let's be up front and clear this one thing up: THIS MOVIE IS NOT A HORROR FILM. It's a black (noir) social commentary. Patrick Bateman (Bale) is a crazy, introverted, psychopathic madman. He's also incredibly fit and rich and intelligent -- which makes it all the saucier since he's a cold-blooded murderer, too. Interesting.
But let's judge the film on its merits: Good God, could Christian Bale be any more perfect (as one reviewer said here) as Patrick Bateman? He's SO toned, and SO intense -- SO *perfect* -- it's scary. Since most of the filming was done at night, it has that "Jack the Ripper" kind-of-feel to it. Frankly, much to the disdain of some reviewers, I thought it hilarious, insightful, totally relevant . . . I learned a lot from this movie. Watching Bale as Bateman (and now he's gonna be Batman? Weird . . .) was relevatory. An important lesson in Freedom of Speech: When a thing can't be highlighted by any other style of up-front news or journalism-style reporting, it needs to be told by exaggeration -- it must go over the top to see the floor.
I loved this movie, and I wish someone would buy it for me.
Rating:
Summary: It's Hip to be Square
Review: Hey! I haven't seen you in here before, but I *have* seen you, right---didn't we meet at Dorsia? Yeah, I know it's tough to get reservations there, but trust me---I can get them anytime. I'm connected with the Maitre D'. Dinner, say Friday, say eight? Where do you work out, anyway?
Since we're talking Movers and Shakers, let me introduce you to my homeskillet Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale, who completely owns the film)---he's the go-to guy in Mergers & Acquisitions at Pierce & Pierce, Wall Street investment banking hotshot, hooking up with Upper East Side fashion maven and society diva Evelyn Williams (Reese Witherspoon, compulsively consuming)---the lucky dog!---and frankly, between the two of us, the guy you want to talk to to cuff your links, tie your knots, and give you the low-down on the best shoes to accent your Hugo Boss or Armani. PC before PC was cool. Big on the enviroment, nuclear freeze, health care, education, helping out the poor and downtrodden, stamping out genocide in Sri Lanka. Boy Next Door.
Monster and Serial Killer.
Yep, Patrick is big on buying industrial nail guns, stapling witless prostitutes to the floor, touching them up with a little acid facial, topping that off with some mace, and storing their heads in his Sub-Zero high-end refrigerator/freezer unit. He wants to fit in, our Patrick, but you know, a man's got to have hobbies. Norman Bates said it perfectly when he noted "we all go a little crazy sometimes".
OK, granted, bad example. But Jesus, a man's got to---you know---*vent* sometimes.
When I heard they were making Bret Easton Ellis's study in psychosis and carnal yuppiedom "American Pyscho" into a movie, I thought it couldn't be done. Then I heard Mary Harron was helming it, and I sighed with bliss: Harron's "I Shot Andy Warhol" was a kind of cinematic kindred spirit to American Psycho, both delving into the mental states of complete gibbering lunatics no one took seriously.
I see you're staring at my shoes---they're Allen-Edmonds wingtips (USD 795). Oh, you're not? Where was I? Is that Donald Trump?
Anyway, the flick chronicles our man Bateman---a practical GQ fashion & hygiene expert, I might add!---in his days as Wall Street guru, his nights as impromptu surgeon. He's a great authority on Huey Lewis & the News, which you can hear on his state-of-the-art B&O surround sound system (USD 25,000), accompanied by Bateman's ever-astute commentary---that is, if you can hear it over the screams.
He exults in six-pack abs. He keeps his skin nice and taut and rosy with all sorts of unguents and admixtures. He has a great tan, compliments of his little tanning sarcophagus. He hits the club scene and comes home with dinner, dinner that talks and thinks and hopes. He keeps those abs bristling with daily workouts, accompanied to porn tapes and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He'd better damn sure have a better business card than you.
Harron takes liberties with Ellis's material, but captures the essentials like a champ. This isn't a gory flick---not by a longshot, given that the literary Bateman liked introducing a starving wharf rat into the nether regions of his victims---but it gets the point across.
Bateman tearing through a high end West Side penthouse with a chainsaw (my God, the boy has good aim!). Bateman administering the coup de grace to a bum, then stomping the bum's cowering doggy to death. Bateman feeding a kitten to the friendly neighborhood ATM (it says FEED ME A KITTEN---honestly, could you resist? Not I!). Bateman despairing at being outdone by his wretched rival Paul Allen (the incomparable Jared Leto, smirking and smarmy to the exceptionally bitter end).
From what's for dinner on the menu at New York's high end eateries (might I recommend the Dauphin Gratinois with the Lobster frappe?), to the existential agonies of getting a good table at Dorsia, to the shame of living in even a good Upper West Side apartment (with doorman), Harron nails the raw bloody guts of the No-Exit damnation lurking at the black, fetid, festering, maggot-ridden heart of High Society---or any society, for that matter. Cinematographer Andrzej Sekula gives Harron full air support---and he should, since he did the camera-work for Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Four Rooms. Stuff looks good here.
Bale put me off on my first viewing---his campy smile, his goofy voice, his off-kilter mannerisms---but he's perfect. Bateman isn't in control, after all: he thinks his mask is slipping, when it's already on the floor and shunting down the drain.
Frankly, all the acting is first-rate: Samantha Mathis Xanax'd to perfection as Bateman's mistress and free-range society delectation Courtney, Matt Ross as the hideous Luis Carruthers, Justin Theroux owning yet another bit part as Bryce, Josh Lucas note-perfect as McDermott, Chloe Sevigny is at her cringing, cloying best---my god, it's hard not to adore her---and Willem Dafoe as the police detective, looming like a stormcloud about to break that never really does, and proving---with his face alone---that Sam Raimi was off his rocker to even *think* about putting Dafoe in a mask as the Green Goblin. Fool.
Some call this satire. Ignore them. This is pure, unadulterated horror; Pat Bateman's midnight outtings are consequence and causality of our wearing one too many masks to placate society: the Beast must get out! It must eat!
Why are you staring at my tie (Forzieri, USD 275.00)? Nah, that's not blood---it's spaghetti sauce from lunch, silly. Anyway, I gotta hop---time is money, and I've got to return some videotapes.
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