Home :: DVD :: Drama :: General  

African American Drama
Classics
Crime & Criminals
Cult Classics
Family Life
Gay & Lesbian
General

Love & Romance
Military & War
Murder & Mayhem
Period Piece
Religion
Sports
Television
American Psycho (Unrated Version)

American Psycho (Unrated Version)

List Price: $26.98
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 .. 39 >>

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Alrighty...
Review: Now that I am over the shock of this films ending, I guess that I will write my review.

This film was one of the most complicated films that I have ever seen. The whole thing was just bizarre. It was totally and utterly violent and disturbing. On the other hand, certain scenes were hilarious. Christian Bale gives a great portrayal of Patrick Bateman, a self absorbed nut who ticks off about the littlest things. He targets women when he gets really angry about things, and sometimes takes his anger on certain gentleman in his office. When things don't go his way or situations get too stressful for him, something inside him sparks, and he has to kill. Meanwhile, his relationship with his ditzy girlfriend is on the rocks, and her airhead friends constantly surround him. Life sucks for this doofus.

The other performances were equally effective. Reese Witherspoon plays Patrick's girlfriend, and she is perfect for the role. The musical score has hints of Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho" score, which fits in this film perfectly.

However, this film is very graphic and unnerving, and I don't know if I would recommend it or not; also, the ending was... well...never mind.

This one is definitely not for kids.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Very Short Review
Review: Now let me start by saying, if I could have given this "film" a zero, I would have. Unfortunatly that is not possible.

This is by far, the worst film I have seen this year. Mary Harron was trying way to hard and it shows. The movie has very little substance to it, and people seem to be fond of attaching vague statements to their reviews like "brillant satire" and "amazing mind games." None of these terms can rescue this movie however, as it is a feeble attempt at art, a meaningless and shallow depiction of rich white business men in the 1980's, and a totally unconvincing portrait of a serial killer.

As far as the acting in this film I was not impressed with Christian Bales protrait of a man with no conscience. The dialogue was to "clever" to be believable, or even stomachable. Bale's voice over's are painful and irritating to listen to.

What upsets me most about this film, is not the film itself but the tendency for people to compare it to either Clockwork Orange or Fight Club. American Pyscho does not begin to compare to either film, although their were some shots(most notably towards the end) that seemed to emulate Kubricks style, but they do no justice to the late genius. As far as comparing it to Fight Club, the narrative style, and structure of the two films are vaguely similar, although Fight Club is on an entirely different level.

All in all, American Pyscho will fade into oblivion within the next few years. There is absolutely no good reason to watch this movie as you will gain nothing from it. I apologize for being a little vague in this review myself, but I was so dissappointed in the film, that a second viewing is simply out of the question.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: American Phycho
Review: This film rocks!
There, now thats out of the way I may begin.This is a satirical look at life in the late Eightys in greedy New York, a group of young, rich and bored men and women live there lives on a cocktail of expensive restaurants, clubs and drugs. Howerver all is not well and good within Patrick Bateman(Cristian Bale)he has developed a intense bloodlust through bordem he gets nasty with often shocking but occasionally humourous results.
My advice : BUY IT AND WATCH IT TWICE

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A satircal view of the eighties with incidental killing
Review: Despite its title and a considerable amount of bloodshed, “American Psycho” is a superbly witty and satirical film. The film is ostensibly about a serial murderer who happens to be fabulously wealthy, handsome, fit, and successful, but it is really a sarcastic critique of the money culture that defined the nineteen eighties.

Patrick Bateman is a twenty-seven year old CEO who lives in the late 1980s and spends his leisure time in exclusive restaurants and clubs with his peers. He has occasional love affairs so meaningless that he can’t be troubled to remove his trousers during epidermal frictional activity, and of course, he kills people. Bateman is an odd bird who is obsessed with the comparative quality of business cards and who possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary (i.e. 1980s) music.

Bateman’s homicidal impulses are frequently governed by his intense hatred of the superficial world around him. (spoiler).

The message of this film is that in the yuppie culture of the late eighties, even if you were a self-confessing murderer, people would not be able to see you for who you were. In a sense, Bateman, the murderer, is like other extreme characters in literature such as Werther, Pechorin, and Merseault. Like his literary predecessors, Bateman is alienated by the superficial society around him and is driven to extreme forms of reaction against it. In a notable scene, Bateman brings two call girls to his apartment and commands them to debase themselves in front of him. Later, as he thrusts his tube steak in and out of their love pockets he makes ridiculous posses in front of a mirror, essentially laughing at himself.
To its credit, “American Psycho” is not a clinical or horrorific film. While serial killing is certainly a grizzly subject, it is a more a device and a motif than a theme in this movie. Much of the killing is performed off camera. What homicide we do see is stylized to the point of being ridiculous. In a wonderful way, the film goes out of its way to assure us that its concerned with satire, and a social critique not with simulating brutality.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Payback" level humor combined with psychotic thoughts
Review: Christian Bale plays a yuppie on wall street with some serious mental issues. The attitude of the movie is sarcastic and mostly humorous. The actors do a good job of following the look and feel of the movie- everything is a little corny.
Patrick Bateman (Bale) has only a few emotions. Two are greed and disgust, and the third is an uncontrollable urge to kill, which is his only escape from a dull and dreary life.

Due to the many complaints about this movie, I will state the obvious: this movie has a lot of killing in it. The presence of the word "psycho" would tip most people off, but just in case it's not for squeemish folks. But even being squeemish won't ruin it, as there is very little visible violence. In most cases, the victims are not shown much during the attack. It's about as tastefull as you can get when it comes to killing people. The most graphic displays are Bateman's pencil sketches.

The movie contains elements of satire, but the personalities of his friends were chosen to provide Bateman's personality a suitable environment, filled with others that don't find his outward displays of greed and concietedness odd. The movie may contain a lot of poking around, but the focus is definitely on the psychological aspect of Bateman- the ridiculous decade takes the back seat.

That brings us to the intellectual aspect of it. You could watch the movie without really paying attention to what happens, and just laugh at goofy scenes and yuppies. But one only has to listen to the dialog at the end to get the main idea.

For the benefit of those that don't get it (in order to preserve the surprise, I will leave one part explained), in the beginning Bateman kills out of boredom and addictive impulse. Only after his great frustration with the jarring issue at the end does he become frustrated with hopelessness and truly sadistic. He then suggests he will kill for the actual satisfaction of watching others suffer to make up for his own mental pain (a big difference when it comes to the rehabilitation issue, which is not addressed). This is all spelled out in the movie, with the exception of transferring vengeance to murder, but by that time we can hardly reason to doubt his inclusion of murder as an option. Since the mood of most of the movie tends to put you in a watch-only mode, I can see how some people might need to watch the last couple minutes over again, as the resolution is 99% dialog.

A few corrections to common comments. First, there are no real cries for help. Bateman reveals himself to drunk/drugged people for his own amusement (one of which he is already carrying out his plan to kill). His only serious confession is near the end, and becomes necessary for the plot, so there is no reason to believe the movie is about the armchair psychology of "cries for help." Second, the is no men/women sexism, or at least no preference. The men are selfish pigs, the women are too emotional, and both are equally promiscuous. They're all scum. Also, there are almost no similarities to Fight Club. Sure, the main characters are both nuts (though they have completely different disorders), and there is violence in it. Not much of a match. I find two real connections myself. One being that both movies require the viewer to be light hearted and not too emotional about violence (which leads to emotional types to classify them as both too violent, and thus the same). The other is that unobservant critics make the same mistake about both: they fail to comprehend that the main characters are crazy (and therefore the films purpose is not to promote whatever they do) and try to draw cliche statements about society as the theme.

Finally, if you are the type that needs to have a hero in every movie, this is not for you. Much like the Mel Gibson flick "Payback," the movie is full of unscrupulous characters, including the protagonist. To really enjoy the movie, you have to laugh at ridiculous and trite murder.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Grey humor and creepy stuff
Review: I say grey because the movie is too goofy in so many parts to call it dark. If you like to laugh at stuff that the average whiner refers to as horrible, this movie is great. The acting is great on all parts. "Bateman" will really convince you he is nuts, and all of the other characters do a great job of playing [exagerated]corny yuppies that take themselves seriously. It's as if the director knew it was a joke but the actors didn't.

For all of the humor and rediculous eighties characteristics, it gets a little creepy at the end if you pay attention. There are a few different angles to psychotic behavior you could gather, all of them at odds with popular attitudes. If you don't get into all that, it's still a fun movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This will make you think
Review: Patrick Bateman is a child of the rich 60's. We see him first as a succesful businessman on Wall Street where he works. He and his friends are rich, can eat where they like, live where they like, and go out with who they like. For some this was the 80's for most it would have been enough. Patrick hwever needs more. He spirals into a pit of violent and sexual depravity from which there is no return. If you like black humour and thought Fight Club was thought provoking then this is definitely a film that will have you laying awake at night trying to work out where he and perhaps society went wrong.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: STINKS!
Review: This is a STUPID, STUPID movie (?)! What a waste of my time!
This is called entertainment? Wish I could get the money back that I spent on ths DVD...........and the 1 hour and 45 minutes I wasted watching the stupid thing!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bale and the movie are great!!
Review: I had never heard off this movie or Bale until a friend recommended it as a weekend rental...well, after seeing it, i was awed both by the movie and Bale. Bale literally became Bateman..it's rare to see such fine acting and he is so handsome as well...moreover, the direction was great, the dialogue enteraining and supporting character good as well...moreover, the movie had a powerful message. and to think that the lightweight DeCaprio was originally picked to be Bateman makes be quiver...he doesn't have the Bale drop-dead gorgeous look or the fine acting ability..even if you find the film or book offensive, see it for Bale

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I have a different interpretation of this film...
Review: Although I was immediately smitten with the GORGEOUS Christian Bale (just to check out his perfect body is worth the price of the film!), the first time I watched this movie I was confused. Bale portrays Patrick Bateman, a sterotypical 1980's corporate yuppie, who suffers through each business day pretending to be someone he is NOT! As you watch Bale move through the movie, it is obvious he is one of the great acting talents of today. He scares the hell out of you as the apparent corporate vice president by day, psycho serial killer by night. Oh, but IS he? What a contrasting transformation Bale makes from his role in the wonderful movie "Little Women" as the suffering and love struck wanna be beau of "Jo". The second time I watched this film, I was left with the conclusion that the character of Patrick Bateman was not a serial killer at all, but a repressed business man venting his fantasies through the course of the film. I reached this conclusion because his victims seemed to mysteriously disappear when he'd go back to get rid of the body, or were spotted by other corporate suits while traveling abroad. Bateman's reaction to these "spottings" of his victims and the real estate agent's denial of any bodies lends some sense to my theory. I love Reese Witherspoon, but she was miscast as Bateman's boring fiance, and Samantha Mathis' role as Bateman's lover wasn't much more exciting. The movie has it's moments, though, and several times I caught myself sitting up straight and paying attention! I will probably get emails telling me I am completely wrong, but believing Bateman's murdering and mayhem is only supposed to be in his mind made the movie more credible and believable to me. It is DEFINITELY a "keeper" for the home theater library. I bought the uncut version. A campy, scary, funny film!


<< 1 .. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 .. 39 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates