Rating: 
Summary: Where was the psycho?
Review: Wo ich vo däm Titel ghört ha, han ich dänkt, hei das muess än mega psycho film si, aber was söll ich säge, das isch ja henne harmlos!guet, zuegäh, das mit dr motorsagi isch scho chli krass,aber ich meine he, da hei mir ja also scho vil schlimmers gseh,oder nid? Nei, mal im ärnscht, ich finde d'Ussag vom Film oder das wo är üs het welle vermittle gar nid mal so schlächt: mir gseh ä gsellschaft vo me chönnt dänke, hei die hei alles, gseh perfekt us sind erfolgrich, vil gäld "fründe", was will me meh? ich meine,mir hei ds gfühl wenn mir das alles hei, denn sind mir glücklich,aber wieso sind denn die lüt i däm film alli unzfride, wieso louft dr hauptdarsteller amok?
frage und kei antworte, so muess es si, dä film het mich nämlech mega zum nachedänke agregt...und voila, das isch doch scho mal öpis!
s.
Rating:
Summary: what you see is not necessarily what you get
Review: I have just watched this film for the second time, and have finally come to some real conclusions about it. I have also read the novel, by Ellis. First let me say that the film is both a brilliant adaptation of the novel as well as being only a pale shadow of it. The adaptation was brilliant in that it adapted the most significant parts of the novel in terms of theme, rather than turning the film into a gore fest. Yes, this film is about a serial killer, but it is also about alienation and emptiness and the utter despair of having everything but having nothing worthwhile. I think that often the real meaning of the book and the film go unnoticed. Yes, it is a brilliant film in terms of cinematography and plot, but what does it all mean? Patrick Bateman, our protagonist, says at the beginning that he does not really exist, and throughout the film he is always mistaken for someone else. I think this film has a great deal to say about alienation, about the emptiness of modern life. It really has the same theme as Fight Club, though that theme is represented differently. But that theme still comes through very strongly: that modern society has lost touch with reality, that it is estranged and unfocused, and that people need something more than lots of money, high rise apartments and perfect bodies. Bateman becomes a killer because he needs to feel something just as the guys in Fight Club initiated fights in order to really feel, to feel that they were alive. I think that American Psycho is more a general comment on society than it is on serial killers. But it stands as an important commentary, a very valuable film. I would have given it a full five stars, but the fact is that the film is not for everyone.
And, if you have any doubts, just seeing Christian Bale's performance is worth the entire film. Why he didn't get the Oscar is beyond my understanding. This is one of the greatest performances on film I have ever seen.
Rating: 
Summary: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE R AND UNRATED VERSIONS
Review: The difference between the R rated version and Unrated version of American Psycho is 20 seconds........That's the bottom line...... To be technical, about 18.5 seconds. In the scene with the 2 prositutes, the unrated version shows more explicit footage through the black and white video camera shot screen for about 8 seconds and the other 10.5 is a brief oral shot, with another foreign shot of a woman lying flat on the bed, breasts exposed.............
The three-way scene last 41.5 seconds on the R and one minute flat on the Unrated version. It is such a minor difference, it really doesn't matter which one you view. The DVD has superior picture quality and an anamorphic transfer. BOTTOM LINE: IN ALL REALITY THE R-RATED VERSION FOR THAT ONE SCENE HAS FAST EDITING AND SEEMS UNEVEN. The song Sussudio by Phil Collins is cut away quickly in the R rated version to allow the picture to quickly catchup to the dialog........ Sounds complicated I know, and won't matter to most people.
THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE SUPER UNRATED VERSIONS THAT HAVE SEVERAL EXTRA MINUTES OF JUICY FOOTAGE.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Interesting Look Into The Mind Of A Killer
Review: If you have every studied or been curious about serial killers this movie will definatly interest you. It shows you a sexual serial killer going through all the documented stages. From his attention to detail to his escalation of killings this killer is all by the book. It was great to see all the theroies I have read come to life in this move, but this movie is definatly for those afraid to see a little gore.The first time around this movie can seem like a jumble and your left feeling like you have to sort everything out but it's definatly better on the second viewing.
Rating:
Summary: One Great Film
Review: Simply put, American Psycho is one of the greatest mind games ever put on film. The venture into the mind has been been exploited by many dramas but never in such a thought-provoking, interactive manner. Using setting and time, the director puts the viewer in the movie as a conscience for the havoc-wreaking Patrick Bateman. What we have to figure out is which of the lead characters rage-driven atrocities really happen and which are just the imaginations of an emotionally isolated businessman. As modern Americans, all of us have had desires to put a snbby bartender in her place, snub a homeless man for not trying hard enough, or in extreme cases, even kill those in our workplace. Now understandibly, we have the self-restraint to quell these urges, but who hasn't envisioned an endgame for those who torment us? The beauty of this film is in the mystery. Is the star a true maniac or is he just so into himself that his delusions of murder are manifested only in the imagination? That is for you to figure out. Christian Bale puts in a stellar performance as the delusional madman. Most remarkable are his soliloquies praising the most banal of 1980's pop bands. "Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?" should go down as one of filmdoms most loaded questions. Director Mary Harron uses a number of different styles to accomplish her interpretation, tapping the slasher films of the 70's and 80's to the Wall Street-esque dialogue. Harron has created enough scenes that stand alone in their brilliance while infusing a storyline that leaves no lack of watchability. Rent it, buy it, ... you must see this film if you are a true afficionado of great film-making.
Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock For The New Millenium- Almost
Review: When I read Bret Easton Ellis'"American Psycho", my reactions boiled down to, (A) "This is the most distasteful thing I've ever read." and (B) "Nobody's ever gonna film THIS." After seeing the film version on the advice of a trusted friend, I can only say I'm still right about (A), but I was totally wrong about (B). Mary Harron has done what I thought impossible- she has not only filmed "American Psycho", she has made it a much better story than it ever was in print. Her basic technique is diabolically simple; her script demolishes the line between what protagonist Patrick Bateman actually does and what he fantasises doing. Right from the start- in a witty title sequence that demonstrates that what you believe you're seeing is not necessarily what you think it is- Harron deliberately makes it unclear if Bateman's murders and rampages are real or in his head. By film's end, the only thing that's clear is that Bateman could have done absolutely everything shown- or none of it- or some of it. Chillingly, Bateman eventually realises he's so far gone that he himself does not know where the truth lies. Not content to show Bateman as a psychopath, Harron mercilessly depicts the insanity of 1980's trendy New Yorkers. Bateman is constantly telling people about the horrible acts he commits, or would like to, and no one listens. Half the time Bateman is mistaken for someone else by people just too busy and self-centered to commit the simple, human act of caring enough to learn another person's name. Is it any wonder he's the sickest of all possible puppies? Harron also strengthens the story by considerably restricting the levels of violence and misogyny that infest the book. There are a few stretches that look extremely gory, but as with the shower scene in "Psycho", more is implied than shown. "American Psycho" benefits from a first-rate cast. As Patrick Bateman, Christian Bale is spot on the money as a preppie-turned-yuppie-turned-madman. Reese Witherspoon is great as his fiancee who never realises who her man is, let alone WHAT her man is. Chloe Sevigny does some very deft work as Bateman's secretary; the scene where she's invited to Bateman's apartment to be murdered- only to create a misunderstanding that saves her life- is a comic gem. And there is a poignant turn by Cara Seymour as Christie, a hooker who meets a terrible fate. Seymour has a remarkable likeness to Louise Brooks, and something of the same manner. We will see more of her in years to come, I think. Willem Dafoe is a treat as a detective who may or may not be on to Bateman- and, come to think of it, may or may not be real. See "American Psycho". Even if you hated the book, SEE IT. It's a movie that has the intelligence to refrain from spelling everything out in TV-Movie-Of-The-Week fashion, and that alone should be recommendation enough. The fact that this film is stylish, witty, macabre, sexy and terrifying by turns is icing on a cake that could have been baked by Alfred Hitchcock- and I do not say that lightly.
Rating:
Summary: Dream, Nightmare, Psycho, next stop Hell.
Review: With its extra five minutes, the film gets a completely different meaning. From a simple vision of the yuppy who is psychotic and kills to get his kicks in the financial world and goes through with it because he is a yuppy, it becomes the description of his psychosis and we do not know at the end if he has really killed or only imagined the killings. We are a lot more led into thinking that it is all a bad dream, a nightmare, a psychotic hallucination. It thus becomes the third panel of a tryptic. The American Dream first, which has to do with the dream of people arriving in the US and succeeding in making fortunes, or at least enough money to become the middle or upper middle class : the opera of American success and capitalism in its positive understanding. The American Nightmare then, which shows how those who do not succeed in making that first trip into wealth, fame and power, are led into killing, crime, at times sordid crime. These are the losers and they can only survive in this wolfish society as wolves and criminals. Capitalism leads to crime, either petty crime for the poor losers or organized crime for the more ambitious. The American psychosis is the third element, with crime developing in the mind of a successful subject in order to fuel his success. It is the story of the Golden Boys, of the Yuppies who have to be so ruthless with others in order to dominate and have the upper hand in the financial field that they develop, inside themselves, a completely murderous psychology. The only missing element is the urban paranoia that Stephen King explores in, his books, i.e. the fear of standard average Americans that their neighbors be enemies of the system, hence of them, and try to take over the system and make them slaves to their outlandish, extraterrestrial, revolutionary, dictatorial, funtamentalistic, dogmatic or sectarian objectives aiming at seizing power and then retaining it. This American Psycho is absolutely essential to understand modern America. It is very well connected with the period (the 80s) and President Ronald Reagan, with his speech on the Irangate were he explains that this crime of money, warfare, power and politics is a good thing after all because it reassesses and reasserts the power of America within and without the US. Crime leads to power, and power requires crime, even if it does not justify it, and even if it does not have to be justified, except with the positive result of making America stronger in the world. A great film for advanced viewers who are able to go beyond the surface of things. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating:
Summary: IF YOU LIKE SMART AND SCARY MOVIES, DON'T MISS THIS!
Review: Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is a young, handsome, Harvard educated, Wall Street success, seemingly perfect with his stunning fiancée (Reese Witherspoon) and entourage of high-powered friends. But his circle of friends doesn't know the other Patrick Bateman, the one who lusts for more than status and material things. With a detective (Wilem Dafoe) hot on his trail and temptation everywhere, Patrick Bateman can't fight his terrible urges that take him on the pursuit of women, greed and the ultimate crime-murder! Based on the controversial book by Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho is a sexy thriller that sets forth a vision that is both terrifying and chilling.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a review, really
Review: I just want to let people know that Mary Harron, the director, does her best not to show graphic content in this movie. Maybe the unedited version is different but the movie I saw never showed private parts, wounds, or even bared ... if I can recall correctly. There were plenty of scenes where other directors would have showed it all. I just wanted to let you know that it is better taste than you may expect. They do however show Christian Bale's ... twice, which is in any case one more time than they should've. Blame it on the female director.
Rating:
Summary: One of my all time favorites
Review: This was a great movie. Christian Bale did a phenomenal job playing Patrick Bateman. This is the first movie I've seen him in, and I look forward to seeing him again. The plot puts a sophisticated Bateman in a high paying Wall Street job surrounded by a bunch of stuck up "too good for you" Harvard educated pricks much like himself. The only difference is Bateman's dark side that nobody knows about. This is not one of those hack and slash movies that show blood for the sake of blood. The fact is that there is almost no gore. Don't get me wrong, I like blood as much as the next sicko, but it needs to be done in a clever way. I found myself glued to the TV listening attentively to this perverted psycho's dialog. Everything he does is so nonchalant which is what attracted me so much to this movie. Having never heard anything about it, this movie turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The script was very well written, and Bale did a great job acting.
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