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American Psycho (Unrated Version)

American Psycho (Unrated Version)

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: As good as the book
Review: Even though I'd previously read the book, I was interested in seeing how director Mary Harron will turn the pulpy fiction into celluloid. And I must say, it looked damn good. While most of the outrageous violence takes place off screen, the film is still one of the most violent you will see this year. Christian Bale gives a great over the top performance as his character evolves and must kill more to appease his demons. While the humor of the book may have lacked, it certainly does not in the movie. In particular, a scene involving a stray cat and an ATM machine is brilliant without being as disturbing as Harron could've made it if she had wished to show animal cruelty. The character of Patrick Bateman drives the film, and it is truly interesting to see him kill people wile discussing why he likes Huey Lewis and the News and other 80's pop bands. The supporting cast is as good as can be expected and the thrills keep coming, but like I said before, the humor drives the film. This film is so funny compared to the book that it cannot be taken seriously. Maybe in less capable hands, the film might've been just a gory mess. But Harron, who's I Shot Andy Warhol was terrific, moves her camera so well and directs the actors so well that it makes this film a treat. I am not reccommending this movie to the faint of heart of females. While Christian Bale might be very buff and lots of time nude, the degradation of women and the bloody content of the film is not for the female sex. This is a guy movie all the way, and a damn good one.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Mind games for characters and also for the audience
Review: Starring Christian Bale, the now grown-up child star of Empire of the Sun, this a satirical look at the narcissistic 1980s and with all the silly details of conspicuous consumption rendered with a bite of humor. It is also the story of a young Wall Street executive, Patrick Bateman, in the fiercely competitive world of mergers and acquisitions. It seems however, that all the competitiveness is focused the trendy restaurants they can or cannot get a reservation in and the comparative quality of their business cards.

Patrick Bateman is always perfectly groomed, his suits have the best labels, his apartment has all the latest gadgets, his shampoo and skin cremes the right upscale brand. His secret, however, is that he is also a serial killer.

Now come the mind games. He uses knives, axes, guns, chainsaws on his victims, usually while engaged in pompous lectures about obscure 1980's recording artists. There's a surreal quality to it all as his murders become more and more sick and more and more daring. Ultimately, the mind game is even played on the audience by its surprise ending.

The movie belongs to the lead character even though there are some excellent small parts for Chloe Sevigny as his secretary, William DeFoe as a detective and Cara Seymour as a prostitute who he brings to his apartment for threesomes.

Mostly, the sets are interiors, starkly photographed as backdrops to the story, capturing the details of the pretentious cuisine and gadgets of the 1980s. In a way it is a period piece also as we look back on those times -- no cell phones, no computers, no PalmPilots.

The violence was so exaggerated and done with such style that it was basically a cinematographic feat and pulled no real emotion from me. Of course, that was its intent, but it left me cold.

Therefore, although I admired it's skill, to me it was "much ado about nothing" and am therefore reluctant to recommend it although I know it is a "must see" for die-hard movie buffs.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AMERICAN PSYCHO
Review: VERY FUNNY! THANK GOD LEO WIMPED OUT HE WOULD HAVE RUINED THIS EXELLENT FILM.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent but the book is better
Review: I saw the movie yesterday, i expected the theater to be empty but it was packed. I wasn't expecting much having read the book and knowing that it couldn't get close to it (without being banned). All i can say was i was right it isn't as good as the book but is far better than I imagined. Christian Bale is Patrick Bateman to a T, but the film could have done with being longer as allot of the book was cut out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My favorite movie so far in 2000.
Review: I saw this movie and there were two other people in the theater. I felt kinda weird cause i was laughing so damn hard at all these people getting killed and was wondering if the other people would think i was psychotic. the scene where christian bale kills jared leto with the axe has got to be one of my favorite scenes of all time. i was laughing so hard. and the end where he starts killing everybody he sees and tries to stick the cat into the atm machine, priceless! and the business cards! i just can't tell you how cool this movie was. It made me want to go out and kill somebody.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better Than It Should Be
Review: This film was intended to be a scathing satire of the Greedy 80's. Christian Bale and his peers are soulless, sterile, vapid narcissists interested only in wealth and the trappings of wealth: upscale apartments, European clothing, trendy restaurants, designer drugs, pricey prostitutes and (Oh, Yes!) who has the most elegantly engraved business card. In case you miss the hints about which decade you're in (80's recording artists and big, clunky cell phones) the director has one of Christian's cohorts deliver a sotto voce denunciation of political dishonesty during a televised Reagan speech. All this preachiness is a bit much. With the Dow at 10,767 and the Nasdaq at 3793 even as I write (April 19) does anyone really believe that the Clinton 90's are one whit less materialistic and self-absorbed than the Reagan 80's? Give us a break, puhleaze! Despite the moralizing "... Psycho" works because at its center Bale gives a marvelous portrayal of a man without a center. He is a human husk, a magnificently gorgeous near-physically-perfect emptiness, a voluptuos vacuum that seeks to fill itself with the reality/illusion of graphically violent madness, murder and mayhem. Like Burroughs before him, Ellis does not translate easily to the screen. Fear of the dreaded NC-17 rating pulls the director up short of the showing the detailed manipulative sex and the graphic gore that gives both "Naked Lunch" and "American Psycho" their lurid fascination as novels. This makes it proportionately more difficult for Bale to depict the depth and dimension of Bateman's desperation and despair. Nevertheless, within the limits imposed on him, Bale does a more than credible job. This is far and away his best performance since "Empire of the Sun," and possibly worth a Best Actor nomination.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Oh, you big silly!
Review: I loved this movie so much I can't stand it. I thought the film was gross, disgusting, sickening disturbing scary and really funny. Yes thats right funny. Despite the morbid premise the film still manages to make th audience laugh in fear. If you go see this film which I strongly recomend you do, go see it excpecting to laugh very hard.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All hail Christian Bale!
Review: Although very disturbing this movie was an excellent satire of 80's materialism. Christian Bale gave an unprecedented performance of a mergers/murders & acquisitions/executions broker with a wonderful faux charm. This will be a definite addition to my video collection. Two thumbs up!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AMERICAN PSYCHO IS THE PSYCHOTIC AMERICAN FILM
Review: American Psycho, from Mary Harron(I Shot Andy Warhol), is based on a Bret Easton Ellis novel steeped in pre-judgement and controversy. It's a funny movie. There are many priceless A Clockwork Orange or Reservoir Dogs like scenes in which horror is rivaled in a comedic fashion. From the axing of a man to the tune of "Hip To Be Square" for which Huey Lewis is garnering a lawsuit to a scene in which a menage a toi is used to let Pat Bateman(Christian Bale) check himself out in the mirror, American Psycho is chock full of laughs and scares and gore. It's a satire at its core and that element of the book is left wholly in tact by Harron's direction and co-writing with actor Guinevere Turner. The supporting cast is very good but this is Bale's star-making show. Brilliant.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This doesn't do the book justice.
Review: This movie is not bad. However, the character of Patrick Bateman is too introspective to place in a 90 minute flick. The book is by far the route you should take if you want the full effect of this story. The movie lacked focus. If you have read the book, you will be disappointed with the film. If you saw the movie first, you'll probably really enjoy this and if you follow up with the book you will be amazed at how much you've missed.


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