American Psycho

Taking place in the late 1980s in New York City, American Psycho follows Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), a 27-year-old wealthy Wall Street yuppie who lives a second life as a psychotic serial killer. The film follows a few months of his life as he keeps up his appearance of success by dining at fancy restaurants and paying for prostitutes while getting a sick enjoyment out of murdering innocent people. The film is meant to be a satirical and horrific look at the 1980s culture surrounding the "yuppies," or young people at the time setting out to get rich quick. It also satirizes masculinity itself as Bateman is a character that tries to exude a certain manliness, but also acts in a rather feminized fashion. Easily the most outstanding aspect of this film is the performance of Christian Bale as the main character. Bale did an excellent job of portraying Bateman as the psychopath he is. In some scenes, he comes off as truly despicable and terrifying, but he also does a superb job of creating the satirical side of the character and many parts of the movie and the lines he says come off as hilarious in a way to mock his narcissistic demeanor. There are many other great performances in the film as well such as Bateman's colleagues (including Jared Leto, Bill Sage, and Justin Theroux) who portray self-centered and elitist men, Willem Dafoe's portrayal of detective Donald Kimball investigating a murder that he suspects Bateman is involved in, and Chloë Sevigny as Bateman's secretary who has an unrequited crush on Bateman. The story and writing itself are another strong point of this movie. As stated above, it is mostly a satirical look at the yuppie culture taken to an extreme through a psychotic killer character. It is quite an entertaining look at the world through Bateman's otherwise empty and unfulfilling life. There is also a certain amount of surrealness to it as well as later scenes have such exaggerated levels of violence and destruction that there is a question if the crimes are real or if they are just in Bateman's imagination. The Blu-ray itself contains a few bonus features. This includes a commentary track from director Mary Harron, another commentary track by writer Guinevere Turner, deleted scenes, and a short documentary on the seedier aspects of life in 1980s New York City. Overall, I enjoyed this film. With a superb and entertaining performance by lead Christian Bale and an intelligent satire, I would recommend this movie to those that enjoy horror or satire films with a dark and comedic twist.

I started reading through the reviews of this movie, and over and over, I had to click on "No," this review was not "helpful" to me, whether the person gave it one star or five stars. After reading about 20 of them, I was beginning to think that either everyone watching it just isn't getting it or I'm as whacked out as Patrick Bateman. My take on this movie seems to be completely different from everyone else's (although I didn't read all 300 reviews: maybe someone in here has my take on it). First let me state my perspective. Judged by how many times I've watched it (about 10 times), this must be one of my favorite movies. I don't seem to be able to get enough of it, and my interpretation of it has evolved from bemused bafflement to a satisfied feeling that I really get it. Second, I did not read the book, and based on what I've read in these reviews, I'm glad I didn't, because I've been able to contemplate this movie without trying to relate it to the book, to contemplate it as an independent work of art that plays with the viewer's mind and challenges the viewer to figure this Patrick Bateman out. Those people responsible for it may have had some ideas triggered by the book, but this movie can stand on its own considerable merits. Unlike some reviewers, I am not in the least attracted by the character of Patrick Bateman. I find him completely contemptible and repulsive, and to allude to a line from the movie, I have nothing in common with him. Yet he is fascinating to watch and I can't help laughing hysterically at his total emptiness and delusions. Delusions bring up the point I want to make about this movie. At one level it is impossible to tell what is real and what is sheer delusion in Patrick Bateman's mind. What is really happening, and what is being imagined or dreamed by Patrick? Maybe he did kill a few people in this movie. But I can't tell whether he really did killed Paul Allen or whether this was merely one of his delusional fantasies. The movie surely gives enough examples of psychotic delusions on his part. Some of the things he says directly to women obviously were not actually said, because if they were, the women would have called for the bouncer to have him thrown out. As it was, they just ignore him. Some of the murders were utterly preposterous, as when he carefully aims the running chainsaw at the prostitute fleeing down the stairs and he throws it at her, stabbing her in the back when she is four flights of stairs below him. Come on! That never happened, even in the movie! Then the killing spree at the end OBVIOUSLY never happened! When he had the shootout with the cops, he takes a couple shots at them, never missing his human target from 100 yards away (do you know how hard that is?), and suddenly one of his bullets causes all the cop cars aligned against him to explode! Even HE is surprised, suddenly staring at his gun in disbelief that he could have done that with a single shot. This was such a string of carnage that it would have been all over the news and all the talk. Yet no one says a word about it when he meets with his associates the next day. When he revisits the apartment where he had dead bodies hanging in every closet, the place is pristine and is for sale. There's not a word from anyone that an apartment was found full of mutilated bodies. Why? Obviously, because it was all in his imagination! After he breaks down and confesses to his lawyer that he just went on a killing spree, he lawyer laughs because it is so preposterous. Such a thing would have made the headlines, yet the lawyer thinks it's just a sick joke, and he saw Paul Allen in London the day Patrick was supposed to have killed him. Yet there is ambiguity even here. All these Wall Street stockbrokers (every one of them younger than 30 and vice-presidents whose greatest status symbols are the classiness of their business cards and where they can get dinner reservations), all of them look and act alike and they are constantly misidentifying each other. Was it really Paul Allen he killed (if he killed one of his associates at all), was it really Paul Allen the lawyer saw in London? It is impossible to say, which is one of the most amusing ironies of this eternally entertaining movie.

Cuando vi American Psycho, me quedé impactada por lo desconcertante y provocadora que resulta la historia. La actuación de Christian Bale es simplemente fascinante; realmente logra capturar la dualidad de Patrick Bateman, alguien que puede parecer encantador y refinado, pero que por dentro es completamente despiadado y perturbador. No podía apartar la mirada de la pantalla, incluso cuando las escenas eran incómodas o grotescas. Lo que más me atrapó fue cómo la película se burla de la superficialidad de la sociedad de los años 80, especialmente entre los ricos de Wall Street. Todo está tan obsesionado con las apariencias: la ropa, los restaurantes, las tarjetas de presentación. Es como si los personajes no tuvieran alma, lo cual hace que el comportamiento extremo de Bateman se sienta casi... ¿inevitable? La dirección de Mary Harron es brillante al equilibrar el humor negro con el terror psicológico. Hay momentos en los que te ríes, y justo después te das cuenta de lo horrible que es lo que acaba de pasar. Ese cambio de tono es lo que hace que la película se quede contigo. Eso sí, la película no es para todos. Es violenta, confusa y, a veces, surrealista. Hacia el final, no estás seguro de qué es real y qué está en la mente de Bateman. Pero creo que eso es lo que la hace tan memorable; te deja con preguntas que sigues pensando días después. En resumen, American Psycho es perturbadora y genial al mismo tiempo. Es una película que te hará sentir incómodo, pero no puedes dejar de apreciarla por lo que es: una crítica feroz y una exploración inquietante de la psique humana.

Un film che non potevo non tenere nella mia libreria, che dire ottimo film, ottimo prezzo ed ottima gestione della spedizione come sempre

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Excellent. Better than the book. Bale is superb.

Blue ray came in new quality. This is a classic and interesting story.