Barnes & Noble

An ax murder performed to the peppy beat of Huey Lewis and the News is just one of the many perverse pleasures to be found in this sharp adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis's controversial 1991 novel. In the hands of director Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol) and cowriter Guinevere Turner (Go Fish), Ellis's tale of a 27-year-old Wall Streeter (Christian Bale) who goes on a gruesome killing spree becomes a wicked black comedy that revels in its depiction of 1980s excesses. The film moves breezily through a time warp of designer drugs, trendy bars, and nouvelle cuisine, where the rich, well-tanned young preppies are pretty much interchangeable, vicious in their pursuit of dinner reservations at "in" restaurants, fancy business cards, and hard bodies. The strong supporting cast includes Chloe Sevigny and Reese Witherspoon, but American Psycho is largely a one-man show. Bale, with his combination of smug sarcasm and maniacal narcissism, is scarily effective as he hacks and saws his way through various friends and strangers while discoursing mechanically on '80s pop music that is as banal and empty as his soul. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

Bret Easton Ellis' dark and violent satire of America in the 1980s is brought to the screen in this unsettling drama with black comic overtones. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), the son of a wealthy Wall Street financier, is pursuing his own lucrative career with his father's firm. Bateman is the prototypical yuppie, obsessed with success, fashion, and style. He is also a serial killer who murders, rapes, and mutilates both strangers and acquaintances without provocation or reason. Donald Kimble (Willem Dafoe), a police detective, questions Bateman about the disappearance of Paul Allen (Jared Leto), whom Patrick murdered several days earlier. As Kimble stays on Bateman's trail, Bateman's mask of studied, distant cool begins to fall apart. American Psycho also features Reese Witherspoon as Bateman's girlfriend, as well as Samantha Mathis, Chloe Sevigny, and Guinevere Turner; the latter also co-authored the screenplay. Controversy followed the production from the start, when speculation that Leonardo Di Caprio would play Bateman sparked concerns that he would lure preteens to an R-rated movie. Di Caprio soon bowed out of the project, and original leading man Bale was reinstated. Later, a group of Toronto residents attempted to block filming in that city after Canadian serial killer Paul Bernardo claimed that Ellis' novel inspired his murder spree. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 031398176374
• Source: LIONS GATE
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround EX
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 1:42:00
• Sales Rank: 9,263

Features:

DVD MENU