American Psycho (2000)

2000
Directed by Mary Harron
Starring Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Samantha Mathis and Reese Witherspoon

Right before the dawn of the '10s, I made a list somewhere giving my completely fabricated top 10 horror movies of the 'ought decade.  This flick was on that list.  I'd like to say it was #5, but that whole time period is a little fuzzy.  The only other thing I remember about that list was that it was one of an astounding TWO American films to grace the top ten, the other being the criminally underrated Lucky McKee disturbo-fest May.  But that's another review for another day.

Anyway, American Psycho was essentially the movie that made Christian Bale a name actor.  He'd done a few things before, and it obviously wouldn't be until Batman came along that he became a legit superstar, but Patrick Bateman will forever be where this dude's bread is buttered.  What?  Not enough background information?  Well, it's also the film version of the Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name, one of only two horror novels that I have ever been unable to finish after reading some of the debaucheries contained within.  Fortunately, this movie does not contain some of the more stomach-churning stuff from that tome.  Think female anatomy and rodents.  Yeah.  With that, on with the show.

PLOT:  Welcome to Manhattan in the late 1980s.  For much of the firt half of this movie's brisk running time, we get to know Patrick Bateman through a combination of looking-glass footage and what is admittedly very clever use of narration - normally a plot device that I'm not a fan of.  He's very concerned about appearance, male fashion, dining out, the music of Huey Lewis and the News and Genesis...we learn quite a bit about the guy.  Oh yeah, and he's very into serial murder.  Sometimes, he targets homeless vagrants.  Sometimes it's prostitutes.  And sometimes it's business associates who happen to have the misfortune of having a better business card than him.  The stakes effectively raise when Detective Donald Kimball (the always great Willem Dafoe) begins investigating Bateman in the disappearance of coworker Paul Allen ("HEY PAUL!"), beginning the slight-but-not-grating "police procedural" aspect of the film.  It's slightly comedic, it's slightly dramatic, but rest assurred, this is a horror movie, and the movie gives us something very wince-worthy every 15-20 minutes.
PLOT RATING: *** 1/2 out of ****.

CHARACTERS AND ACTORS:  People who follow my reviews very closely (and I'm fairly certain that this number rests comfortably at zero) might have noticed that I've dropped a few potshots at Christian Bale over the years.  No, I'm not a particularly big fan of the guy or his films.  You know, the one where he plays a dark, grizzled tough guy who is emotionally cut off from those around him.  Oh wait, that's damn near all of them.  This film, however, is a completely different story in my book (and this is my book, so suck it).  He fits the character of Bateman like a glove, and in this rare chance to show a manic, lecherous, over-the-top side, he nails it with aplomb.  You'll be repulsed by Bateman, but you also won't forget him.  This movie also has plenty of name actors in supporting roles (the aforementioend Defoe, Reese Witherspoon as Bateman's girlfriend, Chloe Sevigny as his secretary/would-be side love interest).  These midcarders are nowhere near as fascinating as the main eventer, but they do their job very nicely to move the plot along in the rare scenes where Bale isn't front and center.
CHARACTERS AND ACTORS RATING: *** 1/2 out of ****.

COOL FACTOR:  On one hand, you won't find many horror movies that are more quotable than this one.  I can still recite Bateman's rants about his favorite bands like the back of my hand as well as the entirety of the business card comparison scene.  On the other hand, this definitely isn't the fun, happy kind of horror movie, and there are more than a few scenes that drag in between some of the more memorable bits with Bateman.  I don't know if the addition of a perfectly mopped chainsaw can make up for occasional boredom.
COOL FACTOR: ** 1/2 out of ****.

OVERALL:  As this movie unspools, we pay witness to several of the atrocities that Patrick Bateman commits in his off-hours away from the exciting world of investment banking, and Bale was definitely up to the part of making this guy a completely detestable slimeball who deserves to get his comeuppance.  As such, this is a movie that has an absolutely dynamite beginning and middle chapter, but unfortunately, for me, it kind of flies off the rails in its final trimester.  Maybe not completely; consider it more of a hitched derailing.  Nonetheless, this is still a movie worth seeing more than once for the dialogue alone, because this stuff is just incendiary.

OVERALL RATING: *** out of ****.  Definitely one of the best original horror flicks of the '00s, and Bale's performance alone is worth the price of a cheap Amazon buy.