AMERICAN PSYCHO 1 & 2

AMERICAN PSYCHO

USA, 2000

Director: Mary Harron

4,5/10

I'm a huge, huuuuge fan of Bret Easton Ellis. I adore his books (except the last one which is meh) and read them all several times. The pinnacle of his writing career is of course the uber-brilliant "American Psycho", not only my favorite novel of all time, but also the only novel I've read more than 10 times AND the only novel I've read in 2 languages (German and English). 

I'm absolutely addicted to this book.

When I first saw Mary Harron's film adaptation a couple of years ago (after I've already read the book 4-5 times and loved it to the core), I was completely upset and disappointed about it. It totally bored the fuck out of me and I simply couldn't understand why so many people like it.

Now with all the talk of a new American Psycho adaptation, I thought I give it another chance. I tried to be as open-minded as  I could - and yeah, I enjoyed it a bit more this time and to some extent, I also understand now why people like it so much. However, this adaptation still isn't my cup of coffee: it's weak, it's boring and IMO it's immensely overrated.

The good things:

~ For the greater part, the cast is simply excellent. Christian Bale looks absolutely amazing and delivers an incredible performance as yuppie/serial-killer Patrick Bateman.
Chloë Sevigny (I love that woman) is just wonderful as Bateman's secretary, Samantha Mathis is terrific as Bateman's Xanax/Valium-addicted lover and Justin Theroux, one of the most underrated actors of all time, is super-cool as one of Bateman's fellows.

I surprisingly also enjoyed the peformances from Reese Witherspoon and Jared Leto, 2 actors I usually don't like that much.

~ It's a really stunning-looking movie, not only because of some damn fine cinematography, but also because of the really gorgeous 80s settings and costumes; the Wall Street bureaus, the restaurants, the clubs, Bateman's apartment, the hairstyles, the fashion etc. etc.

~ The movie stays very true to the book, especially in terms of dialogue and monologue, chronology and seemingly minor details, such as the cash machine that wants to eat a stray cat, Bateman washing his gloved hands or the porn movie Bateman's watching ('Inside Lydia's Ass').

The bad things:

~ It's often extremely boring and tedious, thanks to a muddled script and Harron's utterly mediocre direction. Especially the second half just drags and drags and drags.

~ It's far... FAAAAR too tame. Where the book is packed to the brim with violent, horribly gruesome and super-gory kills, the movie only shows a few bland, ungory and uninteresting killings.

~ Willem Dafoe was miscast for the role as Detective Kimball, Matt Ross looks way too gay and Cara Seymour is just terrible as Christie.

~ What's with the music? I expected lots of INXS, Talking Heads and Madonna - instead we get crap like Chris de Burgh, Katrina & The Waves or Robert Palmer.

~ As great as Bale's performance is... it's just a tragedy what they did to the character of Patrick Bateman.

In the book he's a powerful, charismatic, unpredictable and coldhearted character, very attracted to everything expensive and luxurious, to perfect-looking hard-bodies and cocaine, obsessed with brands and trendy restaurants.

In the film he's just a dorky and quite annoying moron with no charisma at all.

~ Call me a geek but I really hated the fact that they changed various names,

f.e. Paul Owen to Paul Allen, Marcus Halberstam to Marcus Halberstram, Timothy Price to Timothy Bryce etc.

~ Many important scenes are missing such as the killing of Bateman's old girlfriend Bethany, the killing of the boy in the zoo, the summer in the Hamptons, the breakdown of Luis Carruthers, Bateman and Jean at the Dorsia etc.

~ We don't get to see enough of important characters like Evelyn, Courtney, McDermott and Carruthers.

~ There was absolutely no need to let Bateman tell about his musical obsessions whilst fucking and killing.

~ Scenes that I really, REALLY hate: the chainsaw kill and Bateman's quirky dance.

I might be a bit too harsh, but I can't help it: I just don't really like it.

IMO It could have been far more awesome if someone like David Fincher, Michael Mann, Brian De Palma or Martin Scorsese would have directed it. 
Well, I stay with the book.

Wiki ~ Imdb

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AMERICAN PSYCHO II: ALL AMERICAN GIRL

Alternate Title:
American Psycho 2

German Title:
American Psycho II - Der Horror geht weiter

USA, 2002
Director: Morgan J. Freeman

1,5/10

I have seen one movie from Morgan J. Freeman (not to confuse with the friendly black oscar winner) before: the dreadfully boring "Homecoming" with the horribly untalented Mischa Barton.
This one's not as horrible, but still a stupid and extremely superfluous waste of celluloid.

Apart from a few far-fetched connections, this has absolutely nothing to do with Part 1 or the novel. It's just a super-failed attempt in creating some kinda serial-killer parody, badly directed, boring and extremely predictable from the first to the last minute.
The plot sucks, most of the acting is lame, the characters are all cliché-ridden cardboard cut-outs, every single kills is bland and disappointing, the soundtrack sounds like it was composed for some kids' comedy, the voice-over is annoying and the dialogue in general is terrible. Oh, and the one scene with the CGI fire... no comment.

Mila Kunis's performance is ok and it's always fun to watch William Shatner. The rest of this in-name-only sequel is pure garbage.

Wiki ~ Imdb