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Category:    Home > Reviews > Thriller > Horror > Revenge > American Psycho (Basic/Uncut/Lionsgate DVD)

American Psycho (Uncut)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

I heard one person call American Psycho (2000) a good, but pointless misanthropic dark satire, which I thought just about sums up the film quite well.  The film appeals or at least tries to appeal to those who want to analyze and overanalyze the film as this great comment on some sort of social or political venture, but what ends up happening is the film becomes lost within its own created world and falls far short of becoming a film that went far over the head of this film and is the true American classic…Hitchcock’s Psycho.  That film also addressed its time period, but this film does not come close, despite the pop culture references.

 

Even a general comparison of the two films becomes a pointless journey going down a one-way street with traffic coming straight at you.  We are left with few places to go.  Now, American Psycho does have some highlights mostly with its cast and its ability to intrigue simple minds, but the problem is that its focus is far too shifty for today’s average moviegoer.  However, someone felt it important enough to actually make a sequel to this.  Perhaps that was due to the cult following this film received on home video/DVD.

 

Lions Gate has issued the film taking over the distribution from Universal, but keeping true to the standard by keeping the film with its 2.35 X 1 widescreen transfer and 5.1 Dolby Digital mix.  The picture is semi-soft and detail can be a problem.  This could be due to the fact that the film was released onto DVD during its infant stages and never fully received a good transfer and this DVD is a recycling of that.  Also the fact that this film is not a big-budget film, shot with a rather toned down color palette with a washed out look, does not help.  These two factors alone limit the overall capabilities with this DVD.  This of course is being slightly picky and the film still looks good enough until a High-Definition transfer comes about.

 

There is a brief behind the scenes included making this a not-so-special edition.  The biggest bottom line is still the fact that there is a fine line between trashy art and art that is trash.  Are you able to tell the difference?

 

When the film was originally optioned, Leonardo DiCaprio was offered a record $25 Million to take the part, but he turned it down.  The role went instead to Christian Bale, who saw his career revived slowly, after finding it a problem to make the transition from the child star of Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (1987).  After this film, he had an unfortunate turn in the very unfortunate Shaft revival, then Bale showed up in films like Equilibrium (2002).  Now, he will be the next live-action Batman.  Not bad.

 

The only other point is book versus film.  The book had passages about the 1980s that went on and on and on and on to show how the character (and the country) was drowning in mediocrity.  The film chooses to be too smug and silly, instead of making more of the book’s points.  Director Mary Herron had the same problems with her indie film I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), and while Bale recovered, she never did.

 

 

-   Nate Goss


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