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Seriously, can you imagine anyone other than Christian Bale
as the suit-and-tie wearing lurid socialite, Patrick Bateman?
Leonardo DiCaprio (the original choice for Bateman) might
have given a good performance – but that doesn’t
mean he’d be a shoddier match than Socks and Thongs.
An irrefutably droll, yet still violent, piss-take lampoon
of the insatiable Reagan-era, “Psycho” takes a graciously
over-the-top performance, a bevy of '80s pop tunes, a chainsaw,
and an enviable stylish business card and plonks them in a
liquidizer to mesh.
The result is an original, ceaselessly tasty, and freely
memorable movie experience.
Based on the novel by Brett Easton Ellis, “Psycho”
centres on the life of a Wall Street yuppie who basically
chops and dices anyone that he feels like – especially
those who’ve got a better business card than him. Watch
as the charismatic killer Bateman takes a chainsaw to a co-worker,
with no less than Huey Lewis and the News playing in the background.
Then he has his way with a couple of loose women, to the beat
of Phil Collins, before making minced liver out of them.
The type of film that’s ultimately more appreciated
as time goes on – I know I love it more and more as time
goes by – “American Psycho” finally arrives
in an uncut, extras-adorned edition. Something many of us
have been hankering for for years.
DVD Extras (Region 1 only)
Unfortunately, star Christian Bale is hardly anywhere to
be seen or heard in the extras department. The current Caped
Crusader is absent from the commentary - Mary Harron and co-writer
Guinevere Turner are the captains of that ship.
The comprehensive “American Psycho: From Book to Screen”
featurette (everyone bar Bale seems to be present for this
48-minute feature on transferring Easton Ellis’s novel
to film) is a nice extra, as is the “The 80’s Downtown”
feature, about the New Yorkers lifestyle of the times. Fortunately,
Christian Bale does pop up in the “Deleted Scenes”
section, which is prefaced by interviews with the cast –
albeit dated ones.
Yet, even without Bale’s contribution to the special
features section, “American Psycho: Killer Collectors
Edition” is still a great buy – the extras are good,
the sound is extraordinary, the video is the best it’s
been, and best of all, the movie still plays as well as a
well-oiled accordion.
Conclusion: Movie 85% Extras: 75%
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