Strange weekend viewings.....

[trekgeezer]

American Psycho (2000) - Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) seems like the typical greedy Wall Street type. A shallow man who worries about getting reservations at the right restaurants and whether he has the best looking business card, except Patrick has a secret, at night he's a homocidal maniac.

Bale does a great job portraying Bateman's ever growing struggle at keeping his sane face on during the day. Eventually he crashes. But  did he really do everything he seems to have done? The ending is very ambiguous and I understand you have to read the book to "get it". What I got was that the whole homocidal maniac thing was a complete delusion.

As a send up of 80's greed, it does a pretty good job. I think they even send up 80's movies a bit. Toward the end he gets in a gunfight with police and two police cars explode when he shoots at them, he then gives the gun a "what the f***k kind of look".

This film  to me was worth watching for Bale's performance. Willem Dafoe also makes an appearance as a P. I. looking for one of Bateman's work mates who is missing. Patrick actually murdered him with an axe for having a better looking business card(hint, if you go to someone's house and they have newspaper covering the carpet and you see them putting on a raincoat, run!)

The Wicker Man (1973) - Edward Woodward plays Police Sgt. Howie who is on a mission to the island of Summerisle off the Scottish coast to find a missing girl.  Seem's nobody knows her and no one seems to care.

I can see where some folks would be put off by the numerous musical numbers in this movie, but I think  they go along with setting the atmosphere. Paganism evidently requires lots of singing and dancing.

If you haven't seen this you should give it a try. I hate to say to much in case I give away the ending, which some may find quite disturbing.

This movie does contain a great uncharacteristic  performance by Christopher Lee which some, including Lee, say is his best ever. Also look for Britt Eckland and Ingrid Pitt.

[Neville]

That's two personal favourites.

I had great expectations for the "American Psycho" adaptation, and I think they did a ver good job with it. Its only problem is that the movie makes Bateman's exploits seem quite pointless, but again probably that was intentional, as they really are, they are real or not. The ending is faithful, as far as I can remember, from the original, which basically stresses how futile the whole narration is.

All I can say about the 1973' Wicker Man film is SEE IT NOW.

[Shadowphile]

My take on American Psycho was that he had killed at least once (he had a head in his refridgerator) but not as many times as he imagined that he had.

The scene in the bathroom when he attempts to strange somebody for (as indicated) having a better looking business card is priceless.

[Mr_Vindictive]

American Psycho is by far my favorite modern horror film.  It has humor, wit, violence and satire.  I had read good reviews when it was released, but never got around to watching it till about 2002 when I caught it on HBO.

Needless to say, the first thing I did the next day was buy the DVD.  

I must say that I was blown away by Bale's portrail of Bateman.  He is Bateman, 100%.  Not to say that he was the only good actor in the film.  Can't forget Josh Lucas's great job as one of Bateman's coworkers/friends and Jared Leto as Paul Allen.

I really can't explain just how good this film is for me.  It would certainly be in the top 5 if I were to rate the DVDs that I own.  I rarely use this word when talking about films, but it is PERFECT.  I quote the film constantly, and it's one that I still watch probably every month.  

How can you not love a film where when Bateman starts chasing the hooker in the apartment building, he puts on sneakers to chase her although he is completely naked.  

Be sure to avoid the non-related sequel like a plague.

[nobody]

*SPOILERS*

There are several different interpretations of "American Psycho." You can read a lot of various thoughts online. This is the conclusion I came to (in an extremely short form):

I think Bateman was a faceless executive who desperately wanted to have his own identity. The anger of being just like everyone else festered inside him, which was the cause for his violent fantasies.

When Bateman spoke to the bartender and the laundry woman he was imagining his angry outbursts- which is why the bartender didn't actually hear him and the laundry scene had a 'skip' to it. His first real act of violence was the murder of the homeless man.

In the end he had murdered a lot of people, but to his surprise no one realized it. It was inconceivable to everyone that Bateman, the disinteresting bore, was capable of such an act- and the all-too-common occurance of people confusing Bateman for someone else (or vice-versa) gave Bateman the perfect alibi.

[dean]

American Psycho is fantastic.  I also own the soundtrack.

You really have to love his pop-culture quips and facts, just as he's about to do something really nasty [I especially liked the hookers making fun of him for owning a Whitney Houston album]

What a loveably narcissitic son-of-a-gun that Bateman fellow is indeed! Moments like when he is about to kill a kitten are great: you may feel almost no emotional difficulty over a severe axing of one person, but when he's about to kill that kitten I actually felt bad!

My own take on it is 'I don't care if he killed or not, it's still bloody fun' and I've been meaning to pick up the book for a while as well, but have never found the time.  As for the 'sequel,' you just have to wonder what the hell people were thinking to make that pile of rubbish...

Oh and Wicker Man was great: Lee is certainly fantastic in it, and the ending is great too.  Classic Cult British film that one.

[Scott]

THE WICKER MAN is a good one.

[SaintMort]

ok so the sequal kinda sucks alot but i had fun watching it, bill shatner makes it bareable to me.