I just watched this movie. It’s so bad! Why? What am I missing?
I guess it depends on the viewer’s tastes. It was hilarious to me personally. The overly serious way he describes his metrosexual routine, the importance of the quality of business cards, etc. The horror aspect and gore takes a backseat for me and I view it as a comedy.
I always thought that was the point of it. To be comment on the absurdity of stereotypical businessmen of the time. All wearing the same “uniform,” using the same business cards, indistinguishable from one another.
It is a comedy! Its all one huge absurd comedy of the fragile, toxic masculine existence. So you’ve nailed it.
Rented this movie with my roommates in college. Fairly early on, the one from India blurts out, “What the fuck are we watching?!” So at least you’re not alone in Not Getting It.
I’d say it’s about horror-comedy. Tension that could become absurd or horrifying or both. Exemplified in abundance when Christian Bale leaps around a corner with nothing but tennis shoes and a running chainsaw. Message be damned - the film has your attention. And the payoff is watching that chainsaw tumble down a staircase, barely knowing what you want to happen.
That’s set against literally bloodless surprises, creating unease by allowing no solid ground. You’re watching a movie called Rich Prick Kills People and you’ve watched this rich prick kill people and you’re not one hundred percent sure whether this rich prick actually killed people. There’s no spoilery answer because it’s not about that.
‘Why is this film popular?’ is mostly a matter of good acting, good pace, and some extremely memorable bits. Unfortunately the shock value is steeply diminished if you know they’re coming… and the best parts became stock references for the 4chan generation.
‘Why is this film important?’ involves an admittedly shallow discussion of postmodernism. Patrick Bateman is trapped in hyperreality. It is so convincingly artificial that it has subsumed the real world. “Objects have won.” He is so deep in the fake-world economics of useless boardroom executive horseshit that even murdering his fellow vice presidents has no impact. The system folds right over it like it never happened. This impotence extends to the sex workers and service workers he tries to lash out at: it does not matter. His most vile and id-crazed fantasies cannot so much as stain a closet.
… and of course there’s a fandom of dipshits who think this useless maniac is the coolest guy evarrr.
Yeah, that’s what I meant to say.
I was literally about to say that. Dude stole my post.
So you don’t like Huey Lewis and The News?
I like vanilla, some people like chocolate
deleted by creator
Chocolate desserts always have vanilla in them, vanilla never has chocolate in it.
Just think about that for a minute…
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Lol, I’ll give you the upvote for the entertainment!
Vanilla is so… Vanilla. (Though I think both have their place)
Lol, OK, I’ll give you that phrase at least.
But I disagree that vanilla is any kind of simple or plain. It makes chocolate more chocolatey. It adds complexity and depth wherever it goes.
I really do prefer it over chocolate.
I only know the other way around. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup is great.
Isn’t vanilla made from beaver ass holes or something
Stop trying to make “objectively” the new “literally”
edit: nvm, I see you’re just doing some good trolling. gg
Feels like Fight Club to me where there is a subset of young men who like it, not recognizing it’s a parody. Then there’s people who get it and like it as a comedy. And the obviousness of which is which is not always clear, so you will never see me talking about whether I like it or not because it invites the first type.
People who think you’re supposed to like Bateman are people you don’t need to associate with, its a great litmus test
I don’t really remember it, so I guess it isn’t very memorable. It seems not to have been especially praised by critics, nor by the author. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Psycho_(film)#Reception
Original author [Bret Easton] Ellis said, “American Psycho was a book I didn’t think needed to be turned into a movie”, as “the medium of film demands answers”, which would make the book “infinitely less interesting”. He also said that while the book attempted to add ambiguity to the events and to Bateman’s reliability as a narrator, the film appeared to make them completely literal before confusing the issue at the very end.
It’s hilarious! My favorite Bale performance easily. Willem Dafoe is excellent too. I love the whole over-the-top 80s NYC yuppie caricature.
It’s also a scathing nightmare parable about the raw pursuit of wealth and influence.
For the memes.
Why do you think it’s bad?
deleted by creator
Believe it or not, it was a running chainsaw. In a Manhattan apartment building. After she ran screaming and punching all the doors. And no one noticed.
deleted by creator
I agree with you. Lots of people in this thread assuming you “didn’t get it”, even though the satire punches you in the face.
Right? Give me some layers between the performance and the message. Watching it made me feel talked down to, as I was a child.
I recently watched the lion king and was whelmed.
Story telling has just evolved. The pacing of modern movies is more finely tuned. I can see how these movies used to be good but we’re just spoiled by better movies.
wait you can be whelmed? I had never considered that I had only ever heard people say underwhelmed.
Whelmed is a perfect description for how I felt about many movies (thanks for that!), but this one just underwhelmed me.
The original, or the CGI product?
The original.
Don’t get me wrong, the songs are lit, but when Nala tries to eat Pumba and then the next scene they just brush that off in 3 seconds I realized the movie is taking a backseat as a vehicle for the songs. Actually most of the movie is filled with these fast moving segways to the next scene… and the next song, and the story suffers for it.
fast moving segways
Believe it or not, “segues.”
I am reminded of the sheer optimism of a late-90s American search engine called Beaucoup, which assumed English speakers had any god-dang idea how to spell Beaucoup.
Anyway, yeah, it takes some railroading to make kids sit through Hamlet.
segues
…In my defense, Segway is a real word that is a form of transportation, and I meant “move from one scene to the next”, I guess I just never questioned if there’s a different word.
Edit: after some quick googling, the company did that on purpose. https://eu-en.segway.com/about-the-brand bastards. Lmao.
Haitian Creole is always fun to see because the whole language is like that. It’s nearly French, but it’s spelled according to English spelling rules… unlike English.
anyone knows the same looking headset as it was in the movie where he is walking in the office room
I think they’re generic knockoff Walkman headphones. That ultralight style was the default pack-in with any portable cassette player. Earbuds didn’t seem to catch on until the iPod. Anyway just get something minimalist with a metal band.
… wow, every article when you search for this might be pure AI slop.
