Opening

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American Psycho (2000)

tomatometer

67

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 141
Fresh: 94 | Rotten: 47

If it falls short of the deadly satire of Bret Easton Ellis's novel, American Psycho still finds its own blend of horror and humor, thanks in part to a fittingly creepy performance by Christian Bale.

58

Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 16

If it falls short of the deadly satire of Bret Easton Ellis's novel, American Psycho still finds its own blend of horror and humor, thanks in part to a fittingly creepy performance by Christian Bale.

audience

83

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 262,961

My Rating

Movie Info

Bret Easton Ellis's dark and violent satire of America in the 1980s is brought to the screen in this unsettling drama with blackly comic overtones. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), the son of a wealthy Wall Street financier, is pursuing his own lucrative career with his father's firm. Bateman is the prototypical yuppie, obsessed with success, fashion, and style. He is also a serial killer who murders, rapes, and mutilates both strangers and acquaintances without provocation or reason. Donald

R,

Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Comedy

Mary Harron, Guinevere Turner

Sep 5, 2000

Lions Gate Films - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (143) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (96) | Rotten (50) | DVD (27)

The slick satire cleverly equates materialism, narcissism, misogyny, and classism with homicide, but you may laugh so loud at the protagonist that you won't be able to hear yourself laughing with him.

March 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's hard to summon up enthusiasm for a performance so rooted in bloody banality. I mean, as Patrick, Bale's most emotionally pressing dilemma is: Chainsaw or butcher knife?

March 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comments (14)
Washington Post
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American Psycho is nearly perfect for what it is, but before we go on, we should ask what that actually amounts to. Can something with so rigid a thesis be a real work of art?

March 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Slate
Slate
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It needs to be seen and appreciated, like a serpent in a glass cage.

March 28, 2011 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine
TIME Magazine
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Harron's Psycho reps an impressive reclaiming of dubious material.

May 30, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
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Conceptually, this savage cartoon ends up as trapped in surfaces as its shallow antihero: it's all dressed up with nowhere to go.

March 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Newsweek
Newsweek
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A brave adaptation of a bracing book.

March 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

The movie is elegantly shot, but based on what's on screen, it's hard to tell what motivated Mary Harron to direct this emotionally vapid feature

November 20, 2010 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com
EmanuelLevy.Com

Mary Harron asks what's more unnerving - exaggerated, imagined violence or vacuous realities some wish to be real, psychosis as much in the construct as the character. Thus, "Psycho's" savagery goes beyond a simple screed against 1980s excess and greed.

September 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com
Suite101.com

much like the 80's era that it personifies

September 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Old School Reviews | Comments (2)

Harron' s incisive eye and Bale' s bravura performance carry the day.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review
Sacramento News & Review

American Pyscho is one of those films that makes you laugh uncomfortably throughout and you just walk away feeling disgusted. The flick is definitely an underrated masterpiece.

August 2, 2008 | Comments (9)
BDK Reviews

One can picture Kubrick handling this material with a similar elegant malevolence.

July 23, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comments (2)
eFilmCritic.com

The real shame about Psycho is that there are glimmers of the very smart satire that could've been.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound
Big Picture Big Sound

It's a highly entertaining movie with enough edgy humor to prickle our senses.

May 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

Mary Harron and Christian Bale create an almost magical balance between the tragic and comic elements of this story.

June 24, 2005 Full Review Source: Horror.com
Horror.com

Production designer Gideon Ponte gives a terrific look to the film, with a hard, ultramodern design that lends sterility to Patrick's personal killing field.

April 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews
Reeling Reviews

Audience Reviews for American Psycho

I rewatched this for the first time in a long time . . . and I have to say WOW. Christian Bale is just crazy good in this film.
May 4, 2008
jmanard52

Super Reviewer

Suitably razor-sharp satire
February 8, 2013
Louis Rogers

Super Reviewer

    1. Patrick Bateman: I'm in touch with humanity.
    – Submitted by Frances H (4 months ago)
    1. Patrick Bateman: There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory. Although I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand a feel flesh gripping yours, and even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable, I simply am not there.
    – Submitted by Frances H (4 months ago)
    1. Patrick Bateman: Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now, you fucking stupid bastard!
    – Submitted by Diego Ignacio P (5 months ago)
    1. Donald Kimball: Do you remember where you were the night of Paul's disappearance, which was on the 20th of December?
    2. Patrick Bateman: God... I guess I was probably returning videotapes.
    – Submitted by Chris O (6 months ago)
    1. Patrick Bateman: I'm leaving. I've assessed the situation, and I'm going.
    – Submitted by Olive B (6 months ago)
    1. Patrick Bateman: I need to return some videotapes.
    – Submitted by David G (7 months ago)

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Latest News on American Psycho

May 4, 2012:
Bret Easton Ellis Turns to Kickstarter
You can help Ellis raise $100,000 for "The Canyons."

December 8, 2011:
Lionsgate Plans New American Psycho Adaptation
The studio has hired Noble Jones, second unit director on "The Social Network," to write and direct.

November 8, 2010:
Hayden Panettiere and Nikki Reed Move to Downers Grove
Hayden Panettiere and Nikki Reed will star in "Downers Grove," a high school thriller adapted by...

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