American Psycho [Blu-ray]

Christian Bale Director: Mary Harron, Edward R. Pressman, Chris Hanley, Christian Halsey Solomon Mary Harron

Overview

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 Kimble (Willem Dafoe), a police detective, questions Bateman about the disappearance of Paul Allen (Jared Leto), whom Patrick murdered several days earlier. As Kimble stays on Bateman's trail, Bateman's mask of studied, distant cool begins to fall apart. American Psycho also features Reese Witherspoon as Bateman's girlfriend, as well as Samantha Mathis, Chloe Sevigny, and Guinevere Turner; the latter also co-authored the screenplay. Controversy followed the production from the start, when speculation that Leonardo Di Caprio would play Bateman sparked concerns that he would lure preteens to an R-rated movie. Di Caprio soon bowed out of the project, and original leading man Bale was reinstated. Later, a group of Toronto residents attempted to block filming in that city after Canadian serial killer Paul Bernardo claimed that Ellis's novel inspired his murder spree.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/06/2007
UPC:	0031398203469
Original Release:	2000
Rating:	NR
Source:	LIONSGATE - 600000-AEC LGE
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Surround EX, DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	1:42:00
Sales rank:	102

Special Features

1080p high definition; 16x9 widescreen version; DTS HD audio; 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround EX audio; English and Spanish subtitles; Deleted scenes with optional director commentary; Audio commentary with Mary Harmon; Audio commentary with writer Guinevere Turner; The '80s: Downtown

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Christian Bale	Patrick Bateman
Josh Lucas	Craig McDermott
Chloë Sevigny	Jean
Matt Ross	Luis Carruthers
William Sage	David Van Patten,David Van Patten
Cara Seymour	Christie
Justin Theroux	Timothy Bryce
Guinevere Turner	Elizabeth
Stephen Bogaert	Harold Carnes
Monika Meier	Daisy
Reg E. Cathey	Homeless Man
Park Bench	Stash
Catherine Black	Vanden
Marie Dame	Victoria
Kelley Harron	Bargirl
Patricia Gage	Mrs. Wolfe
Krista Sutton	Sabrina
Landy Cannon	Man at Pierce & Pierce
Margaret Ma	Dry Cleaner Woman
Mark Pawson	Humphrey Rhineback
Charlotte Hunter	Libby
John Cale	Composer
Danny Elfman	Composer

Technical Credits

Mary Harron

Guinevere Turner

Bret Easton Ellis

Mary Harron	Director,Screenwriter
Edward R. Pressman	Director,Producer
Chris Hanley	Director,Producer
Christian Halsey Solomon	Director,Producer
Ernie Barbarash	Producer
Alessandro Camon	Producer
Gretchen McGowan	Producer
Clifford Streit	Producer
Rob Weiss	Producer
Joseph Drake	Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Michael Paseornek	Executive Producer
Jeff Sackman	Executive Producer
Guinevere Turner	Screenwriter
Bret Easton Ellis	Screenwriter
Fred Brennan	Sound Effects
Benjamin Cheah	Sound Effects
Ron Rotholz	Producer

Editorial Reviews

An ax murder performed to the peppy beat of Huey Lewis and the News is just one of the many perverse pleasures to be found in this sharp adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis's controversial 1991 novel. In the hands of director Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol) and cowriter Guinevere Turner (Go Fish), Ellis's tale of a 27-year-old Wall Streeter (Christian Bale) who goes on a gruesome killing spree becomes a wicked black comedy that revels in its depiction of 1980s excesses. The film moves breezily through a time warp of designer drugs, trendy bars, and nouvelle cuisine, where the rich, well-tanned young preppies are pretty much interchangeable, vicious in their pursuit of dinner reservations at "in" restaurants, fancy business cards, and hard bodies. The strong supporting cast includes Chloe Sevigny and Reese Witherspoon, but American Psycho is largely a one-man show. Bale, with his combination of smug sarcasm and maniacal narcissism, is scarily effective as he hacks and saws his way through various friends and strangers while discoursing mechanically on '80s pop music that is as banal and empty as his soul.