Saw this when it came out and didn't purposely intend to see it again, but it was on the recording I made for Paranoid Park, so I went through it again. This is one of those films where I can pick the exact moment it drops down a notch, and it is the scene where Bateman drops the chainsaw down the stairs to kill the escaping hooker.
There is some surprisingly good acting here and some good content as well, but the violence is just a bit too distractingly over the top. I feel exactly the same way about the book, although the book is much worst in this respect than the movie. It works pretty well as a dark, satirical comedy about empty excesses of the Yuppie 90s. Bale's performance is excellent, and his interactions with his fiance (Reese Witherspoon) and the detective (Willem Dafoe) are hilarious, as are several of the scenes with his vapid friends. Bateman's commentary about restaurants and music, and his flimsy excuses for leaving (how dated does that "going to return a video" sound today?) are great background for social satire, as are the empty, modern buildings he inhabits.
In the end, I wound up feeling much the same way as I did about Harron's earlier I shot Andy Warhol (5)-- good performances, good commentary, but just a bit cheap in a sensationalistic manner, and flawed by not delivering any kind of satisfying ending.
American Psycho could/should have been a 7, but there are just enough problems to knock it down a notch. I originally gave it a 5, mainly because I think the violence bothered me more then and I was closer to reading the book, which was more distasteful. Now, I'm a long time away from reading the book and have seen far worse violence in many films, so I'm going to give it a 6. Really, I think it is a 5.5, but 6 will do.
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