Film Review: AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000)

Director: Mary Harron
Writers: Bret Easton Ellis (novel), Mary Harron & Guinevere Turner (screenplay)
Running time: 97 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

Genre: Crime/Drama
UK Release date: 21^st April 2000

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 3^rd March 2013.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE UNINTENTIONAL SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Believe it or not, I had never seen this film before today; it’s one I’ve obviously wanted to see for a long time, but it’s always eluded me. I must say it was worth the wait; a very interesting take on the psychotic killer motif with one truly remarkable performance from Christian Bale. I should say that I’ve never read the book on which it’s based so I can’t compare it with the literary work but here’s a very brief summary before I give you my thoughts.

It’s the 1980’s; a time of excess and there’s no one better at it than New York company Vice President Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale). But despite the money, the beautiful fiancée, Evelyn Williams (Reese Witherspoon) and a great apartment; he’s not happy. See Patrick has a secret; one that’s about to make his life very difficult. See, he’s a psychopathic killer and in a fit of jealousy he’s just murdered one of his colleagues. This brings in a detective, Donald Kimball (Willem Dafoe) who begins to poke about and Patrick is afraid he might discover more that he’s supposed to. This doesn’t stop him carrying on his ‘hobby’, he even nearly kills his own secretary Jean (Chloë Sevigny). But as time passes we can see he’s unravelling and it’s getting worse, even to the point where you begin to doubt what’s real and what’s just in his head. I think I’ll leave it there…

First off, Christian Bale is totally excellent in this part; because I’ve seen all the Batman films before seeing this, it came as a bit of a culture shock to see him in this particular role. But he carries it off brilliantly! I love the way his character’s narration overlay’s the images and the musical references are worked in so well. It’s a really well made film too with a pretentious cuisine and big chunky telephones taking us back to the 80’s. Having not read the book I did find some of it a little hard to follow, but I’ll add it to the reading list and give this one another look afterwards. Definitely worth a look though, if just for Bale’s performance.

SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED

My score: 8.1/10.

IMDb Score: 7.6/10 (based on 202,870 votes when this review was written).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/

MetaScore: 64/100: (Based on 35 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 67/100 (based on 141 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 83/100 (based on 262,961 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/american_psycho/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Evelyn Williams: Thousands of roses and lots of chocolate truffles. Godiva, and oysters in the half-shell.
Patrick Bateman: [Bateman narrating] I'm trying to listen to the new Robert Palmer tape, but Evelyn, my supposed fiancée, keeps buzzing in my ear.
Evelyn Williams: Annie Leibovitz. We'll get Annie Leibovitz. And we'll have to get someone to videotape. Patrick, we should do it.
Patrick Bateman: Do what?
Evelyn Williams: Get married. Have a wedding.
Patrick Bateman: No, I can't take the time off work.
Evelyn Williams: Your father practically owns the company. You can do anything you like, silly.
Patrick Bateman: I don't want to talk about it.
Evelyn Williams: You hate that job anyway. I don't see why you just don't quit.
Patrick Bateman: Because I want to fit in.

Patrick Bateman: You're a fucking ugly bitch. I want to stab you to death, and then play around with your blood.

Evelyn Williams: What about the past?
Patrick Bateman: We never really shared one.

Waiter: Would you like to hear today's specials?
Patrick Bateman: Not if you want to keep your spleen.

Patrick Bateman: He was into that whole Yale thing.
Donald Kimball: Yale thing?
Patrick Bateman: Yeah, Yale thing.
Donald Kimball: What whole Yale thing?
Patrick Bateman: Well, for one thing, I think he was probably a closet homosexual who did a lot of cocaine. That whole Yale thing.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Trailer:

Film Review: WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (2011)

Director: Francis Lawrence
Writers: Richard LaGravenese (screenplay), Sara Gruen (novel)
Running Time: 116 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12

Genre: Drama/Romance
UK Release Date: 4^th May 2011

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 15^th April 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is not the type of film I would usually choose watch, but I decided that since it got a reasonable response from the critics when it came out, I’d give it a look. I guess you have to broaden your horizons every now and then and so here we are with a romantic drama (it made a change). I must admit I did find it all a little too predictable and a little cliché; however, there were one or two good points which I’ll discuss after this very brief summary.

When Jacob, the son of Polish immigrants, finds himself destitute after an accident involving his parents, he sets off to find a place in the world. It is the early 1930’s and the world is in an economic depression which makes it very difficult. Fortunately Jacob jumps on a circus train where he finds work. The owner of the circus, August, is a hard man, but when he discovers that Jacob is a trained vet, he takes him in. Jacob soon finds he is attracted to August’s wife, Marlena, who has an act in the show. After one of her horses has to be put down August must find a new big attraction, and he finds it in the shape of Rosie, an elephant. It is this point that August reveals the cruel and sadistic side and this is also the point that Jacob’s attraction to Marlena begins to grow. I will leave it there or the Spoiler Police (Circus Division) will have me mucking out the elephant (again).

A very well made film with great attention to detail. The cinematography was good, without being particularly spectacular, although I did like the warm feel to the colour palate that was used. As far as performances go, well, the stand-out for me was Christoph Waltz as August; he is really getting some meaty ‘bad-guy’ parts, and (so far) he’s always delivered. Reese Witherspoon did a decent job as Marlena, as did Robert Pattinson as Jacob; it was nice to see him with a little colour in his cheeks! Honourable mentions go to; Paul Schneider as Charlie, Jim Norton as Camel and Hal Holbrook as Old Jacob.

As I said at the beginning, this film does suffer a little from cliché and predictability, although I did like the way Christoph Waltz played the character of August. At times you could almost feel sympathy for him before he’d turn it on its head and show his true colours. The romance did get in the way of a decent drama, but then again I guess that’s what the paying public wanted. For me, it confirmed that romantic dramas aren’t really my thing although it was pretty well made and Christoph Waltz was very good.

My Score: 6.9/10

IMDb Score: 6.9/10 (based on 37,502 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1067583/

MetaScore: 52/100: (Based on 35 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 61/100 (based on 185 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 71/100 (based on 60,395 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/water_for_elephants/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Jacob: I don't know if I picked that circus. But something told me that circus picked me.

August: You do right by me, I'll show you a life most suckers can't even dream of.

August: As long as we can walk, we play.

Jacob: I'm not running away, I'm coming home.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Trailer:

Film Review: MONSTERS vs ALIENS (2009)

Directors: Rob Letterman & Conrad Vernon
Running time: 90 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): PG

UK release date: 3rd April 2009

Watched on DVD Tuesday 27th July 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I usually really enjoy animated films and I remember when this one came out last year it had one or two good reviews. So I had some fairly high hopes when I popped the DVD into the player.

Outside the church on her wedding day, bride-to-be Susan Murphy gets struck by a meteorite. She looks dazed, but still makes it to the alter. While the ceremony is taking place she begins to grow… and grow… and grow until she is so big she takes the roof off the church. All of a sudden the military are there in numbers and they drug Susan and take her away to a secret government facility run by General W.R. Monger. Here she meets other monsters, B.O.B., who is a kind of blob, Dr. Cockroach Ph.D., a human/cockroach experiment that went wrong, The Missing Link, who was found in a glacier and the skyscraper-sized mutant larva Insectosaurus. She also gets told her monster name will be Ginormica. The monsters are soon called into action when an alien robot sent by Gallaxhar, a deranged alien overlord, lands on Earth. They defeat the robot only for Gallaxhar himself to come for the resource the robot failed to collect, a resource held by Susan. I think that’s enough spoilers for one day.

Quite a well made film with some neat animation, but we would expect nothing less from DreamWorks. The plot was okay with some nice jokes thrown in for the adult viewers. Decent performances from all the main cast, so honourable mentions go to the voice talents of; Reese Witherspoon as Susan Murphy / Ginormica, Seth Rogen as B.O.B., Hugh Laurie as Dr. Cockroach Ph.D., Will Arnett as The Missing Link, Kiefer Sutherland as General W.R. Monger and Rainn Wilson as Gallaxhar.

I guess I was slightly disappointed with this film, the script was ok but I just didn’t really care for any of the characters that much. There seems to be something lacking. Don’t get me wrong, the kids will love it, but I guess it’s just one of those films that just didn’t connect with me. Over all, for the younger viewer, recommended. For the adults, well maybe watch it once (under junior supervision).

My score: 5.8/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0892782/
Official Site: http://www.monstersvsaliens.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi2117665561/