Just How Eighties Are You?

Rating: 10/10 (19 October 2007)

Christian Bale plays Patrick Bateman who is a stockbroker, a successful stockbroker, in the eighties!! What does that mean? The sky was the limit!! BMW's and $180.00 bottles of wine were everyday tokens of a very leveraged period of economic expansion!! The titillating taste of raw capitalism made Patrick Bateman morally oblivious to the lethal consequences of his reckless actions!! It was all about chic restaurants that were approved by the New York Times, and, sexual proclivities which satiated Bateman's immediate hedonistic desires!! No, he was not telling a six year old kid who was looking at a plate full of mixed vegetables to "Don't just stare at it, eat it" .. You'll have to watch the movie!!
Here are the ground rules to the 1980's, be a smashing success in the stock market, and, as a result, be a serial killer!! Makes sense to me!! These self centered obsessions now materialized as a 24/7 preoccupation for Patrick Bateman.. His callous fruition had no tolerance for the mundane, was this illogical? For the real world, yes, for Bateman, of course not!! This film gives the movie audience an enticing invitation to the irrational thought patterns of Patrick Bateman.. I took them up on it, and indulged the entire film with a sort of heinous empathy for Christian Bale's character. I totally understood that he was the American psycho who had an intensely high testosterone level which was motivated by an exhilarating avariciousness!! The rationale being, "I work out" "I make $250,000.00 a year", I am always seen at the right places, and last, but certainly not least, "I live in New York"... Do all of these things make me better? YES!!!.. SO NOW!!! My favorite hobby is being a very creative and utterly unmitigated assassin!!!
The eighties were great times, the "greed is good" philosophy was predominant, everyone was incredibly self centered, (I'm just being honest!!) It became a competitive instance of which people were better at it!!! Sort of like now, only today, it is a concept that is not all that new to us!! The film "American Psycho" translates to unscrupulous chicanery being the end result of a nauseating arrogance... All of us are human, we fall prey to personal motives and pecuniary fixations, it is just a matter of which people have the proper credentials to implement these desires the most expeditiously!! The 1980's YUPPIE tenet perennially professed the concept of "Take the term Wall Street Mogul seriously, or, be bludgeoned to death!!!" They were kidding, but, only a little!!!
The movie "American Psycho" is extremely well written, and evokes an exaggerated camaraderie with the prosperity of the eighties!! Christian Bale's acting performance in this movie is one of the best performances I have ever seen!! His perceived superiority was his convoluted form of amelioration!! Think about it this way, people can raise a family on less than $40,000.00 a year, but, they find a cuss word offensive? The same might hold true in the case of Patrick Bateman's covert vindication for his antics of absolute depravity and blatant disregard for human life!! How do these two statements correlate? They are directly related to the proverbial perception of hoof beats meaning zebras and not horses!!! I for one got caught up in the moment, and NO!! I am not seeing a shrink!!! Only because I cannot afford one, I am unemployed!!!
"American Psycho" gets five stars and a perfect ten!!! I love films that make you look in the mirror!! Without question!! Your dark side is alive and well, ultimately, you must make the volatile decision as to what extent this insidious monster prevails!!! If Americans were not afflicted by materialism and vanity, the movie industry would go bust!!!