Perfect!

Rating: 10/10 (9 October 2005)

This movie has it all. An atmosphere, great satire, violence, and replay value (for me anyways).
The acting by Bale is superb of course. No one else could be casted for this role by a long shot. The tone in his voice is completely jerk-filled and you want to give him a high five every time he acts like the way he does.
Through some well shot scenes, a good score and good acting, this movie managed to accurately display an exaggerated 80s Reagan era society. There are so many good lines that add to the cockiness of Bateman that it makes you smirk every time. I especially liked the dinner table scene where he talks about ending apartheid, world hunger, and stress less materialism, etc. but he obviously doesn't care about any of this. He just cares about being the epitome of knowledge...as well as looks, money, and being psychotic as well!
I really don't see why the ending was such a problem for people. It's obvious it really happened. If it didn't, it would make the movie's message a complete failure. Why I think it really happened:
1. Everyone uses each other's names. Everyone looks the same. Therefore, there is much confusion to which each person really is. Paul Allen confuses Bateman for another character and it goes like this for everyone. Also, every man is cheating with everyone else's girlfriend. It creates this cycle of lost identity.
2. The detective says Bateman was at dinner, so he couldn't have killed Paul Allen at the end. Obviously this is another case of what I discussed in the first point. Stolen identity.
3. The violence was another extension of the satire. To make it over the top and completely out of control indulgence, why not add murder to the mix? If Bateman can get away with anything because he's the king of everything, why not it be murder as well? It's a great mix really.
I also do not get the book vs the movie comparison failures. Yes, this is a movie, so no, they can't devote a complete hour to discussing the band Genesis, only a segment. Lets cry about it. The movie wasn't as over the top, OK well, you again have only so much time in a movie. Also, lets not take into consideration the ratings that fly with this extra violence. To me, it is harder to accurately convey Bateman and his over the top behavior with less violence, yet this film achieved it. Don't get me wrong, I loved the book, but the movie is an adaption, and a perfect one at that. It is its own world.
To top it off, the fact that Bateman couldn't cope with no consequences for his over the top actions was pretty great. Like many serial killers, they leave clues to try and get caught. What if you walked into the police office as one and they laughed in your face? From a serial killer point of view, I'm sure it would make your time a complete waste. So overall, his consumerism, materialism, intelligence, greed, murder, reached its climax and the only end result he would have liked was punishment, but now he has to live with this and he can't take it. He can't go any deeper with his escapades.
I'm sure for a character like Bateman's, the only end would result in suicide so you would have to abruptly end this as did the book if you want to keep it going in the satire world.