They almost hit the satire... but not quite.

Rating: Null/10 (11 April 2000)

Let me start off by saying that American Psycho is not nearly the movie many reviews make it out to be. I refer to both the good and bad ones. It is by no means the best satire ever made, nor is it completely worthless. American Psycho is a near miss of a great movie.
The basis of this movie is not, as many would believe, the random killings of a psychotic man, like in recent teen-slasher films. The basis is actually a satire aimed at the rich and famous's power in the world we live. Think O.J. Such power is represented in this movie through the use of one psychotic businessman. The commentary lies not within his actions, but rather within his ability to get away with them.
While I love a good satire of big business as much as the next guy (Fight Club did a fairly good job at this subject), it is in this respect that American Psycho tries hard, but seems to miss the mark. While scenes involving dealings with business cards and discussions of fellow business employees are relatively amusing, the movie as a whole falters with its blatant use of cheesy killing scenes. I had the opportunity of viewing this movie in the theatre on my college campus with many other college students. It was these scenes that turned the theatre from a horrified, yet curious crowd into one that was laughing as if they were watching [insert recent teen comedy hit here].
American Psycho had serious potential to be a well written, well acted dark comedy. However, between the choice to use a Tom Cruise look-alike as the main character and the choice to play off the killing scenes as if they were straight out of Evil Dead, the movie could not survive. Overall, I rate the movie my average score of a 7/10, as it was better than many movies nowadays, but no where near the quality it could have been.