total let-down

Rating: Null/10 (10 August 2002)

the book was brilliant, a great yet misunderstood satire. it was hilarious, violent and terribly boring at times, but always intense. when I heard that oliver stone or david cronenberg were supposed to do the job I thought "wow, that´s gonna be a great adaption." but, alas, mary harron took over and crashed the car right into the tree. christian bale gave a decent performance as bateman but under harron´s direction he´s too often a ridicilous jester rather than a frightening serial killer. harron mellowed everything out, watered it down, and I´m not talking about gore here. and the scene with the chainsaw was one of the most laughable scenes I´ve seen in years. but the supporting cast ( sevigny, dafoe, leto ) were pretty good. all in all I say: skip that!