For those of you unfamiliar with the book or the movie, let me give you a quick, two sentence summary: Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is a young, high class, well-to-do Harvard graduate elitist of the '80s. He basically gets fed up with the bullshit and incompetence of the world, his mask of sanity slips, and he may or may not go on a killing streak, murdering many people in violent and painful ways.

Now, to get into more detail, Patrick is a fancy-pants yuppie, just as faceless and disposable as his fellow Wall Street VPs. He’s got the good life face down in his lap as he gets paid to sit in his office all day and listen to CDs while making failed attempts at getting big deal dinner reservations, so he's really got no place to complain. However, like all power hungry men of his type, Patrick wants more. This is where the day-to-day snide dickhead persona is subjugated and Mr. Bateman’s secret sadistic serial killer side takes over! Fed up with the dregs of society, our anti-hero takes it upon himself to stab the occasional homeless guy to death or kill a few prostitutes (after he's plowed ‘em like a field and gotten philosophical about the music of the 80's first, of course).

Pat also takes out his growing insanity on his fellow yuppies, as he wastes one of his business competitors (Jared Leto) via an axe murder, complete with soundtrack by Huey Lewis! For those of you against killing your fellow man, wait till you've seen homicide done to the tune of "Hip To Be Square"! Pat's only remorse after doing this evil deed? The guy's apartment overlooked the park, and cost more than his...

Eventually, Bateman's mask of sanity (no, not that D-t-V sequel to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer…) slips completely, and the guy goes on a rampage spanning several city blocks, as a late night spree results in the deaths of a night watchman, janitor, old woman, and a few cops! Afterwards, Mr. B HAS to tell someone about the whole thing, so he calls up his lawyer's answering machine and leaves a complete confession! The next day he sees said lawyer, who thinks that it's all a joke (because Bateman's supposedly too much of a wimp to pull all the shit he confessed to) and blows it off, leaving Pat to contemplate just how useless everything was. Then again, maybe he really DIDN'T kill anyone to begin with... actually, I'm not so sure he's even Patrick Bateman! Yes, the ending is quite confusing. Maybe after I read the book I'll understand better…

Despite being an exercise in depravity at times (although Hollywood acceptable depravity and not Fulci type depravity), this movie had some hilarious moments! Examples: Pat does his morning exercise routine while watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Pat watches excessive porn; Pat watches two chicks fool around with each other as he contemplates the true sincerity of Whitney Houston... then he fucks them both hardcore and videotapes it; Pat slips two chicks some Ecstasy, then watches them fool around as he waxes intellectual on the good sides of Phil Collins... then he fucks them both hardcore... then he kills them; Pat, in a very surreal scene where he wears nothing more than a pair of sneakers and an odd grin, chases a hooker through a dimly lit, white hallway, before dropping the chainsaw on her from the top of a four story flight of stairs; Pat and a steroid crazed pal try to snort coke in a men's room, while yelling at some punk in the next stall; Pat and friends have a very tense comparison of each other's business cards (a now classic scene!); and Pat has a homo erotic mix-up in the men’s room as he tries to strangle his mistress's queer fiancée. Hilarious.

American Psycho is just so well done in my mind. It did what it set out to do: make a parody of ‘80s yuppies and do so with a very violent and disturbing twist! Plus, the movie captures Ellis's oddly intriguing "stream of thought narrative" writing style rather well and Christian Bale makes the perfect homicidal elitist here in his first big role! Need more proof of how well Bale is at portraying asshole upper society white characters? Check out his role in the Samuel L. Jackson Shaft remake! In conclusion, I have some homework for everyone: feed stray cats to ATM machines and shoot old women who try to stand in your way... Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some videotapes to return.