'Allo! I'm not contributing to Ciao for the time being but if you are bored / desperate / weird enou...
'Allo! I'm not contributing to Ciao for the time being but if you are bored / desperate / weird enough to wish to continue to read my ramblings, you can find me on Dooyoo under the user name plipplop. See you around! :P
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Set 15 years after the previous film, American Pyscho 2 tells the story of Rachael Newman. It transpires that Newman (aged 12) witnessed the murder of her babysitter at the hands of the notorious serial killer, Patrick Bateman. Surviving the ordeal – and never being traced to the scene of the crime – she manages to live a relatively normal existence thereafter, although she does develop an unhealthy interest in serial killers. Her interest leads to her enrolment in a respected college, where she studies criminal profiling – her ultimate aim is to be accepted into the FBI. In order to fulfil this aim, Newman knows that she stands more chance if she is successful in her application to become her professor’s teaching assistant for the following academic year.
Despite the fact that Newman is very confident in her abilities to fulfil the role, she soon comes across obstacles. The college secretary advises her that she will not process the application because Kate is a freshman – and worse still, there are three other applicants who stand a very good chance of beating her to it. The only other female applicant happens to be having an affair with the professor; one of the other male applicants is the son of an influential millionaire; and the other applicant is just a smart arse. Kate then proceeds to take the necessary steps to fulfil her ambition – and very soon, all the obstacles will be removed from her path. “Beating the competition” just took on a whole new guise…..
American Psycho (the original) was a good movie.
Without being particularly graphic, it still had an inherent capability to make the viewer nervous. Such was the nature of Patrick Bateman’s psychopathy that you really didn’t know what to expect next, and I recall feeling extremely uncomfortable, right from the outset. The sequel is nothing like this – American Psycho 2 is largely a sequel in name only. The tone of the movie is very different – the filmmaker has attempted to inject some of the quirky tone that made the first film very much a black comedy, but the plot of the second film is so different that this really doesn’t work terribly well at all. American Psycho 2 is really just a variation on the formulaic teen slasher movie that Hollywood continues to churn out by the boatload.
It won’t really be giving that much away to tell you that Kate Newman becomes a serial killer herself, and systematically murders anybody who gets in the way of her mission to become the professor’s teaching assistant. The way in which this is managed is initially quite amusing, but as time draws on, plausibility goes further out the window, and after a while the whole piece becomes too ridiculous for words. As the body count piles up, nobody seems to notice that anybody is missing (a vague attempt at a twist in the tale does its best to explain this, but fails miserably). Newman seems to exhibit unnatural strength – firstly throttling a hot-blooded young male with a stretched condom, then stringing up one of her friends in her dormitory. Her most amazing feat is to impale a janitor on his own mop – we see his body sprawled in a dumpster, the point of entry being the roof of his mouth, with the mop handle poking clean through the top of his skull. Not surprisingly, the local police are generally rather incompetent – in America, missing persons seem to be filed and then ignored within the same day.
I’m not even sure that this film should rightfully be referred to as a horror movie. The plot deals emphatically with brutal murder, but we actually see very little of this – much of it is inferred – and to be honest there is nothing here that could be described as particularly gory or horrific. The film certainly doesn’t intend to scare you either – the quirky instrumental score is interspersed with a modern rock soundtrack – and there is no suspense at all. Nobody creeps up on anybody, there are no sudden loud noises and no eerie scenes set in the dark. Virtually from the outset, this film tells you who the killer is, so the film relies on other twists in the plot to keep you intrigued. I thought that the ending was quite good, although still very far-fetched, but the way in which the extent of Newman’s treachery was revealed was genuinely entertaining.
One of the reasons that I found this film so disappointing was the fact that it dared to be a sequel to the original movie. In many ways, you could congratulate the makers for using the legacy of Patrick Bateman in such a bizarre way – few movies would have resisted the temptation simply not to show more of Bateman’s mayhem, rather than to move things in a different direction. The trouble is, the film is so far removed from the original that you cannot help feeling a little cheated – it’s a bit like having a Friday the 13th movie without Jason in it. Opportunities for a sequel were ultimately rather limited by the original, but a sequel that probed the history of Patrick Bateman might have been ultimately more successful. I would probably have enjoyed this more had it been sold as a film in its own right – the American Psycho badge is essentially worn to boost audience figures.
The cast was largely unknown to me before I watched this movie. Mila Kunis stars as the disturbed teenager, Newman, and despite her rather grating voice, she is generally quite convincing. She is sexy, sassy and not unlike Angelina Jolie. Otherwise, the cast is generally quite unremarkable. William Shatner pops up as the unfortunate professor, but years of playing Captain Kirk and TJ Hooker mean that I can’t think of him as anything else now.
So what is American Psycho 2 actually all about? I’m not sure whether the film has a deep meaning or whether it is intended purely to entertain. The film superficially examines the concept of the serial killer’s mind – the paradox being, of course, that in this movie we have a serial killer studying other serial killers. Newman’s interaction with her therapist provides some food for thought – she apparently exhibits all the signs of a sociopath – she will do anything to get what she wants, and has an unhealthy obsession with the statement “Failure is not an option”. Unfortunately, this concept is not really explored any more than at face value – and is something of a wasted opportunity.
Strangely enough, American Psycho 2 has generally been quite well received – the premise of using the Patrick Bateman in such a novel way seems to be a welcome concept for the sequel. I suspect therefore that more chapters will follow. For me, this was a rather unmemorable piece from start to finish – a movie that couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to be.
Not recommended
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 2000 - Drama - Director: Giuseppe Tornatore - Original Language: Italian - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
well what a surprise. i didn't know that american psycho will get a sequel. greetings by matthi
BabyGirl 25.05.2002 19:52
gREAT op Phil! I actually really wanted to see this cause Mila Kunis play's Jackie in that 70's show and is pretty annoying so I had to see if she could actually hold a film all by herself! The original was kinda weird but this film still sounds like a waste, a teenage version of the orginal I guess! Lots Of Love! Katie! xXx
A Girl's Gotta Do What A Girl's Gotta Do... Set nearly 15 years after the events of ... more
'American Psycho' this is the story of a college freshman and Patrick Bateman survivor (Kunis) who becomes a teaching assistant to a professor just as she begins to d...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Patrick Bateman is dead, but his evil legacy continues in the body of the beautiful, young ... more
Rachael Newman, the only victim who managed to escape Bateman's grasp. Rachael has become obsessed with serial killers to such an extent that while at college sh...
Advantages: Something to watch (and pick holes in) when you're bored Disadvantages: Horror/comedy doesn't work, no depth to the plot, predictable, unbelievable
wiggglypufff 09.05.2004 (09.05.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of American Psycho 2 (DVD)
Advantages: Something to watch (and pick holes in) when you're bored Disadvantages: Horror/comedy doesn't work, no depth to the plot, predictable, unbelievable
wiggglypufff 09.05.2004 (09.05.2004)
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Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of American Psycho 2 (DVD)
![American Psycho 2 [DVD] [2001]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78519952.jpg "American Psycho 2 [DVD] [2001]")
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