On the surface, American Psycho seems like a dark thriller about a serial killer. The dark and serial killer part is correct, but this film isn’t a thriller at all. In fact, the film plays out like a dark satirical comedy instead of a thriller. There is a ton of hilarious moments involving businessmen in the 80s. It loves to poke fun at their wild and crazy lifestyle and their obsession with one-upping each other. Not to mention, some of Christian Bale’s “craziness” is funny to watch as well.
However, the most intriguing aspect of American Psycho is how the film goes from satire to serious. Like it spirals out of control as the film progresses—similar to Patrick Bateman’s mentality. In addition to his inner outbursts, you get a sense of what’s going on in the mind of Patrick Bateman. Needless to say, it’s not pretty. Once again, this is a clear message about the cutthroat mentality of businessmen in the 80s. It’s definitely a great character study.
But with all the craziness, the film takes a lot of detours. As a result, the film feels like a three-hour film rather than a film that’s less than two hours. These detours last a long time and don’t really serve a purpose to the overall storyline. It adds evidence to the fact that Bateman’s crazy but there’s plenty of evidence of that throughout the film.
Nevertheless, Christian Bale absolutely brings his A-game to this career-defining performance. This is the film that made fans believe that he could be a wonderful Bruce Wayne. Bale is able to display many sides to Bateman including crazy, ferocious, narcissistic, and serious—just to name a few. It’s quite impressive to watch it all unfold on screen.
Overall, American Psycho is a hilarious yet creepy look inside the mind of a killer. The film is definitely not a film for everyone, but it’s a great character study performed by the incredible Christian Bale.
Rating: 4/5 atoms
Video
American Psycho hits 4K Ultra HD with a Dolby Vision/HDR transfer and a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The brightness is vibrant and bright without any bloom whatsoever. Also, the black levels are inky and dark but there is a lot of crush in the shadow details. Unfortunately, the color saturation is inconsistent but this might be because of the source material. Some scenes look desaturated while some have a natural colonization to them. The skin tones have a warmness to them.
Much like the saturation, the contrast is inconsistent as well. Some scenes look a little bit flat but other scenes have a nice depth to them. Fortunately, the detail clarity is sharp and crisp. The film grain is barely noticeable as well. Overall, this is a decent video presentation.
Rating: 3.5/5 atoms
Audio
American Psycho hits 4K Ultra HD with a Dolby Atmos and a core 7.1 Dolby TrueHD track. This review will reflect American Psycho‘s core 7.1 Dolby TrueHD Master Audio track. Because of the nature of the film, the audio mix is very static. There isn’t a lot of sound effects within the film, so there’s not a lot of opportunities for dynamic pans. However, there is a lot of music that does fill up the soundstage. This is where most of the immersion comes from. However, when there are sound effects (like the chainsaw scene), it fills up the entire soundstage like a sonic boom.
The awesome soundtrack and score subtly and loudly play across the soundstage to great effect. Since this is a dialogue-heavy film, the dialogue sound so incredibly crisp coming from the center channel. Also, the dialogue is never drowned out by the music. Needless to say, there isn’t a lot of LFE in this mix either. Overall, this is a good audio mix.
Rating: 4.5/5 atoms
Special Features
American Psycho’s 4K Ultra Hd Blu-ray has the following special features on it:
- New Audio Commentary witg Director and Co-Writer Mary Harron
- Audio Commentary with Director and Co-Writer Mary Harron
- Audio Commentary with Co-Writer and Actor Guinevere Turner
- Deleted Scenes
- People… Wanna Get Caught
- I’m Leaving
- You Want Me To… Floss with It?
- Is It a Receptacle Tip?
- Never Date a Vassar Girl
- The 80s Downtown
- American Psycho: From Book to Screen
The deleted scenes are featured in such a weird way. Each scene features interviews with some of the cast members before each scene. At first, there’ll be some confusion on whether or not you’re on the right special feature. However, the deleted scenes as a whole never would’ve added anything to the film.
“The 80s: Downtown” is another weird and dated featurette. This piece has various people talking about the eighties. The weird thing is that random text overlays appear during the interviews. In a way, it’s similar to someone just finding out that they can animate text over videos so they go overboard with it. Nevertheless, the eighties were a time of excess so everyone’s stories are all interesting to listen to.
“American Psycho: From Book to Screen” Sarah Ellquist’s bland breakdown of the history of the book which brings down the quality of the featurette. Not to mention, the editing is a little off as well. One interview would be cut all of a sudden to another as a way to connect the stories together. However, this gets a little old after a while. It’s a shame since the stories about the book and film are so interesting. At least, the audio commentaries are interesting to listen to.
Rating: 1.5/5 atoms
Overall, American Psycho is a career-defining film that showcases the acting talents of Christian Bale. The video transfer is inconsistent but at least the audio mix is great. Unfortunately, the special features are all dated and not produced very well either.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5 atoms
This Blu-ray was reviewed using a retail/advance copy/unit provided by Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
The post American Psycho – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review appeared first on Nerd Reactor.
from Nerd Reactor
0 comments: