American Psycho II: Der Horror geht weiter

American Psycho II (2002)

BOMB (out of 4)

In name only sequel to the cult film has Mila Kunis playing Rachel, a young woman who as a child killed the serial killer Patrick Bateman. Flash forward several years and Rachel is in college trying to become a FBI agent but her goal of becoming her professor's (William Shatner) assistant means that she will have to turn into a killer to knock off the competition. American PSYCHO II is just a poor cash-in on the cult success of the first film but I really don't knock it for that. As a fan of horror films I've come accustom to cheap knock-offs but the problem with this film is that it's just not nearly as clever as it thinks it is. The biggest problem for me is the entire tone of the picture, which seems to be wanting to wink at the viewer. Rachel is shown as just a sweet girl next door type and we get some of the worst narration that you're ever going to hear throughout the movie as we move from one killing to the next. This narration really was some of the worst that I've ever heard and it was quite annoying. Even worse is the music score, which also tries to wink at the viewer with its silly light touch. I'm really not sure what the producers were trying to do with this picture but it's certainly a complete failure from the opening scene to the last. Was this meant to be a spoof of horror pictures? Perhaps but it's certainly not funny and as I said before, the picture isn't nearly as clever as it thinks. Even worse is the fact that Kunis is just downright awful here and it's easy to see why she doesn't want anyone to bring the picture up. Everything from her line delivery to the way she shows any sort of emotion is just bad. Yes she's hot but that's certainly not enough to carry the picture. Shatner is pretty much just cashing a paycheck and adds very little to the picture. Even as a horror film this thing doesn't work as the death scenes are all forgettable and there's just not enough sleaze to make it entertaining.

American Psycho II is a blatant attempt to rip off the reputation of American Psycho, which was a classic critique of the 1980s yuppie culture. It was also based on an actual book, by Brat Easton Ellis, which means that it was much better written than your average teen horror schlock.

I feel sorry for 19 year old (at the time) Mila Kunis. I'm sure she's a nice girl and has some kind of acting future ahead of her.

The very notion of replacing Patrick Bateman with a cutesy teenaged girl (in the movie) is in and of itself a betrayal of the hardhitting satire it was based on. Any attempt to try and connect with the original is both forced and pathetic.

Miss this one at all cost, and if you haven't already, see the original, with Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe and Jared Leto, among many others.

I'm a sucker for sequels to films that should never have had sequels in the first place: I'm well aware that they rarely live up to the original, but I like to check them out anyway just to see quite how bad they can get. Still, I wasn't adequately prepared for the complete travesty that is American Psycho: All American Girl.

With only the most tenuous of links to the Christian Bale movie (adapted from Bret Easton Ellis's controversial novel), American Psycho 2, from Morgan Freeman (NOT the actor), is a laugh-free, gore-free, and nudity-free piece of crap aimed at a teen audience, that never once attempts to push the boundaries, totally eschews the original's biting satire in favour of lame parody, has a dreadful soundtrack (consisting of a throughly annoying comedic score and a selection of crap pop/rock songs—as opposed to the retro-cool 80s hits of the original), and even features an ageing William Shatner (sans girdle) as the object of affection for two very hot teenage girls. Now that's pushing it!

Gorgeous star Mila Kunis is admittedly very easy on the eye, bringing to mind a genetic splice of Katie Holmes and Angelina Jolie, but she's dreadfully miscast as the psycho (for starters, she's way too tiny) and her oh-so-devious character is thoroughly irritating, providing a continuously grating voice-over as she goes about killing the people who might prevent her from achieving her ultimate goal: to become an FBI agent so that she can catch serial killers (oh, how ironic).

If you're a fan of the original film, either avoid this embarrassing follow-up like the plague, or be prepared for a massive disappointment.

The summary says it all. While this film would have worked good under another title, it sucks as an AP sequel. I watched this movie before the first, and I have to say that I was quite impressed. I enjoyed the performances, the direction and the twist in the storyline. So I rented the first movie. I watched the first one, and again was very impressed. Very clever and very mind boggling... BUT it didn't, couldn't and wouldn't (no matter which way you think about it) link to the second. "American Psycho" isn't about killing people. It's about the mind. "American Psycho 2" is about... killing people, and it tries to make out that AP was too.... The more you try and link them together, the more they move apart. Enjoy these as two seperate movies. It isn't true that if you liked the first one you'll hate the second and vicer versa. You can like both movies, as long as you think of them in that way.

Rumor has it that Lions Gate Films took an old, un-used script and tweaked it just a little bit to make it a sequel to Universal's 2000 controversial hit "American Psycho." It's easy to see why this went straight to video. Played off as more of a dark comedy than the first one, and severely lacking any gore, nudity or intensity, this is a very weak follow-up and leaves a lot to be desired. Mila Kunis, as gorgeous as she may be, was absolutely annoying during her narrations - I couldn't help but think of "Family Guy" the whole time! I seriously almost took the tape out of the VCR several times, I just got so frustrated. This movie is very low-quality and was obviously made with a shoe-string budget -- which isn't a bad thing, as long the filmmakers know what they are doing, but director Morgan J. Freeman (no, not the guy from "Shawshank Redemption") doesn't seem to take the material seriously enough to make it work (there's a lot of interviews out there of him trashing the first film and the people who made it). Overall, it plays more like a made-for-TV movie and a very cheesy, bad attempt at dark comedy. A few twists here and there might perk your interest, but other than that, this girl is D.O.A.

2/10