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General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: TVC15 on May 10, 2008, 04:01:46 AM

Title: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: TVC15 on May 10, 2008, 04:01:46 AM: Boy, them Bateman brothers really are kinda alike. Although you kinda have to fill in some blanks in Rules of Attraction with some of the left out stuff from the book to get the full picture on Sean. They are both totally awesome sociopaths. I wish there were a decent film made of Less Than Zero, but I guess nobody wants to make Bret Easton Ellis movies now.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: CajoleJuice on May 10, 2008, 04:04:45 AM: Was this spurred by the A.V. Club article about Rules of Attraction? :P

I can't really say much, since I've only seen one of them.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: TVC15 on May 10, 2008, 04:06:24 AM: Quote from: CajoleJuice on May 10, 2008, 04:04:45 AM
Was this spurred by the A.V. Club article about Rules of Attraction? :P

Yeah, and I hadn't seen the movie in a while. I got it in a cheap bin some months back and it was just the excuse I needed to open it.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: CajoleJuice on May 10, 2008, 04:07:52 AM: Should I read the book before bothering to watch Rules of Attraction? Since you say there's some stuff left out to fill in, I'm guessing yes?
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: TVC15 on May 10, 2008, 04:16:13 AM: Quote from: CajoleJuice on May 10, 2008, 04:07:52 AM
Should I read the book before bothering to watch Rules of Attraction? Since you say there's some stuff left out to fill in, I'm guessing yes?

Well, the book is written in first person, from the POV of multiple characters (it switches characters frequently, although there are 3 main characters), so in some ways the book itself is unfilmable. It's also kind of a plotless portrait, similar to Less Than Zero and American Psycho. The movie does a decent job of making something watchable out of it, though like in American Psycho, many sacrifices were made. It's difficult to talk specifics without getting spoilery about it. Some of the key differences are:

1) One character in the book is split into two characters in the movie.
2) Some of the relationship details are a little bit different, for the effect of adding a plot and some sort of dramatic tension.
3) A ton of content about the third main character, the gay dude/Boone from Lost isn't in the movie, because America hates fegs and some of it is difficult from a POV perspective.
4) The changed the movie from occurring in the late 80s to roughly modern day (although no dates are said, all cultural references are changed to more modern things).
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Smooth Groove on May 10, 2008, 04:18:36 AM: Cool, then you can explain what really happened in American Psycho to me.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Ichirou on May 10, 2008, 04:22:55 AM: Quote from: TVC 15 on May 10, 2008, 04:01:46 AM
Boy, them Bateman brothers really are kinda alike. Although you kinda have to fill in some blanks in Rules of Attraction with some of the left out stuff from the book to get the full picture on Sean. They are both totally awesome sociopaths. I wish there were a decent film made of Less Than Zero, but I guess nobody wants to make Bret Easton Ellis movies now.

They JUST made an adaptation of The Informers, and Zoolander was totally ripped off from Glamorama. Ellis is pretty well represented in film.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: TVC15 on May 10, 2008, 04:30:02 AM: The movie plays up the "was it real or not?" angle more. That angle is also in the book, but it doesn't happen in the twist/climax-y way that it does in the movie. In the book, Bateman goes progressively insane throughout the book, starting as a yuppie and ending up a murderous psychopath. And it's a slow transition--I don't think he does anything even resembling murderous psychopathy in the first 100 pages, but by the end of the book he's murdering little children in public at the zoo and fellating himself with the decapitated heads of prostitutes.

Quote
They JUST made an adaptation of The Informers, and Zoolander was totally ripped off from Glamorama. Ellis is pretty well represented in film.

I've never read the Informers. . .was that the short stories? Have you seen it?

I've never seen Zoolander, either, though I have read Glamorama. Is it worth seeing to get disgusted?
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Ichirou on May 10, 2008, 04:37:16 AM: Well, when I say they JUST made it, I mean just that - it finished filming a few months ago and hasn't come out yet. It's based on a collection of short stories, but the stories are all connected.

Zoolander is actually a pretty funny movie, one of Ben Stiller's better ones, but the main thrust of the plot is stolen from Glamorama. I think Ellis actually sued the movie studio and they ended up settling.

I wonder what happened to Glitterati, the movie that Roger Avary was going to make based on outtakes from Kip Pardue's trip to Europe. It sounded like a combination travelogue and porno.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: TVC15 on May 10, 2008, 04:39:28 AM: That's probably the best part of the movie.

NSFW due to like 1 second of boobies

http://youtube.com/watch?v=V_HCGKuqDjE
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Smooth Groove on May 10, 2008, 04:39:44 AM: TVC or Ichi, please spoiler what you think really happened in American Psycho (the movie).
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: TVC15 on May 10, 2008, 04:45:08 AM: I think the movie pretty clearly states that he's crazy and it's doubtful that anything that took place before happened, although it's ambiguous.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Smooth Groove on May 10, 2008, 04:47:24 AM: It's pretty ambiguous. That's why I hate artsy movies sometimes. I was a Science major so I've been conditioned to get a concise answer.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Ichirou on May 10, 2008, 04:47:55 AM: I think it's pretty clear he was a killer...after all, he's shown committing murders and getting killed in the canonical sequel.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/American_Psycho_2.jpg)

:spin
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: TVC15 on May 10, 2008, 04:49:56 AM: My love of travesties has me wanting to see that, but I am guessing it is a by the numbers slasher flick, basically. No more travesties for me until I can sit through Southland Tales!
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Ichirou on May 10, 2008, 04:52:20 AM: I saw it, it's just a direct-to-video slasher movie with the American Psycho name tacked on.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Smooth Groove on May 10, 2008, 04:52:39 AM: The chick on the cover is a cheeseburger? What a waste.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Ichirou on May 10, 2008, 04:53:24 AM: No, she is a girl who was mentally scarred by seeing her babysitter killed by Patrick Bateman, so she becomes the new American Psycho.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: TVC15 on May 10, 2008, 04:54:29 AM: Isn't that the plot of one of the Friday the 13th movies? And Silent Night, Deadly Night?
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Ichirou on May 10, 2008, 04:58:36 AM: That, cobbled with bits from the first Urban Legend (serial killer in a college setting). William Shatner gives a shittacular performance as the college professor/retired FBI agent who tracked Patrick Bateman down, and is later seduced/killed by Mila Kunis.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: TVC15 on May 10, 2008, 05:04:57 AM: Captain Kirk gets Patrick Bateman? Well, I guess I can't argue with that.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Enl on May 10, 2008, 05:12:13 AM: God the sequel is horrendously bad and absolutely nothing like the first movie in tone. Hell I remember reading an interview with the director in Fangoria a long time ago where he stated how he hated the original film and wanted to do his own thing for the sequel. It's a painful horror movie to watch and not in a bad yet fun "generic 80's slasher film" sort of way, but more akin to the shitty teenie bopper horror movie craze that plagued the late 90's like Urban Legend and friends.

EDIT: I thought it was the little girl that killed Bateman and not Shatner.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Ichirou on May 10, 2008, 05:23:44 AM: No, I didn't mean to imply Shatner was the one who actually killed Bateman, he was just the guy in charge of tracking him down.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Eric P on May 10, 2008, 08:17:12 AM: Quote from: TVC 15 on May 10, 2008, 04:30:02 AM
I've never seen Zoolander, either, though I have read Glamorama. Is it worth seeing to get disgusted?

i really rather like zoolander. the film has a lot to offer if you go in to it with the right mentality.
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Phoenix Dark on May 10, 2008, 02:23:21 PM: spoiler (click to show/hide)
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e86/PhoenixDark1/wtfbbq.jpg)
[close]
Title: Re: I watched both Rules of Attraction and American Psycho today
Post by: Solo on May 11, 2008, 12:29:39 AM: I hated Rules of Attraction (the movie; never read the book).