Released: June 18th, 2002
Starring: Mila Kunis, William Shatner, Lindy Booth
Writer/Director: Alex Sanger and Karen Craig/Morgan J. Freeman
[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]
***
Why do people insist on making sequels to movies without any of the main players from the original? I only have one rule for sequels, make sure it's an actual continuation of the story, even if it sucks, at least it was an attempt and not a money grab. Sequels should try and build upon the original's foundation. A few of the best examples are: Rocky, Star Wars (original trilogy), and the best sequel of all-time, Godfather.
Since "American Psycho 2" has absolutely no connection to the brilliant Christian Bale film, the writers had to create a convoluted way to introduce us to our new protagonist. What they came up with was world class crap. As a young girl, Rachel Newman (Mila Kunis) watches as Patrick Bateman (Not Christian Bale) kills her babysitter, but instead of becoming another victim, she kills Bateman with an ice pick. Way to have one of the best characters in the past decade killed by an adolescent.
This is supposed to be her spark to becoming a psychopath, but it felt way too shallow. As the movie goes on, I begin to get the idea that the writers fell more in love with their character than making a good movie. Every scene screams, 'hey, look how clever and slick Rachel is.' While Kunis pulls it off alright, she seems like the wrong person for the role. I guess they thought they were going for femme-fatale, but actual became more of a parody, especially the ridiculous twist ending.
This made me realize that Kunis has made some terrible movies. I'm not sure if I have anymore of her movies coming up, but it will be an interesting case study to see just how many awful films she's been in. But for some reason, I will watch every single minute of them.
While we like to claim that we don't pick movies based on actor's attractiveness, I dare you watch an awful movie full of average looking people. You won't. Whether it's a Brad Pitt or a Mila Kunis, their sex appeal will keep you interested even if the movie is bad. And producers will take the appeal of a good-looking actor over a great film every single time.
There always a reason why sequels like this one and "Cruel Intentions 2" are direct-to-video sequels, usually it's because production values are low, but in the case of these films, it's because they shot this whole film, and then thought they could sell because of the title alone. And as I said before, my one rule is that a sequel need to continue the story with the same characters, and when you don't you get "American Psycho 2".
Rating: 2.5/10 -- Mila Kunis, that is all.
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