American Psycho MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +1 1/2 Content: -4

Originally rated NC-17 but pared down for an R, this bizarre satire explores societys obsession with style and image through the eyes of a serial killer. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), a successful executive in a mergers and acquisitions company, has all the outward appearance of success. He follows a strict body-conditioning regime, wears the finest clothes, dines in the trendiest restaurants with his nominal fiancee and friends, and lives in a prestigious apartment building. But he admits that its all just a shell, hes not really there. Like Dr. Jekyll, Bateman has a darker, Mr. Hyde side who picks up prostitutes and call girls and frequently finds pleasure in killing. Like its subject, AMERICAN PSYCHO focuses too much on the surface image without exploring the darker whys of the psychotic mind, which will cause quick decline by audiences seeking deeper meanings.

Although viewers are spared more grisly sights, the film includes a number of gory scenes and images. Bateman kills one victim with an ax and although the blows are not shown, blood splatters the killer as he repeatedly strikes his prey. Another scene shows the slow-motion fall of a chainsaw and the resulting dead body oozing blood across the floor. As he contemplates another killing, a severed head sits in Batemans refrigerator. Brutal stabbings, shootings and bloody, vampire-like biting round out the gruesome pictures. Several more scenes show graphic sexual encounters with multiple women. Pornographic or gory videos often play on Batemans TV and he makes his own pornography. In a sad commentary, Batemans not even believed when he confesses his crimes to his lawyer. Filled with pornographic sex, gory violence and frequent vulgar dialogue, AMERICAN PSYCHO is a sick film.

Preview Reviewer: Paul Bicking
Distributor: Lions Gate Films, 5750 Wilshire Blvd., Ste 501, Los Angeles, CA 90036