Very Bad Things

source: Very Bad Things

VERY BAD THINGS / (1998) *** (out of four) By Blake French: "Allow me to be the first to say that what we have done here is not a good thing. It's definitely not a good thing. But it was, given the circumstances, the smart play." --Robert Boyd If anything, Peter Berg's "Very Bad Things" triggers a response, regardless of the nature. My initial reaction to the dark, disturbing parody was bleak and unpleasant. The movie displays sick, demented behavior and despicable, annoying characters. It's not humanly possible to like anyone in the movie. Christian Slater's character is cruel and selfish. Cameron Diaz displays a whiny, obsessive portrayal. I needed an aspirin during this unfunny mess. I viewed the film a second time; surprisingly, my opinion differed greatly. I liked all the same parts, but this time, my attitude changed. I watched with more of an open mind-the film is advertised as a dark comedy, but-although a few explosively funny moments occur-the film seldom provokes laughs. It's important to watch abstractly, with no remorse or guilt for enjoying the unholy revelation of events. Everything that happens here makes perfect sense under the circumstances. If you don't expect a light hearted, laugh a minute comedy, then "Very Bad Things" fulfills a long-needed niche in Hollywood. "Very Bad Things" is, like the tagline notes, a very savage comedy. It does not paint a happy portrait of our society-it's a scathing satire on American values. It's needlessly racist, sexist, and vulgar. It depicts a gross portrayal of modern families, the delicate but perverse male mindset, disgusting bachelor parties, and even the "happiest day" of many lives-the wedding day. Cameron Diaz plays Laura Garrety, a selfish, whiny bride-to-be. She's getting married in three days to a handsome fellow named Kyle Fisher (Jon Faveau from "Swingers"). She isn't happy with his decision to travel to Vegas with his friends for a bachelor party. They include two bickering brothers, Adam (Daniel Stern), and Michael (Jeremy Piven, who stepped into the role after Adam Sandler stepped out to make "The Waterboy."), as well as an organized but cruel real estate agent named Robert Boyd (Christian Slater), and a quiet mechanic named Charles Moore (Leland Orser). Once they arrive in Vegas, a stylistic montage sequence shows the five friends gambling, snorting cocaine, and drinking lots of alcohol. They settle in for the night at a fancy hotel, where a * (Carla Scott) arrives and lap dances the guys into a frenzy. Michael takes her into the bathroom for sex, but accidentally drives the *'s head into a towel hook, instantly killing her. The rest of the men panic and want to call for help, but Boyd has a better idea. He wants to bury the body in the nearby desert. The intrusion of a hotel security guard complicates the issue. Boyd kills him with a corkscrew during a particularly unpleasant scene. The rest decide to use a chain saw to cut up the bodies and carry them to the desert in suitcases, where they do indeed put the unfortunate souls underground. Although not for the easily offended, "Very Bad Things" takes us on a roller coaster ride through immorality and its consequences. It's fun watching the sequences of events, the bodies piling up, and the exaggeration of our most improper impulses. A great cast demonstrates their fine acting abilities. The script, also by Peter Berg, features very smart, witty dialogue. Berg directs the chaos with an engaging style-especially during the scenes in Vegas, and keeps the momentum throughout the movie. If the filmmakers played the material as straight drama, it might have worked even better, but as it is, "Very Bad Things" is a joy ride through harsh satire.

"Strip away the morality, strip away the ethics, and we're left with a 105 pound problem. 105 pounds that has to be moved from point A to point B." (Christian Slater as Boyd). Boyd is an estate agent. He is also a psychopath. Fittingly, given his recent incarceration for violence, Slater is landed the plum role. However, it turns out to be merely an extension of the nutcase he played in Heathers many moons ago. Only not half as good. Very Bad Things is part of a trio (the other two being The Opposite of Sex and Your Friends and Neighbours) of very nasty American independent movies coming out in the next month or so. Like its contemporaries it's memorable and scabrous. The tale concerns a trip to Las Vegas for the boys. Kyle Fisher, Favreau (of Swingers fame), is getting wed to snotty ex-sorority girl Laura (Diaz), but before he takes the plunge Boyd has organised some drugs and frolics in seamy Las Vegas. Accompanied by brothers Adam (Daniel Stern) and Michael (Jeremy Piven) and mute-like Charles (Leland Orser), the big boys' entertainment is abruptly curtailed. Michael, high on coke, has accidentally embedded an Asian (played by real-life * star Kobe Tai, a.k.a. Carla Scott) prostitute's head to a coat-hook in the bathroom. This is a truly gruesome scene that is interspersed quite cleverly with the revolting sight of two wrestlers on the TV. Noticeably, Berg's direction lingers very uncomfortably on her naked corpse. The boys panic and before you can say "blood bath", Boyd misuses a corkscrew on a hotel security guard, leaving him wailing like a pig, before, inevitably, slaughtering him. He duly announces: "Surrender is no longer an option." This kicks-off a lot of histrionic yelling and a burial scene reminiscent of Shallow Grave - shopping for equipment, decapitation and dismemberment. Aiming for humour, these scenes flop laugh-wise. Left in the hands of Tarantino or the Coen brothers, these sequences may have succeeded, but in Very Bad Things there is far too much screaming going on. The Coens would have tempered the chaos and brutality with pathos or a hint of humanity. Director Berg aims hard for "cool", but only achieves bad imitation. After the horror of Vegas, the utterly charmless set of businessmen return to their suburban homes and go swiftly mad. What ensues is a series of events reminiscent of the classic Ladykillers, interspersed with the occasional witty line. Diaz, in particular, gets some fine dialogue: "The scent of cheap hotel's *'s sex" and "No one is going to rob me of the wedding I've waited 27 years to have." Slater also gets a couple of good scenes where he takes corporate business logic to an insane limit: "I'm a lighthouse, I never go dark." Ultimately, Very Bad Things is disjointed, mildly irritating, far more violent than the pilloried and much finer Natural Born Killers, contains obnoxious characters and receives a rather good finale that it doesn't really deserve. A film that illustrates just how clever the likes Tarantino, John Dahl, The Coens and David Lynch really are. Ben Walsh

I have seen this movie three times and each time I am amazed, humored, frightened and relieved with the poetic justice at the end. And it's about time that I watch it again. The only problem I have with this movie is the title. Every time I try and remember the name I can't think of it. Maybe it should have been called Bachelor Party or Stag Party. I guarantee once you've seen it, you'll never forget it. Especially when your sons are planning marriage. The plot is great...fun time in Vegas. Girls, gambling, maybe sex. Then the plot thickens and from the bathroom scene on, you will not be able to leave the movie. Have your pacemaker checked, your box of tissue nearby, to wipe away tears of laughter, and enjoy. If there were higher than a "10" rating for a movie, Very Bad Things would achieve it hands down. It's not for children though, so view it after the little ones are in bed. Teenagers are fine, they know more about life then we want to believe. This movie has the comedy, the macabre and a justified ending. Rent it, buy it, watch it!

Very Bad Perhaps. Very Good Yes. But definitely nothing in the middle. Very Bad Things will antagonise most. It's certainly not the comedy it's touted to be. It's uncomfortable and it's fascinating. Very Bad Things is a cautionary tale about the war of the sexes, the battle of consumerism. It's about collateral damage: Friendly fire is liable to take out just about anyone in the suburbs if a wedding is at stake! It's about people who have lost heart, who have forgotten what's really important. Five male friends are off to Las Vegas for a stag party. The bride stays home to continue the wedding preparations; to plan her day of days. Accidentally the boys kill a prostitute in their hotel room and decide to hush it up, bury her in the desert to avoid the unpleasantness of an investigation. And then the body count mounts. The boys, and later, just as viciously the bride, take the pragmatic road. That same "let's get on with business, people don't matter" sort of morality that will allow a President to lie to Congress and get away with it, cricket champions to cheat and then be made Captain, politicians to sacrifice their citizens for the sake of overseas companies, and murder to be acceptable as long as no one finds out about it. It's not how you play the game, but you must win. The boys are pretty average types really except for Robert Boyd (Christian Slater, who was let out of prison to do the shoot!!!). Robert Boyd is a Men's Support Group graduate. He's into self fulfilment and asserting himself but is also the catalyst that tips these average men into horror. The other dominant personality is the bride Laura played by Cameron Diaz (There's Something About Mary). Her single mindedness is astounding. (Cameron Diaz is an astounding actress! Watch her eyes.) But what is " average" in these suburbs. And what about the pressures that go with paying the mortgage and keeping the wife happy? Very Bad Things finishes with a slow overhead shot of the suburb that has become hell for this lot. The tones are dirty grey. The mood is bleak and hopeless. The residents have sold their souls for a white minivan and a posh wedding. The pressures of keeping up with the Jones have had casualties. There are continual references to being 'a loser' in the film. Even Kyle's Dad in the Toast To The Groom at the wedding refers vividly to his son's dismal failure as a school football player. The men are liable to crack. Very Bad Things is about the pressure cooker male bread winners are living in. The fear of failure is lurking menacingly near by. The men in the film appear to be doing reasonably well from a fiscal point of view but when the pressure rises, the girl in the hotel room dies, horrible things happen with Boyd egging them on. The editing is ferocious, the characters are vivid and the mood is very wry indeed. Don't expect to laugh much but hell, paying the mortgage isn't much fun either. Men have been reacting to the mess they are in in the 90's but I would say that writer/director Peter Berg doesn't think much of Men's self help groups. Slater's Robert Boyd has twisted self assertiveness to his own ends. These suburbanites commit horrendous crimes, but still, we should all consider what the men in Very Bad Things are up against. The phrase "you do love me don't you" from the women in their lives has never sounded more manipulative.

I am positive that at least 50% of the people seeing "Very Bad Things" for the first time are going to hate it outright. They are going to be offended by the sensationalistic violence, by the sociopathic behavior of the principals, and by the portrayal of women as harpies and of men as buffoons and clowns. They will hate the way the movie portrays marriage and family and children. They will hate the vulgar language and the drunken maundering and the utter charmlessness of almost every character in the film. And they will especially hate the excruciating progression of the plot. In the tradition of Hitchcockian films like "Shallow Grave", "A Simple Plan", and "Dead In the Water", the events in the plot start out with a of a bad mistake, compounded by the worst aspects of human nature... and then motives of greed and fear cause more mistakes, things start to spiral out of control, and finally one mistake piles onto another until things are so awful that suicide seems like an easy way out...and in fact, an amazingly large number of people end up dead. That can be hard to watch, and it isn't every body's cup of tea. I fall into the other 50%, the group who enjoy this kind of savage, mean-spirited humor. I am of the opinion that Berg made exactly the film he wanted to make, and that he left it up to the audience to take it or leave it. I think that Berg wanted to hit a top note of wicked glee right away, and to sustain it for as long as he possibly could. And I think that the actors - Favreau, Slater, and Stern especially - came through with hysteric, overblown performances that make the movie exhausting and hard to watch in spots. But there is JUST enough believability to their performances that you feel as if that could be you, stuck in their place. Special kudos also go to Cameron Diaz for being willing to play such a narcissistic twit, somewhat of a stretch from the sunny, happy All American Girl types she has done so well over the last few years, And to Jeanne Tripplehorn, as the baffled and angry wife of one of the brothers, who knows something is wrong and can't be deflected until she learns the truth. The final shot, as Diaz's character runs screaming out the dream home-turned-nightmare to collapse gibbering in the street, is priceless, and serves as kind of a cosmic punchline to all the mayhem, murder, and malice of the presetting 90 minutes, and leaves me with a guilty grin on my face and a huge sense of relief - my life looks so good compared to what just went on in the movie that I want to dance like a white guy! The proper reaction to "Very Bad Things" probably ranges somewhere between a horrified giggles and the drunken bray of startled laughter you would make after hearing a really good "dead baby joke" for the first time.

A couple of days before his wedding with Laura Garrety (Cameron Diaz), Kyle Fisher (Jon Favreau) travels to Las Vegas for a bachelor party with his friends Charles Moore (Leland Orser), Robert Boyd (Christian Slater), Michael Berkow (Jeremy Piven) and his brother Adam Berkow (Daniel Stern) in his minivan. They go to an apartment in the hotel and get crazy drinking booze and using cocaine. When the * Tina (Carla Scott, a.k.a. Kobe Tai) comes to their room, she teases the friends and Michael goes with her to the bathroom to have sex. The prostitute hits the hanger for towel with her nape and she dies. The group panics, but Boyd convinces his friends to bury the woman in the desert. However one security guard comes to the room because of the noise and he glances at the dead body. He wants to call the police and Boyd stabs him to death. Then they clean the room and bury the bodies in the desert. They return home and Adam freaks out with the situation, causing an accident with his wife Lois Berkow (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and children. Meanwhile Laura organizes the wedding party and during the rehearsal, Michael and Adam have a serious argument and Michael decides to hit the minivan of his brother. Adam tries to protect his minivan and is accidentally murdered by his brother. Soon Lois finds a note written by Adam and presses the group to know what happened in Vegas. What will happen to them? "Very Bad Things" is one of the darkest comedies ever. The storyline of a group of friends that accidentally kills a woman is not original and has been used many times (for example, the 1997 low-budget "Stag"). However, "Very Bad Things" by Peter Berg has improved the story and is little gem of black humor. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Uma Loucura de Casamento" ("A Crazzy Wedding")

Boy, I have heard a lot of people knock this film and really slam it and I don't get it. Sure, it was dark, pitch dark, but it was funny. Lighten up people. The story picks up with Favreau about to be married to Cameron Diaz, not bad, Jon. Favreau's character seems quite nervous, we will later find out why that is. This is one of those classic abyss films, how much farther down can the lives of these guys go into the dark void. Each decision made leads them into more dire consequences. Christian Slater is at his comedic best, his character is sort of a cross between Charles Manson and Anthony Robbins. Stern has you convinced that he is about to have a stroke. Piven is also quite good. Everybody is good in this film. The film deals with the consequences of how people deal with a crisis. If one takes the moral way out, perhaps everything will be alright. However, if one takes another way to avoid possible punishment, what will be the long term outcome of that? In this film, you see through hindsight, what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive. Great performances, great direction, great movie! **** out of ****!

Depressing? Maybe. Disturbing? Certainly. Tasteless? My God, yes. Brilliant? Without a doubt. If one sets aside one's prudish moral beefs with this film, there is no disputing the fact that this motion picture takes total advantage of its medium. The story is well-constructed, the direction is solid, and the performances are impeccable (they finally found a use for Daniel Stern!). And, sure, it's got some graphic violence, and a pinch of gratuitous sex, but in the end, it does have a moral. I'm sorry, but this is easily one of the best films of the 1990's, and I'll personally spit on anyone who says otherwise.

Go ahead and rent very bad things. Go ahead and please watch very bad things. Around 20 minutes into the movie you will be sorry you did. I love dark comedies, I am a fan of violent over the-top movies, and I have seen some of the most perverse horrible flicks ever released (i.e Cannibal Holocaust). I liked Cannibal Holocaust to a degree, but no other movie has ever disgusted me as much as this, with the exception of Carpenters Vampires. Why did I hate this movie? It is physically upsetting to watch, all the characters scream and rant and are so blatantly stupid and idiotic that this movie probably gave me an ulcer, and I'm 19! No other movie has ever upset me as much as this movie did, Some fans of very bad things portray it has a a satirical depiction of suburban life, or human nature in general. It is nothing but an excuse to show some of the saddest excuses for comedy the writer had: a hooker's head impaled by a coat hanger, some of the most annoying children ever cast on film, and characters so hateful and one dimensional you cannot manage one ounce of sympathy for them. I know that is the point of the movie, to showcase these male headcases and make a statement about suburbia. But much like vampires, the characters are so dark, misogynistic and downright stupid that it takes away all the enjoyment of the movie. The point of movies is to entertain, or at least get something out of the movie. I walked away from Cannibal Holocaust, Tetsuo, Pink Flamingos, The Killer and many other violent, bizarre movies entertained and fascinated. I walked away from very bad things physically and mentally upset with myself, my girlfriend and the world in general...a real gem of a movie