Tuesday, November 24, 1998
Death, drugs, drinking ruin ideal wedding
FILM: First-time director
can’t keep story moving in dark, twisted comedy
A.J. Harwin
Daily Bruin Contributor
"Very Bad Things" is not a very bad movie. Is it a good one?
It’s a tough call. It’s a sick one – perverse and twisted – but
movie watchers may leave the theater with a smile.
One week before Kyle Fisher (Jon Favreau) is about to get
married to the beautiful Laura Garrety (Cameron Diaz), his buddies
take him on a wild trip to Vegas for a bachelor party. A few too
many shots, snorts of cocaine and a prostitute aid the buddies in
their quest for the ultimate good time. Unfortunately, trouble
brews when one of Kyle’s friends, Michael Berkow (Jeremy Piven),
has a little accident in the bathroom with the prostitute, giving
rough sex a bad and deadly name.
With fresh blood all over the fancy, white bathroom, Kyle and
his friends face the prospect of jail time or worse. They could,
however, follow Boyd’s (Christian Slater) idea, and bury the
"105-pound problem" in the desert. A trip to the local K-Mart-like
department store to buy a couple of chain-saws, plastic bags and
cleaning fluids seems to solve the problem.
Unfortunately, callously committing a crime and trying to cover
it up has an effect on everyone’s conscience, and it comes back to
haunt them. Life quickly changes from the simplicities of arranging
wedding seats to grave digging. Slowly but surely, the body count
rises.
Given top billing as the longtime childhood friend to Favreau’s
character, Slater plays his usual movie role as the slick,
fast-talking Boyd. Slater skillfully presents Boyd as a
conscienceless character with a somewhat destructive attitude,
thoughtfully controlled by the character’s previous
self-empowerment classes. Although the script seems to play to
Slater’s acting ability, there could have been more. Despite
getting many great taglines, it almost seems like Slater has to
hold back from comedic ad-libs. Regardless, Slater frightfully and
believably succeeds in his demented character role.
Cameron Diaz also returns to another of her familiar roles (see
"My Best Friend’s Wedding") as the bride-to-be. Diaz sheds her
previous typecasts of the gawky blond with a much more forceful
performance. Her character shines towards the end of the movie
where she will stop at nothing to make sure that the wedding she’s
planned for 27 years will go on.
Although the movie seems to start off slow and meanders
aimlessly from scene to scene, making the storyline hard to follow,
it picks up once the Vegas trip is underway.
The fact that Peter Berg is a first-time writer and director may
have something to do with the odd visual sequences scattered
throughout the picture that do nothing but drag the movie down.
You will likely leave the theater with a sick feeling in you’re
stomach. You just might leave with a devilish smirk on your face.
God help you if you can actually relate to the story. It is a dark
comedy, but at least the movie ends with a moral message: No one
gets away with murder.
"Very Bad Things" opens nationally on November 25.Polygram
Films
Laura Garrety (Cameron Diaz) plans her dream wedding in "Very
Bad Things."
Polygram Films
Jeremy Piven, Christian Slater, Leland Orser, Daniel Stern and
Jon Favreau turn on each other after a bachelor party goes horribly
wrong in the savage comedy "Very Bad Things".
Comments, feedback, problems?
© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]