DVD Movie Rating for: Very Bad Things

4 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Very Bad Things

A group of friends head to Las Vegas for a bachelor party.. only things go wrong and a woman is killed. Soon, the bodies are piling up and the friends find themselves turning against one another as the coverup builds.

DVD Production Details of: Very Bad Things

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Christian Slater

Director: Peter Berg

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Usa Films

DVD Release Date: January 11, 2000
DVD Features:
Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats

DVD Easter Eggs

Very Bad Things

Cast of the movie: Very Bad Things

• Jon Favreau .... Kyle Fisher
• Leland Orser .... Charles Moore
• Cameron Diaz .... Laura Garrity
• Christian Slater.... Robert Boyd
• Rob Brownstein .... Man
• Jeremy Piven .... Michael Berkow
• Daniel Stern .... Adam Berkow
• Jeanne Tripplehorn .... Lois Berkow
• Joey Zimmerman .... Adam Berkow Jr.
• Tyler Cole Malinger .... Timmy Berkow (as Tyler Malinger)
• Kobé Tai .... Tina (prostitute) (as Carla Scott)
• Russell B. McKenzie .... Security Guard
• Pancho Demmings .... Cop
• Blake Gibbons .... Suit
• Angelo Di Mascio Jr. .... Clerk

Photo Gallery of the movie: Very Bad Things

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Reviews of the movie: Very Bad Things

Peter Berg's dark comedy about a bachelor party gone horribly awry is highly ambitious in its attempts to satirize suburbia, male bonding, and self-help philosophy, and for the most part it does succeed in hitting its targets with a malicious, misanthropic glee. When five buddies arrive in Las Vegas for some pre-wedding shenanigans, things quickly spiral out of control when the requisite prostitute falls victim to a grisly accident, igniting a spark in an already unstable powder keg of personalities. Following the lead of real estate agent and self-help guy Robert (Christian Slater), the men warily agree on a cover-up and covert desert burial. A couple hours and another corpse later, however, they're already at each other's throats, and their escalating breakdowns threaten to disrupt the highly prized wedding of hard-as-nails bride Laura (a stunning Cameron Diaz). Berg, like most actor-turned-directors (this is The Last Seduction star's filmmaking debut) helms the film with a wildly sliding tone and tends to weigh its strengths heavily on its performers. Slater's psycho turn is by far his most inventive yet (he's more in control than ever before), Diaz effectively mixes sunshine with poison, and Jon Favreau is effective and understated as the hapless bridegroom; the rest of the cast, however, tends to play up the histrionics. Be warned, though: Those expecting a sunny-style There's Something About Mary gross-out comedy will probably be shocked by Berg's take-no-prisoners agenda; this is comedy at its absolute blackest, and no one is spared.

There is something to be said for occasionally watching a very bad movie, as it helps you appreciate the really fine ones. I suspected going into it, that this was not a good movie, and it got worse the longer it went. The writer and director was Peter Berg, a 30-something actor who was best known as a doctor on "Chicago Hope" TV series. What he tried to do here was make a very dark comedy, but the sum of his efforts is just plain junk. Some spoilers follow...

The evil character, and the ultimate catalyst for most of the bad things, is played by "Christian" Slater. What irony in a name. Five guys go to Vegas for a last fling batchelor party, booze, drugs, a prostitute. During sex in the bathroom, the back of the prostitute's head is accidentally impaled on a bathrobe hook. Calming the others down, Slater convinces them it would be better to just bury her in the desert, after all she's "just a prostitute". Until the hotel security guard happens in, sees the body, and he is murdered.

Perhaps the worst thing about the film was the next scene, in the hotel bathroom, where they are dismembering the bodies, to put them in suitcases, to carry out. The director goes out of his way to make it look guresome, with blood and flesh hanging off the saw blade. Just poor, poor taste in film-making.

They get back home, Slater is calm, several of the others are guilt-ridden. Gradually, others get killed off. Daniel Stern's character when his brother rams him and his minivan. Wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn) gets wise, Slater tries to smother her at night, they fight, she gets killed, brother-in-law is shot and killed to make it look like suicide. The bride, Cameron Diaz, "has waited 27 years for this" and is going to walk down that aisle. In a fit, right before the wedding, she bludgeons Slater with the metal base of a large coat rack, and he eventually dies after falling backward at the top of stairs when someone was going to retrieve the rings for the ceremony.

The new husband and friend get into a car accident, flies through the windshield, loses the lower halves of both legs, and is confined to a wheelchair. The death of the couple, whose will specified that thier two sons would be cared for by the new couple. The movie ends with Diaz going crazy in the street, as she realizes what personal hell she now is in.

I believe a good movie could have been made, but not one that tries for comedy with the subject matter as presented. The storyline is not particularly well-tracked, and the acting is far too often "over the top." I predict that in time, this will be remembered as one of the worse movies ever made. It is the very first one that I rate "1" of 10 on the Imdb.