Very Bad Things

A film review by Matt Lawrence - Copyright © 1998 Filmcritic.com

What can I say about this movie? It's completely original, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s a pretty sick movie. It’s also a drop dead (literally) hilarious movie that is one of this year’s best. I walked into it thinking it was going to be an average comedy. Another movie with almost an identical premise called Stag, was not very good. This time, I was in for a good time.

The premise is simple. Kyle (Jon Favreau), Boyd (Christian Slater), Adam (Daniel Stern), Michael (Jeremy Piven) and Charles (Leland Orser) are off to Las Vegas for Kyle’s bachelor party. The guys are drunk, and high but it doesn’t end there. When the stripper/prostitute comes, things get ugly. When the hooker is having sex with Michael, she accidentally gets a towel hook in her head and dies. Everyone starts to freak out except for Boyd, who decides that the best idea is to bury her in the desert so no one will get in trouble. They do, and after that things start snow balling into other catastrophes.

Christian Slater, Daniel Stern, and Cameron Diaz (as the bride to be) are all brilliant in their roles. Slater plays Boyd as a cool, calm, collected, psychopath. Every moment that he’s on screen, it is 100% pure entertainment. The thing that made this movie so unique is that these guys are regular people. Writer-director Peter Berg takes what could have been a regular concept into a fast paced funny film. It will offend some people. But it’s the kind of movie that offends you into laughter.

Rating

4.5 out of 5 Stars

  • Director: Peter Berg
  • Producer: Cindy Cowan, Diane Nabatoff, Michael Schiffer
  • Screenwriter: Peter Berg
  • Stars: Jon Favreau, Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Stern, Jeremy Piven, Leland Orser, Jeanne Tripplehorn
  • MPAA Rating: R

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