Veteran actor Peter Berg made his writing & directing debut here with this jet-black comedy (yes, folks, it IS a comedy) about the disastrous results of a bachelor party in Vegas. The groom to be is Kyle Fisher (Jon Favreau), and the buddy responsible for all the mayhem to follow is Michael (Jeremy Piven), who accidentally kills a prostitute (the sexy Kobe Tai, in a cameo) during a bout of rough sex. One thing leads to another, and soon all the idiots present have another dead body on their hands. They bury the bodies in the desert, hoping that they can put this ugly mess behind them, but guilt starts to weigh too heavily on some of them (in particular, the weakest link, family man Adam (Daniel Stern)).
"Very Bad Things" is the kind of comedy that is likely to engender personal reactions. If you love this sort of dark comedy, and don't mind spending time with some pretty despicable characters, you'll be in Heaven. If this sort of thing doesn't sound appealing to you, you'll loathe it. Ultimately, Berg *does* keep the film very true to his bleak vision, complete with lots of gore (courtesy of the boys at KNB) and some intense stunts. And Berg does not let supposedly "safe" characters, like children and dogs, off the hook. A great many individuals come in to take their lumps.
As unappealing as most of the main characters can be at times, they don't hold a candle to the quick-thinking, pragmatic (at least, he *thinks* he's being pragmatic), and utterly sociopathic Robert (a highly amusing Christian Slater, who is also one of the executive producers).
Solid ensemble acting (the cast also includes Jeanne Tripplehorn, Leland Orser (these two became a real-life couple after meeting here), Cameron Diaz as an extremely controlling, demented bride to be, Joey Zimmerman, Tyler Cole Malinger, and Lawrence Pressman) helps a lot. One cannot say these actors don't thoroughly commit to these characters that they're playing.
Overall, a very lively experience, guaranteed to leave smiles on some viewers' faces.
Seven out of 10.
"Very Bad Things" is the kind of comedy that is likely to engender personal reactions. If you love this sort of dark comedy, and don't mind spending time with some pretty despicable characters, you'll be in Heaven. If this sort of thing doesn't sound appealing to you, you'll loathe it. Ultimately, Berg *does* keep the film very true to his bleak vision, complete with lots of gore (courtesy of the boys at KNB) and some intense stunts. And Berg does not let supposedly "safe" characters, like children and dogs, off the hook. A great many individuals come in to take their lumps.
As unappealing as most of the main characters can be at times, they don't hold a candle to the quick-thinking, pragmatic (at least, he *thinks* he's being pragmatic), and utterly sociopathic Robert (a highly amusing Christian Slater, who is also one of the executive producers).
Solid ensemble acting (the cast also includes Jeanne Tripplehorn, Leland Orser (these two became a real-life couple after meeting here), Cameron Diaz as an extremely controlling, demented bride to be, Joey Zimmerman, Tyler Cole Malinger, and Lawrence Pressman) helps a lot. One cannot say these actors don't thoroughly commit to these characters that they're playing.
Overall, a very lively experience, guaranteed to leave smiles on some viewers' faces.
Seven out of 10.