Retro Film Review: Very Bad Things (1998)

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When black comedies fail, it usually happens due to poor balance between humour and darker overtones. In 1990s Hollywood black comedies often didn't turn out to be black enough – dark humour was often too diluted with sentimentalism, "political correctness" or cheap moralising. Very Bad Things, 1998 film written and directed by Peter Berg, was one of rare Hollywood to take the opposite path.

The plot starts with Los Angeles stock broker Kyle Fisher (played by Jon Favreau) preparing for the wedding with beautiful but neurotic Laura Getty (played by Cameron Diaz). Just like most men in similar situation, he decides to mark the occasion with wild bachelor party. He and couple of friends go to Las Vegas. The party, fuelled by alcohol and cocaine, gets too wild, resulting in accidental death of a stripper. Before Kyle and the rest of group can decide how to deal with it, their psychopathic friend Robert Boyd (played by Christian Slater), complicates things even further by killing hotel security guard who came to investigate the incident. The group, faced with possibility of further unpleasantness, decides to listen to Robert, remove the bodies, leave Las Vegas and forget everything. But their return to Los Angeles only leads to more paranoia and new escalation of bloodshed.

In its time Very Bad Things was attacked as one of the most mean-spirited films ever made and some critics even accused its author of racism and anti-Semitism. To a certain degree, those critics are right. Berg seems to take joy in his misanthropy. Many scenes enthusiastically show how, under certain set of circumstances, seemingly normal, ordinary and decent citizens can transform into murderous psychopaths and neurotic wrecks. In doing so, Berg is helped by equally enthusiastic performers. Christian Slater likes the opportunity to play villain a while Daniel Stern and Jeremy Piven are very good as sibling rivals. On the other hand, Cameron Diaz goes over the top as a woman neurotically obsessed with her wedding.

Berg directed this film very well, but this can't compensate for the film's main flow - lack of humour. Berg gets away with it in the first part, when the audience is introduced to characters, still unaware that there isn't anybody to like among them. In the second part Very Bad Things degenerate in larpourlartist, albeit predictable, orgy of violence which would lead to surrealist, pathetic and utterly unconvincing finale. Berg should be commended for his bravery in breaking some of Hollywood's taboos but take-no-prisoners approach by itself isn't enough for good entertainment.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on September 29th 2004)