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'Very Bad Things'
By Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 27, 1998
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Christian Slater and friends get involved in some "Very Bad Things."
(PolyGram)
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Director:
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Peter Berg
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Cast:
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Christian Slater;
Cameron Diaz;
Jeanne Tripplehorn;
Jon Favreau;
Jeremy Piven;
Leland Orser;
Joey Zimmerman |
Running Time:
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1 hour, 40 minutes
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Contains profanity, drug use, sex, nudity, violent death, dismemberment and argument
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Sliding back and forth between
"black" and "comedy" like a badminton shuttlecock, the bipolar "Very Bad
Things" is enough to give you whiplash. When it is good, the film by
"Chicago Hope" actor Peter Berg is very, very good, but when it is bad it
is horrid. Jumping from the pre-wedding bickering of laid-back Kyle (Jon
Favreau) and obsessive-compulsive Laura (Cameron Diaz) to bloody
scenes of a dead prostitute accidentally impaled on a bathroom hook at
Kyle's bachelor party, "VBT" can't seem to decide whether it's "Love,
American Style" or "Nightmare on Elm Street." Under the instigation of
sociopathic pal Boyd (Christian Slater, doing his glib maniac shtick), Kyle
and his buddies (Jeremy Piven, Daniel Stern, Leland Orser) attempt to
cover up the gruesome death, which only leads to additional murder upon
murder, loud recrimination and jokes about dismemberment, disability and
dead dogs. Some of the graphic gore is so over the top that it transcends
horror, as when the blood-spattered boys attempt to cut up the jiggling
flesh of their victims with what looks like a power jigsaw, but most of the
time it's just revolting. The alternately shrill and farcical scenes -- separated
by those annoying horizontal "wipe" cuts (accompanied by a loud
whooshing sound) that have become so fashionable on TV shows like "The
Practice" -- do not blend into a unified whole but sit there like congealed
vinaigrette. After a while, you'll either be laughing at everything like a
lunatic or cowering in your seat, afraid to even look at the screen.
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