VERY BAD THINGS (United States)
A review by Mark R. Leeper in bullet-list form
from the Toronto Internation Film Festival
CAPSULE: Five friends at a stag party are involved in the accidental killing of a prostitute. The cover-up attempt becomes a monster that eats up the friends, two wives and several innocent bystanders. This was a real audience pleaser at Toronto, but it did not do much for me. Rating: 4 (0 to 10), low 0 (-4 to +4)
- Directed by Peter Berg who acted in THE LAST SEDUCTION and COPLAND. - Five buddies go on a stag outing to Las Vegas while Cameron Diaz works through the logistics of her upcoming wedding to one of them. One of the buddies accidentally kills a prostitute. - Several people with no moral compass. They started out with a simple, innocent little cocaine party (!) and by accident look what happened. They have one moral person among them (Daniel Stern), and one totally amoral person (Christian Slater). It is more selfish to let the amoral lead, so they do. - This film is strange, but not really funny or biting. Black comedy should actually be funny as well as strange. There should be some element of satire. The satire is missing here. I did not find myself laughing here either. What we have is a strange crime tale. - One just does not care what happens to these people. - The same idea of people just getting themselves in deeper and deeper has been done frequently. If this film is popular it is just bringing a familiar plot to a new generation. - It begins like DINER (particularly with Daniel Stern) and ends up like an extended horror/crime comic book. - There are several logical holes in script. If a security man goes to investigate a complaint and disappears, wouldn't the guests he was investigating be the first suspects? Someone framed for a crime in the way shown would be judged innocent after minimal forensic detective work. (I am desperately trying to avoid making this a spoiler.) - Popular and situation ethics get a real slamming. - Some acting of grief is hammy and overdone. More yelling than humor.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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