Very Bad ThingsOf all the films this year, VERY BAD THINGS has the distinction of having the absolute perfect title (Dark City pops in for a close second). Strangely, this title should warn anyone about the content of the film. Critics will and are bashing the film for being too grotesque to be funny, yet the film warns everyone about this before we even see it. So arguing that it's too grotesque isn't really valid, since in fact it knows it is too grotesque. Here is the film that I was hoping There's Something About Mary would have been... just a tad bit more gory.
Okay, a lot more gory. In fact, it's probably the goriest film of the year, even if you account for all the teen-slasher movies. What's more, it's all played for laughs. When someone dies, we don't laugh, but what is truly funny is the reaction of the people involved in the murders. The audience I attended the film with was laughing hysterically throughout its entirety. And while I may be hesitant to admit it, I laughed as well. Laughing at horrific murders and deaths isn't unusual, as I thought Fargo and Pulp Fiction were hilarious. But what is unusual is the seriousness in which the film takes the murders. The woodchipper in Fargo was extremely funny despite being horrific with the one foot sticking out. The murder in the car in Pulp Fiction was funny because it was never supposed to even happen. Here, the characters are quick to realize the terror and fear that a murder can bring on. Or at least initially they do.
VERY BAD THINGS begins calmly enough. Laura Garrety (Cameron Diaz) and Kyle Fisher (Jon Favreau) are a couple in love, planning their wedding day. Laura is a little obsessive... she needs every little detail to be perfect. At one point, she admits, "Nothing is going to get in my way of walking down that aisle!" Later in the film, she proves that with shocking results. Kyle is more laidback about the deal. All he wants to do is get married and settle down. But settling down is not what's about to come for him. It's bachelor party time, and his four friends decide to take him to Las Vegas where they can get all the strippers, drugs, and booze that they want. There's Robert Boyd (Christian Slater), an eccentric real estate agent who may be a little to eccentric for his own good. Adam Berkow (Daniel Stern) is a family man with two lovely children and a lovely wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Michael Berkow (Jeremy Piven) is Adam's brother but a solid single man who has no prospects for marriage. Charles Moore (Leland Orser) is an introverted mechanic who tends to stay away from most of the action.
As soon as the stripper arrives, however, testosterone takes over, controlling the men just as much as the drugs and alcohol. The stripper flaunts her body all over the guys, and soon Michael's hormones take over as he picks her up and takes her into the bathroom. "It'll be $500 more for straight sex," she tells him. Little does she realize that she will not be receiving that money. As Michael wildly satisfies himself, he accidentally impales her on a towel hook. He walks out and the other four are in shock at the sight of blood. The body, still hanging from the hook, drops to the floor. Robert takes over, acting as the head of the group. "We have two options: tell the cops, or bury the body in the desert," he asks. This seemingly simple plan turns worse as a security guard shows up and sees the body. Now they have a two body problem.
As violent as the film has been up to this point, it gets a lot worse. The five can't just carry the bodies to their car, so they cut them up with an electric saw (one of the film's more disturbing moments) and wrap them in bags. They stuff them into their suitcases and leave as if nothing ever happened. This problem spirals even more as the five begin to have conflicts with their consciences. Adam, especially, can't deal with the stress of the situation. Soon enough, he begins to feel that telling someone would be best. The rest, especially Robert, warn him that it's a bad idea and that his life would be forever ruined. And just as the title suggests, very bad things continue to occur.
In actuality, this film could have gone two different ways. One, it could have been the dark comedy it is. Two, it could have been a slow, suspense film in which drama takes precedence. The latter could have been a retelling of the classic Edgar Allen Poe story, "The Telltale Heart" in which a man becomes so haunted by the sound of a man's beating heart underneath his floorboards that he confesses to the murder he committed. But writer/director Peter Berg takes it the comedic route, and for the most part succeeds. This dark, dark, dark comedy somehow manages to be funny amidst all this death and mayhem. Berg's screenplay contains witty and very funny dialogue while simultaneously developing realistic characters that we care for. It's hard to care for a character like Robert Boyd, since he's mostly a satire of real estate agents in general, but with Slater in the role, he's hard not to like. When he kills a woman who may or may not know what they did in Vegas, we secretly hope he gets away with it. How's that for inhumane?
Of course, it may just be at the fault of the actors. Christian Slater is a very underrated actor, as he proved with Hard Rain earlier this year. Now he has a meatier role that tends to characterize people's beliefs that real estate agents are evil. Slater is the one to watch here. But so is Jeremy Piven as the big, brawny brother of Daniel Stern. Piven is mostly known for his good work on TV's Ellen, his deadpan humor matching Ellen DeGeneres' deadpan comedic abilities. Here he's given a rather emotional role that is probably the most developed of them all. Daniel Stern gets quite annoying due to his psycho-babble and nonstop insanity. Then there's Leland Orser who most remember from his short but frightening turn as a crazed man who had to kill a woman for 'LUST' in the similarly gruesome Se7en. Orser is quite effective here, adapting a successful introverted persona. Jon Favreau is good as the lead guy, but he's pretty much your standard colorless hero (as with most movies, the villain is the most entertaining). Cameron Diaz gives yet another good performance in an ever-growing impressive resume. Her work in There's Something About Mary was the only thing that saved that film. Together, it's one of the most impressive ensemble casts to be put on celluloid this year.
Director Berg knew he had to go over the top with this film or audiences wouldn't like it. He goes over the top many, many times, offending everyone from Asians to African-Americans to Jews. It's a lot like The Opposite of Sex in that everyone is a target. Many people have considered the film to be racist against Asians and African-Americans. I feel differently, as the only real normal people are those from those two groups. The white characters are almost all insane, and if they aren't insane, they have some physical ailment. Berg has done a great job behind the camera as well. The darkness of the film coincides with the dark subject matter. While many scenes contain dialogue that is shouted too often, and some scenes drag on unnecessarily, VERY BAD THINGS is a rather effective black comedy. In the same way that Bride of Chucky was, put this one on my guilty pleasures list.
VERY BAD THINGS is rated R for extreme graphic violence and gore, sex, nudity, drug use, and language. It definitely deserves the R rating. Blood is to the extreme, with bodies being cut up, dismembered, smashed between cars, pounded with coat racks, and more. This is definitely not a film for everyone in the same way that Fargo is not a film for everyone. If you liked Se7en and you liked Fargo, then more than likely you will be entertained by this comedy.