Very Bad Things [1998]

May 16, 2009

When you’re building a house or making dinner, you have to start with the right stuff. The ingredients must be good or the whole thing will just suck and Very Bad Things spared no expense when making this tasty dinner. We open with a set of familiar and yet intriguing characters. Characters that are begging you to learn more about them. The atmosphere is very vibrant and full of energy as the whole gang is going to Vegas to party. And party they shall. The plot here is just gloriously fun, dark, and above all, entertaining. Some might call it sick but I loved every second of it. Also, this is one of those movies where they didn’t fuck up the ending.

I remember watching Very Bad Things for the first time so clearly that I can still recall the scenes where I grinned hard. This was one of the first movies that featured that blend of violence, black comedy, and oddball characters. It was a fuck you to the established, mainstream comedies that now seemed tame and juvenile. The bizarre scenes, flawless script, and this morally ambiguous story stayed with me for a long time. This is also a movie you can watch over and over again. Each time you will find something new to love or simply enjoy the good old scenes like the “bleed out” one. Or the infamous Boyd speech. You simply cannot believe that things would escalate from there but they inevitably do. Just like in real life.

Kyle Fisher is a very lucky man. He’s about to marry beautiful Laura and his best man and friend Charles is there with him. However, Kyle doesn’t seem very happy about this. In fact, both he and Charles are extremely nervous and edgy. Mostly because of their bachelor party that happened just a few days ago in Las Vegas. It would seem that whatever happens in Vegas, doesn’t stay in Vegas.

Very Bad Things is also the movie that introduced me to a bunch of great actors. Of course, I knew Christian Slater from all those movies from the eighties along with Cameron Diaz. However, this is the first time I saw Jon Favreau, Leland Orser, and Jeremy Piven in action. And they were phenomenal. Of course, Slater stole the show as the practical psychopath Boyd and Daniel Stern also gave quite a convincing performance. He really doesn’t want you to touch his van. When you have a great script and great cast, characters spring to life with ease. And I’m so glad Adam Sandler chose to do Waterboy instead of this movie.

If you’re looking for movies like Very Bad Things, check out Judgment Night. After a couple of years, I had to come back to this review because the movie The Hangover came out. It also features a similar story of a bunch of guys going to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. However, Very Bad Things, as its title suggests is a much more fucked up and darker movie. All the while keeping the atmosphere somewhat breezy, as much as it can be with a plot like this. Once things start happening, you can basically place yourself in that situation and start thinking about what would you do. And this is the question I will leave you with, what would you do in that situation?