Cheap Very Bad Things (DVD) (Cameron Diaz, Christian Slater, Daniel Stern) (Peter Berg) Price

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Customer Reviews of Very Bad Things

technically excellent, but left a bad taste
In general I approve of black comedy. "Theatre of Blood" is a favourite of mine, for example. I thought "Fargo" was great. VBT, however, does not work for me as entertainment; I think this is for one very simple reason: the plot centers around the murder (or manslaughter) of a prostitute by a hopped-up John, and this -- wake up folks -- is not fantasy but something that happens every goddamn day all over the world. I have heard that the cops in LA and NYC don't even start investigating the deaths of hookers till they reach double digits per month.

So, umm, a bunch of rich white guys killing a hooker and then a black security guard just doesn't strike me as unrealistic enough to be funny.

This is a fantastically misanthropic film; the only person with a conscience gets killed off only half way through, and though in the end the bad guys get what's coming to them, it hardly qualifies as a morality play. There is no one you can like in this cast of characters. The writing and directing has a cold and depressing quality; the general mode is one of deep contempt for humanity, a sort of vicious post-Swiftian accidie.

The only bright points for me were its uncompromising illumination of just how stupidly grown men behave when in packs, and (here I'll give it four stars) its cruelly accurate dissection of the selfish amorality behind most popular "self-help" pseudo-philosophies. Slater makes a truly demonic villain, but again he is just a bit too real to be comfortably hilarious -- I get the feeling that there are people just like him running many major corporations :-)

It's true one can have more than enough of trad Hollywood feel-good fare, but I think VBT is not the right antidote. It has the Tarantino disease, a kind of cold creeping nastiness that offers sadism in place of wit and blood-n-guts shock value in place of any real originality. See it for Slater's virtuoso performance -- it's a classic, right up there with Peter Lorre at his scariest and funniest -- but don't expect to feel cheerful afterwards. I felt like I wanted to wash my face and hands after it was over.

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Peter Berg is a genius.
Who would ever expect something so sick, twisted, and downright hilarious from the innocent-looking Peter Berg? Oh my, where do I start? Okay....Here goes, five twenty-something yuppies head off to Vegas for a bachelor party. They are in what appears to be a penthouse suite, living it up with LOTS of alcohol and cocaine when the stripper/hooker shows up. Well, things start to get a little bit out of hand (to say the least). You see, the hooker has a nasty bout with a towel hanger in the bathroom. She sort of, well...dies and the five guys start to do what any other upstanding citizen would do. Dial 911. That is until Robert (Christian Slater) steps up to take control of the "situation". Being one of those "self-help" gurus, his philosophy is simple, "block out every moral that you've had hammered into your head, your entire life and you're left with a 105 pound problem." Solution? Just clean up the mess and bury the body in the desert. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, as it turns out, things don't exactly go as planned. Before everyone even has time to agree, there is ANOTHER body to dispose of. Now, there is no turning back. (A security guard shows up to see what the ruckus is about and Robert kills the poor sap). So, they get things cleaned up, and head back home for the big wedding. This is where the fun REALLY starts. I won't drop any more spoilers, but I will say this: If you do plan on seeing this movie, please be forewarned. It is NOT for the sqeamish and it is not called "Very Bad Things" for nothing. If you like good, nasty humor (with lots of gore) this film is for you. However, If you are easily offended, avoid this one like the plague.

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this is the title of my review
I love this movie! It's just that you must not take the movie too serious. In this movie everything goes wrong and if you can't stand that you should have watched Saved by the bell or something...