Very Bad Things Review

It`s interesting how often a wedding crops up in movies these days and it`s also ,interesting how often Cameron Diaz is the bride. In Very Bad Things she plays Laura, due to marry Kyle, Jon Favreau in a week and she`s freaking out about table arrangements while he`s trying to get his bachelor party together with four friends - Robert, Christian Slater, Adam , Daniel Stern, Michael, Jeremy Piven and Charles, Leland Orser in Las Vegas. Well the boys make it to their luxury hotel room in the gambling capital of the world but disaster strikes, the hooker that`s been arranged is accidentally killed in the bathroom. Robert is determined on a cover-up, a quick burial in the desert and when a security guard is dispatched in a panic the others feel they have no choice. The nightmare has begun, and like all bad dreams it`s going to go from bad to worse... Very Bad Things is the first feature as writer/director from actor Peter Berg who was in The Last Seduction. He displays a diabolical mind as he balances his black comedy on a tightrope of tastelessness and total immorality. It`s handled quite cleverly by Berg but ultimately it`s not funny enough and it becomes repetitive and misogynistic...It`s a bit shrill, I got sick of the men screaming at one another in a panic. People have made something of the fact that it`s an Asian prostitute and a black security guard that gets killed, and certainly the film makes its own point about this. Performances OK all round, don`t agree about Daniel Stern, but he is one of the major culprits in the shrillness stakes.David`s Comments:Would have been better if the director hadn`t encouraged some of the actors notably Daniel Stern - to play at such a strident pitch. Still, an enjoyable black comedy, which compares interestingly to A Simple Plan (in both the men get into trouble, try to cover it up, but the loyal wife proves equally misguided...) Jon Favreau, Christian Slater and Cameron Diaz are particularly good.