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Very Bad Things (1998) Jon Favreau .................... Kyle Fisher Leland Orser ................ Charles Moore Cameron Diaz .................. Laura Garrity Christian Slater ................ Robert Boyd Jeremy Piven ................... Michael Berkow Daniel Stern ..................... Adam Berkow Jeanne Tripplehorn .......... Lois Berkow Synopsis Peter Berg's dark comedy about a bachelor party gone horribly awry is highly ambitious in its attempts to satirize suburbia, male bonding, and self-help philosophy, and for the most part it does succeed in hitting its targets with a malicious, misanthropic glee. When five buddies arrive in Las Vegas for some pre-wedding shenanigans, things quickly spiral out of control when the requisite prostitute falls victim to a grisly accident, igniting a spark in an already unstable powder keg of personalities. Following the lead of real estate agent and self-help guy Robert (Christian Slater), the men warily agree on a cover-up and covert desert burial. A couple hours and another corpse later, however, they're already at each other's throats, and their escalating breakdowns threaten to disrupt the highly prized wedding of hard-as-nails bride Laura (a stunning Cameron Diaz). ... Be warned, though: Those expecting a sunny-style There's Something About Mary gross-out comedy will probably be shocked by Berg's take-no-prisoners agenda; this is comedy at its absolute blackest, and no one is spared. From Amazon.com Availability Video and DVD; may be a little hard to find except online. (It took me a while to track down a rental copy.) The Leland Factor Large. This is an ensemble movie and he's around for the majority of it. Allison's Review I have to admit that this movie is vaguely notorious at my house. When we were about sixteen (this must have been right when it came out on video) my sister and I rented it to watch with a friend who was two years younger than us, thinking it was your run-of-the-mill comedy. Not quite. We'd gotten as far as the accident with the prostitute (about twenty-five minutes into the movie) when my mother commented, "Uh, I think you guys need to turn this off." And we replied, "...yeah." Now that I'm older and a bit more jaded, I was better able to stomach it. Honestly, this movie is not for the easily offended, but if you can take it, chances are you'll enjoy the movie. I'm not quite sure what to make of it myself, but I certainly didn't hate it; in fact I laughed quite a lot. (The rest of the time I spent gaping at the screen.) It tends to veer wildly from farcial comedy to drama, which makes the overall film a little uneven. As Charles Moore, Leland doesn't say a lot, but that's the way his character is supposed to be. For someone so quiet, though, he seemed oddly excitable; several times you can observe him hopping around like a bundle of pent-up energy. And when he gets all liquored and drugged up with his buddies in Vegas, he does the funky dance all around the hotel room (including on top of the furniture) while the others wax drunkenly philosophic. It was utterly hilarious. Both my favorite dramatic and comedic moments in the film involve Leland, though I'm probably biased in that department. :) For comedy, it totally cracked me up when Moore went into the stairwell to get the wedding rings from Boyd's pocket, and the camera cuts to a shot of the stairwell door, where from within entire gathered wedding assembly hears him shriek "Jesus Christ!!!". As for drama, I was really affected when Boyd got back into the car outside the Berkow house and basically admitted to killing Michael and Lois, and you see this single tear roll down Moore's cheek. It just slew me. I must also make mention of Moore's "dysfunctional fucking bullshit!" rant at Boyd out in the desert, and Moore pouring an entire shaker of sugar into his coffee in nervous agitation. Absolutely classic. I thought that showing Moore going in circles and bumping into fences while having difficulty maneuvering his wheelchair was a little tasteless, but then again, one must consider what movie they're watching. Nothing is sacred in this film. Verdict If you can make it past the first half hour, with its moments of sex and nudity, you can handle the rest of the film. I highly recommend it for the Leland fans and anyone who likes their comedy very black. /back |