Very Bad Things (1998)

Featured Audience Ratings

• AJ V

  
  I loved this dark comedy. It's full of very bad stuff, but it's all so horribly funny at the same time. Plus, the cast is great. If you have a sick sense of humour, see this movie.

• Melvin W

  
  Boyd: The room is covered in blow; Moore looks like he went at it with a fuckin' mountain lion.  "They've been bad. Very bad." I really liked Very Bad Things for what it was. It's an over-the-top, ridiculous and savage dark, dark comedy. I can totally… More
  Boyd: The room is covered in blow; Moore looks like he went at it with a fuckin' mountain lion.  "They've been bad. Very bad." I really liked Very Bad Things for what it was. It's an over-the-top, ridiculous and savage dark, dark comedy. I can totally understand why a lot of people are easily turned off by this movie and don't find it funny at all. The movie is violent and probably would offend most people. I guess that's why I like it. It's not like any of this is actually happening. We all are taking this a little too seriously. I'm going to be the complete opposite of a Roger Ebert type. Ebert feels like movies have to have morals. He said of Very Bad Things that it isn't bad, just "reprehensible." That's why he and many others don't like it, but it is also why I do.  The laughs come from how completely serious the subject matter is. In no other movie would we be laughing at this. But I found myself laughing and I still don't know why. I'm guessing it's because of the over-the-top performances. The actors and director aren't taking this seriously, so why should I. It's pure entertainment and has nothing to say about morals. It throws them completely out the window and basically in my eyes says, "Fuck You" to anyone that doesn't like it.  At the end of the day, this is a movie. If we need to look to movies to show us the right way to live and to give us good fundamental moral characters to look up to; what is that saying about us. Now, I'm not saying that I don't like movies that show the correct way to live and the consequences of living wrongly, but I do like this movie for not being that way. It's something fresh. There are no heroes, just anti-heroes. Really there is no true comedy and that's why it's funny(I know that doesn't really make sense, but it's true). It's a well-made film and it's really entertaining. Slater, Favreau, Diaz, Piven, Stern and Orser all give ridiculous, but good performances. You may hate it, but I like it.

• Michael S

  
  I kind of enjoyed 'Very Bsd Things." It's one of those rare movies that I just can't help but admire how far it will go to shock, isolate, and repel it's audience. In a sense, it's an anti-comedy... Though it is sporadically funny. Unfortunately,… More
  I kind of enjoyed 'Very Bsd Things." It's one of those rare movies that I just can't help but admire how far it will go to shock, isolate, and repel it's audience. In a sense, it's an anti-comedy... Though it is sporadically funny. Unfortunately, it's also very flawed, throwing around bad taste and shock for cosmetic purposes only which end up detracting from the flow and credibility of the film. But I have to admit, it was fun trying to figure out just where the film was going and the wacky, ridiculous ending justifies sitting through the initial hour and a half.

• Veronique K

  
  "very bad things" has all the qualities of a good neo-noir: dark parody of southern california's suburban dreams, a ballistic dominant blonde female and the potent villain who guides things into the sinister worse. and it's directed by peter berg, who practically… More
  "very bad things" has all the qualities of a good neo-noir: dark parody of southern california's suburban dreams, a ballistic dominant blonde female and the potent villain who guides things into the sinister worse. and it's directed by peter berg, who practically directs nothing else after this movie, a director-wanna-be obscure actor who constantly appears blockbusters in various petite roles. peter berg is the writer and director of very bad things, and he summons actors like chrisitian slater, jean tripplehorn (basic instinct) and of course, cameron diaz into an indie project like this. the actings are powerful and the production set has quaint feel...so what keeps this movie from being a cult b-movie in any regard? the answer is: its racist script, which is penned by peter berg himself. so he's got himself to blame for the failure. (i meant peter berg didn't make anything bigger than very bad things after very bad things..he made several obscure pieces after it, then none.) read roger ebert, if you look for specific descriptions on the racist parts: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19981125/REVIEWS/811250305/1023 about the issue of racist or sexist jokes, there're great genius writers who touch this field but still manage to get decent black humour. the best among this is surely quentin tarantino who pens the script of true romance: the joke on sicillians being the descrendents of black men because moor had invaded sicilly isles centures ago. (who knows whether it was true or not, schillians have ni--er gene.) but you laugh at the joke without getting that disturbed. that's so called genius of black humour. another example from tarantino would be the "like a virgin" joke in reservoir dogs. but the story of very bad things is in a different routine: a group of dudes go to vegas for bachelor party, then one guy in the group accidently has the stripper killed during sex. btw, the stripper is asian..then black security man knocks on their hotel door due to the noise, then the black dude is also killed for spotting out the body of the dead hooker. the evil christian slater then forcefully persuade his buddies to disemeber their bodies and bury in the desert. during the process, there're deragatory jokes on how the bodies should be arranged in the right ways because one buddy in the group is a jew. i'm not from the states, and i don't know how to accurately depict those idioms of profanity even i do understand them. the fun part of this movie is over cameron diaz who literally delivers a parodic version of her other cinema character in 1997 "my best friend's wedding"..she portrays a paranoiac 27-year-old woman whose biggest wish in life is to get married and have a perfect wedding even she has to compel her fiancee into murders...she succesfully mocks the martha stewart perfectionism within upper middle class wasp female's domestic culture with a perverse twist: ideal marriage, clean household, cozy refined wedding, and settlement in the suburban area with grass and garage for each family...kinda interesting choice for diaz to take after "my best friend's wedding" has grossed some fame and success for her....you don't see that kind of spunk after the good old 90s anymore.

• Anthony L

  
  A black comedy that?s quite nasty in places but has a brilliant, very un-Hollywood ending.

• Coxxie M

  
  dumb fun

• Candy R

  
  Dark comedy about a stag night in Las Vegas that goes wrong.

• Jason S

  
  This is a pretty twisted movie but I liked it. All the actors did a great job and the movie as a whole worked.

• xGary X

  
  Christian Slater returns as a kind of yuppie big brother to his sociopathic character in Heathers in a film that tries terribly hard to be a "cult" black comedy. It shares some similarities with Shallow Grave, but where that film concerned a group of friends who find a dead… More
  Christian Slater returns as a kind of yuppie big brother to his sociopathic character in Heathers in a film that tries terribly hard to be a "cult" black comedy. It shares some similarities with Shallow Grave, but where that film concerned a group of friends who find a dead body and dispose of it for money, leading to their psychological breakdown out of guilt for what they did, this film seems to think that brutal murder for self serving convenience is all a bit of a laugh. Every one of the characters are thoroughly dislikeable, from Cmaeron Diaz's clingy and manipulative shrew to the bachelor party's collection of whining, hysterical misogynists. I can't say that the film is badly made as it's decently directed and the cast do their best with the material they're lumbered with, but it is tasteless, morally dubious and misjudged on every level. And anyone who could possibly find it funny are as sociopathic as the collection of hateful w**kers it contains.

• Lafe F

  
  I liked the calamity and chaos in this movie. It's a fun mess, and I'm glad I'm not actually there.

• Curtis L

  
  Pretty crazy movie where christian slater kills lots of people, again...

• Dean !

  
  Very funny dark humour film.

• Michael G

  
  Over the top and overblown.

• Jeffrey M

  
  Very Bad Things does not work as a comedy. It's not funny, not at all. The actions bare no logic or believability, the characters act so absurd and mean spirited so as to sever any connection from reality, some of which is necessary for a good comedy. Perhaps it might have worked… More
  Very Bad Things does not work as a comedy. It's not funny, not at all. The actions bare no logic or believability, the characters act so absurd and mean spirited so as to sever any connection from reality, some of which is necessary for a good comedy. Perhaps it might have worked better played straight, but as it stands, very bad.

• Fascade F

  
  Makes me wanna forget abou thaving a stripper at my batchelor party whenever I decide to get married! LOL Dark humor at it's best. Christian Slater is the man with BALLS of STEEL!

• Nicolas K

  
  Black comedies can fall flat but this one stands out.

• Quinto W

  
  Not so much very bad things as very bad people. I mean, this was a hard movie to tell because you're basically telling your audience to root for horrible characters, but it doesn't mean it's impossible; at oine point, a character asks Christian Slater's character… More
  Not so much very bad things as very bad people. I mean, this was a hard movie to tell because you're basically telling your audience to root for horrible characters, but it doesn't mean it's impossible; at oine point, a character asks Christian Slater's character Boyd "Have you donde this before?" and the answer is, well, yes, he did it before as the almost identical character J.D. from the darkly satirical and hilarious Heathers. See the problem here is that while they labeled it a "dark comedy", it is mostly dark because the characters take themselves too seriously to be funny or interesting. Also, Jeremy Piven proves that not only he can be the most annoying person in the world, but he makes sure his characters are always equally as annoying. In order for this movie to work, they would have needed to either take out some attempts at humor or make the characters just so extremely ignorant, despicable and worthless that you would believe the entire situation (the latter works for the crew at Always Sunny in Philadelphia and that's the funniest show on television right now).

• Lee K

  
  hard to find one of my faves! this is movie is so bizarre yet so kool

• Robert F

  
  Very Bad Things = very bad thing.

• Sean S

  
  Bad people get their just deserts and shows that what stays underneath should sometimes just stay there.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings