Very Bad Things . Tucson Weekly . 11-30-98

Very Bad Things

DIRECTED BY: Peter Berg

REVIEWED: 11-30-98

This is a comedy, though you wouldn't know it from the first hour. Death, puddles of blood, dismemberment, and ritual burial of the dead are all treated as potential gags here--you know, as in: "Ha, ha, look, those white boys just killed that Asian hooker! What a hoot!" Very Bad Things is billed as a dark comedy, but it's probably better described as a sick comedy grafted on to a thriller. It's sort of as if Kenny were killed over and over again during a single episode of South Park, but with more lifelike blood and no jokes between deaths, plus that vague feeling of Hitchcock hovering nearby. Most of Very Bad Things is too gross to be fun, and too silly to be a real thriller. The script has the feel of something written by a snotty 22-year-old boy, though it was penned and directed by Chicago Hope star Peter Berg, who I suppose only thinks like a snotty 22-year-old boy. Cameron Diaz gets a chance to parody her usual role as the perfect girlfriend, but her appearance is too brief and too late to save this movie from its own juvenile meanness. Some young people will probably enjoy this movie, but when they grow older they'll be embarrassed by that fact.

--Richter

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