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Rating: Not long ago, around the summer of 2007, I had the fortune to see a film, a film difficult to categorize by genre, a very enigmatic and mysterious, dark, yet at the same time engaging film, hilarious but dramatic in certain circumstances.
I'm talking about "Very Bad Things," a feature film released in cinemas in 1998, skillfully performed by the beautiful and talented Cameron Diaz (her role in the story is secondary), the capable Christian Slater, and the clumsy, good-natured Jon Favreau.
The story unfolds in America, in an unspecified city, but surely the place where the core of the vicissitudes concentrates is Las Vegas, where Kyle Fisher, a successful employee ready to marry Laura Garrity, a demanding and nagging girl always ready to make requests, and his childhood and life friends, each distinguished by various, different, and precise personalities, decide to organize the classic of all bachelor parties, spending a weekend in Las Vegas playing poker, dice, and snorting cocaine.
The mastermind of the whole plan (and the mastermind of all subsequent decisions) is Robert Boyd, an arrogant and snobbish friend of Kyle, perpetually hated by the latter's fiancée for his presumptuous and arrogant attitude. After spending an evening wandering through the charming "gambling," the group returns home; they dance, drink, sniff until Boyd’s sharp intellect recalls the only need the friends want and must witness: the stripper.
So arrives a beautiful Asian woman, whose sinuous and sensual body sends the entire group of friends into a frenzy. Who will go with her? After various hesitations, Michael Berkow steps forward, the bold and wild brother of Adam, a relaxed and traditional married man who firmly believes in the Christian religion.
Thus, the prostitute and Michael have a violent and sweaty encounter, but here begins the tragedy; inadvertently, the prostitute dies following an accident, as her head is pierced by an innocent but in this instance deadly iron hanger.
The rest of the group, when they see Michael with the blood-stained bathrobe coming from the bathroom, is dumbfounded. Not even Michael can explain how such a misfortune could occur, so the gang doesn't know what to do: some say call the ambulance, some say bury her in the desert. The final decision is the desert, but another obstacle stands in the way of the 5 friends' intentions: the hotel security guard, who, having sensed the group's excessive "commotion," decides to check on their room for damages.
Everything goes smoothly, but unfortunately, the guard notices through a reflection the lifeless body of the girl, and becomes a victim of his realization, because Boyd wastes no time; seizing a corkscrew, he kills the guard who bleeds to death in the bathroom next to the prostitute's corpse he managed to glimpse. Thus, along with the prostitute, dismembered, the guard's body also ends up in the pit in the middle of the desert.
However, life continues poorly for the 5 friends: Charles (Kyle's best friend, a silent and eccentric type) doesn’t know what to say about it, Adam is constantly harassed by remorse and fears the police might discover them, Kyle is afraid his marriage will go up in flames, Michael, well, it's an understatement to say he goes completely insane, while Boyd remains relaxed, calm, and more egocentric than ever. He believes he has saved his companions from ruin and has found a strength within himself that sets no obstacles.
As the story progresses, various episodes will occur, like Adam's death at the hands of his deranged brother, Boyd's murders as he tries to eliminate anyone in his way, and the flawlessly executed wedding that will soon unravel.
I won't tell you more because this film is to be savored from the first to the last minute, given the richness of the several messages this feature film, both through hilarious and dramatic episodes, conveys to the audience.
Cheers!
P.S. Notice and enjoy Christian Slater's excellent portrayal of Robert Boyd, a great actor.
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