Very Bad Things

R

Released Nov 25, 1998

1 hr. 40 min.

Drama

List

41%

59 Reviews

Tomatometer

58%

25,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Kyle Fisher (Jon Favreau) heads to Las Vegas for a bachelor party with four friends. When one of them accidentally kills a hired stripper and a security guard finds the body, unstable Boyd (Christian Slater) kills the guard to keep him from calling the cops, then organizes the group to dispose of the corpses. Back home, Kyle is troubled and has difficulty hiding his worries from his fiancée (Cameron Diaz). Meanwhile, to ensure his own safety, Boyd begins killing the others.

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Critics Consensus

Mean-spirited and empty.

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Liz C

If you're looking for dark comedy, this is it. If you're looking for Bradley Cooper, forget it. This was a horrific bad choice, turns into a snowball of bad choices and is ultimately funny in a very dark sense kind of movie. Christian Slater was fantastic but every single cast was right on. It was a bachelor party gone completely wrong and how each dealt with it trying to not get in trouble. I loved every single second. Entertaining and had me questioning what they would do until the last second.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

07/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Deceptively starting off as a below par "The Hangover"-type movie more than a decade before "The Hangover", "Very Bad Things" soon veers off into total batshit crazy territory. The almost constant hysterics, absence of laughs and surprising amount of rawness can be a little tough to swallow, however Christian Slater gives a great performance and the film should be commended for its uncompromising plot, ridiculous finale and scenes of startlingly visceral violence and realistic mental breakdowns.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

dave s

Using the tried and true formula of a bachelor party gone horribly wrong, Very Bad Things takes it to an entirely different level. Five friends head to Vegas and, during a night fueled by alcohol and a smorgasbord of drugs, find themselves with a dead prostitute and a murdered security guard on their hands. The intensely dark comedy that follows requires one to suspend disbelief, but there are some genuinely uncomfortable laughs as the group descends into a world of death and maiming. The film may have been more effective had it shown some degree of restraint as, to its detriment, the constant screaming and raging conflicts become annoying and tiresome. If the viewer can manage to wade through all of the noise, there are some scenes that pay a pretty decent dividend.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I don't think I've ever been more disturbed by people around me laughing in a film.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

There are very few movies that I can't find anything redeeming in, this is one of them. I actually just finished watching it and my first thought was to review it badly. The story was awful, I hated every character. This movie fell WAY short of whatever mark they were trying for. Don't waste your time unless you're a total masochist and even then, it's not the kind of masochism you're probably looking for. If I could've given it less than half a star, I would've. Terrible movie, did I mention that?

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

cees t

Not as lighthearted as The Hangover or Weekend at Bernie's.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Peter Berg

Director

Christian Slater

Robert Boyd

Cameron Diaz

Laura Garrity

Daniel Stern

Adam Berkow

Jeanne Tripplehorn

Lois Berkow

Jon Favreau

Kyle Fisher

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Anthony Quinn

Independent (UK)

Aiming for the giddy gruesomeness of Shallow Grave, [director Peter] Berg piles one sadistic thrill on top of another without noticing how flat and charmless the whole enterprise feels.

Apr 1, 2019

Full Review

Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: B

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

Globe and Mail

Rated: 2.5/4

Apr 25, 2003

Full Review

Alistair Lawrence

Common Sense Media

But when you've got Tarantino and the Coens doing wild, bloody violence with memorable dialogue in the same era, it's easy to see why Very Bad Things is regarded as a pretty poor movie in comparison.

Jan 17, 2024

Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

It's a dry heave of pitch black comedy that's awful, nasty, unpleasant, rotten and downright unfunny.

May 8, 2020

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

A very bad movie.

Rated: 1.5/4

Feb 5, 2020

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Kyle Fisher (Jon Favreau) heads to Las Vegas for a bachelor party with four friends. When one of them accidentally kills a hired stripper and a security guard finds the body, unstable Boyd (Christian Slater) kills the guard to keep him from calling the cops, then organizes the group to dispose of the corpses. Back home, Kyle is troubled and has difficulty hiding his worries from his fiancée (Cameron Diaz). Meanwhile, to ensure his own safety, Boyd begins killing the others.

Director: Peter Berg
Executive Producer: Ted Field, Michael A. Helfant, Scott Kroopf, Christian Slater
Screenwriter: Peter Berg
Distributor: Polygram
Production Co: Initial Entertainment Group
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 25, 1998, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 19, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $9.9M
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby Digital

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