Review of Very Bad Things (1998) by Km123 — 28 Jul 2023

I remember enjoying this movie when it came out back in the late 90's, when it felt like the pitch black humour and disgustingly morally bankrupt antics by the protagonists were exciting and transgressive.

Re-watching now removes a lot of the shine. A lot of the plot depends on contrivances and the characters are either idiots or shift into outright sociopathy at jarring speed. This is neither an even faintly realistic depiction of how these characters would handle their situation, nor a madcap adventure with a grisly premise, and I think it would have worked better going in one of those two directions.

I remembered this as "The Hangover but with a dead hooker" and what I got was much sadder and more grim but somehow still played for laughs. There is still some amusement to be had if your sense of humour runs very dark, but the second half of the movie will still put you off at least somewhat.

The acting isn't great either especially considering the many surprisingly big names involved.