8 - The Michigan Daily -Wednesday, November 25, 1998 Very great film succeeds By Erin Podosky Daily Arts Writer I imagine that Peter Berg has bumper stickers plastered all over his office, anid one of them says, "Friends help you move. Real friends help you movie bodies." That pithy little maxim could easily have been the inspiration for Berg's off-the-wall, off-the-charts writing and directorial debut, "Very Bad Things" - inspiration and then some. "Very Bad Things" features a dead prostitute, a dead security guard, a dead minivan and various other dead entities all before it reaches the - halfway mark. After the halfway Very Bad Things At Showcase mark? You guessed it, more dead stuff. And there are no ifs, ands or buts about the dead, presented in full gory glory. Kyle (Jon Favreau) is going to his bachelor party in Las Vegas with four of his best friends, brothers Adam (Daniel Stern) and Piven), Moore understatement, and this wedding turns out to be anything but white. The bachelor party takes place in a Las Vegas hotel suite and is a magnificent- ly visualized masterpiece that sets the tone for "Very Bad Things." Real estate pit bull Boyd calls in his favorite stripper who for a little extra will go the distance to the bedroom. The night is filled with drinking, drugs and boys-will-be-boys scuffling as they administer a trashing to the suite that would make Axl Rose proud. Berg shoots partially in slow motion with close-ups and canted angles; pro wrestling plays in the background, the soundtrack pulses, and Michael disappears into the bath- room for a little one-on-one with the stripper. Minutes later, the word "hooker" has taken on a whole new definition. Bathrooms are dangerous places. Before the boys can clean up the bloody mess, a hotel security guard shows up to investigate the ruckus. Boyd takes him out with a corkscrew and claims it was for the good of the group. He then herds the whimpering, sobered crew to the local Kmart where they walk the aisles carrying mops as if they were sabers, buzz saws and hazard suits - a bunch of janitorial regulators on the job. Everything seems to be going OK as they turn the trashed suite pristine again. They pack up the body parts in a couple of suit- cases and prepare to do some deep digging in the desert. Use your imagination to figure out what happens next. Suffice it to say that the sick laughs start here and then just keep coming, an endless onslaught of bloodcurdling amuse- ment that Berg revels in constructing. If you've seen his work on the produc- tion side of things in "Chicago Hope," you know what kind of madness to expect; if you haven't, prepare to either love or hate "Very Bad Things." It is a movie of extremes and is not for the faint of heart or weak of mind. Berg uses every trick in the book of bloody silence and cover-up and then invents a few more, each one more outrageous than the next. Unfortunately, the movie suffers from its own penchant for gory excess. The bachelor party is so inte- gral, so excessive yet perfect in every way that Berg spends the rest of the film trying to top his own handiwork, never pausing to accept what he has done early on as the epitome of his work. It might not have been the high- light of the movie if Berg had taken a step back and ended his one-upman- ship before it got out of control. Nothing escapes Berg's rabid eye of wit - not hookers, not weddings, and not even handicapped kids who are "one crutch away from a telethon." "Very Bad Things" doesn't deserve the jokes its title invites, as it is actu- ally a very, very good thing. But it could have been very great if only it had been a little more funny or a little less bloody. The good things, though, far outweigh the bad and mark Berg as a talent to watch in the future. Favreau is effective as the cowed fiancee whose marriage plans are under serious duress. Piven is his usual wisecracking, entertaining self. Orser is pretty much a non-entity. Only Stern manages to cover new ground and reinvent himself as a rav- ing, basically good man whose con- science is tested by the crime he is Courtesy of Polygram Films Cameron Diaz stars as the overanxious bride in the dark comedy "Very Bad Things." The film opens today at theaters everywhere. Michael (Jeremy (Leland Orser) and Boyd (Christian Slater). Kyle just wants to get through the night; his control-freak wife-to-be, Laura (Cameron Diaz) just wants him to remember to write the checks to the caterer and the wedding hall and the band and the florist and try not to screw anything up in her perfectly planned white wedding. To say that Kyle screws up is an forced to hide. His character might fail that test, but Stern passes with fly- ing colors. Slater is in top form repris- ing his "Heathers" role, borrowing a little from that movie and Joe Pesci in "Goodfellas" to paint the motivational tape mantra-spewing Boyd as a friend that nobody would really want to have in a pinch. The true prize, other than Peter Berg's work behind the camera, is the performance given by Cameron Diaz. "Very Bad Things" is a study in how much stress one human can take, and the ultimate stress victim is the most unlikely one of all, the one character who had zilch to do with the original sin of the boys. Her so-light-they're- dark scenes are something to look for- ward to during those long, dark, bloody sequences filled with gristle and gore. She works the flip-side of her "My Best Friend's Wedding" per- sona and stops at nothing to get that perfect wedding. At times I wondered if perhaps she wasn't better suited to Boyd, but one of the film's many semi-climaxes nixes that idea. Either way, Diaz is excellent and deserves recognition. "Very Bad Things" has a high body count and a carnage factor that would put Quentin Tarantino to shame. Some of it is shameless, some of it is funny, and by the time things are over it seems like more bodies have been moved than words said. But hey - what are friends for? Announcing a store where you can't try anything on. The Levi's* Online Store. w iviccm Murky plot halts' epic tae Into the Wilderness 4 Sara Donati Bantam Books ** Welcome to the melodrama for- est. Like many works of historical fiction, "Into the Wilderness" by Sara Donati, struggles to find its way through the woods of overused plots and character types prevalent in historical fiction. Its main char- acters, Elizabeth and Nathaniel, though charming in their own right, could have just as easily starred in "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." Fresh off the boat from England with ambitions of teaching school, Elizabeth Middleton quickly real- izes that the rustic New York village her father calls home is anything but the paradise for which it is named. By page six, her father has already shot her love interest and the villainous nature of her brother has been revealed. Elizabeth is fiercely independent and quickly fixes her eye on a fur trapper, Nathaniel Bonner, who was raised by Native Americans, both as an ally and as a lover. Donati uses Elizabeth to address virtually every humanitarian and civil rights cause available in 1792 America. First, Elizabeth must assert her independence as a woman and defeat her father's attempts to marry her to the town doctor. Second, Elizabeth goes on a one- woman crusade to ensure that every child in the village, including the slave children, receive an educa- tion. Finally, Elizabeth fights to save the rights and culture of the Native Americans. With so many plots happening at once, none of these issues gets the attention it deserves and the story degenerates into mediocrity. Donati's strength lies in the delightful, and often witty, charac- ter dialogue and her vivid descrip- tions. Hence, the reader develops a real affection for some of the off- beat characters like the blushing Scottish woodsman Robbie MacLachlan. Donati does some- times sacrifices the most likeable traits of her characters for the plot. For instance, as the story contin- ues Elizabeth seems to trade her independent spunk for a more matronly appearance. The reader is left wondering why she cannot be both an activist and a contented wife and mother. It is something of a paradox that a book which calls itself historical fiction could never actually have taken place. The unlikely romance between Elizabeth and Nathaniel is only the starting point. But avid readers of historical fiction will appreciate the well-researched backdrop, appeal- ing characters, and the potential for sequels. "Into the Wilderness" takes on a lot for a first effort, but somewhere within the murky and ambitious story lies the beginnings of an epic_ - Kelly Lutes "Don't look like a TURKE I 0 I D L RS, BLSHED 9 , HAPPY THANKSGIVING 615 E. LIBERTY OFF STATE 668-9329 M-F 8:30-5:20 SAT UNTIL 4:20 0I Fully Automated Self-Serve I40@II: I