Hacker Cinema
Very Bad Things
1998 · Film · 100 min
Directed by Peter Berg
Kyle Fisher has one last night to celebrate life as a single man before marrying Laura, so he sets out to Vegas with four of his best buddies. But a drug and alcohol filled night on the town with a stripper who goes all the way, turns into a cold night in the desert with shovels when the stripper goes all the way into a body bag after dying in their bathroom. And that's just the first of the bodies to pile up before Kyle can walk down the aisle...
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2 comments on Hacker News
"Very Bad Things" was a much funnier take on the exact same plot as "The Hangover." The latter is almost a bowdlerized version of the former. All the edgy material has been removed for your protection.
Some bros go to Vegas. They cut a little too loose. Consequences and comedy ensue.
In "Very Bad Things," the consequences constitute a hilarious tragedy. The bros' wickedness comes back to bite them again and again, and we laugh as their lives spiral into doom. The laughs aren't in Vegas, they're in the plausible consequences of partying too hard.
In "The Hangover," the consequences are puerile gags featuring overgrown man-children. There is nothing that could possibly depress you in the film. After all the mayhem, nothing happens.
After waking up to the evidence of multiple felonies and life-threatening situations, the broheims just walk back to their old lives. Everything that was funny about "Very Bad Things" is absent. "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."
I had never thought about categorizing movies in this way, now that I am it seems very clear. Some comedies revolve around the characters, their interaction and their situation in a funny, yet vaguely realistic way ("The Hangover"). Other comedies are blatantly absurd and ridiculous and are propelled forward by the jokes themselves which are often slapstick, the characters are tend to be flat and their situations simply a frame to hang the jokes upon ("Airplane!" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/).
I agree with the OP, having a mix of these types of comedies is a good thing. Too many of one or the other type wears on an audience. I haven't seen "The Hangover II" but already I have concerns that it will be funny in parts yet depressing overall ("Very Bad Things," http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124198/).