very bad things

Is there space for counterculture when everything is vying for mainstream approval? How do we choose offbeat retro movies for our repertory audiences, and what goes into programming a film series? Plus, we look at two offbeat '90s movies that culture wasn't prepared for yet: Alex Winter and Tom Stern's Freaked and Peter Berg's Very Bad Things. 

Very Bad Things

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Very Bad Things

Written and Directed by: Peter Berg (Directed, acted and produced a lot of things; directed Hancock, Battleship, Friday Night Lights; wrote and directed Lone Survivor)

Starring:  

Christian Slater

Cameron Diaz

Daniel Stern

Jeanne Tripplehorn

Jon Favreau

Jeremy Piven

Leland Orser

Released: November 25, 1998

Budget: $30M (estimated) ($52.2M in 2022)

Box Office: $21M ($36.6M in 2022)

Ratings:   IMDb 6.3/10 Rotten Tomatoes 41% 

Metacritic 31% Google Users 71% 

First time you saw the movie?

Plot:

-I would marry 1998 Cameron Diaz

-Christian Slater is always slimy.

-The old troupe of the woman planning everything, being stressed, getting on him about wedding stuff, and then breaking a few days before the wedding, she doesn't like some of his friends. Awesome. Then making him profess his love.

-How 90's to record them waving goodbye.

-Pretty formulaic, wedding, bachelor party antics... drinking, smoking, not sure about the drugs though.

-That stripper is pretty hot... But I don't get Kyle saying "I can't do this"... Its not implied that he would fuck the stripper, just get a dance. Nothing wrong with that.

-That's a way to kill someone

-I don't like it when Christian Slater makes a good point about concealing an accidental murder.

-That security guy could've made it so much easier on himself... Poor guy. Why would you stab him with a cork screw?

-The movie is billed a black comedy, but it's not funny. The situation is mildy humorous, but its mostly just dark.

-Can you imagine drinking that much, doing that many drugs, then having to just stop and start cleaning everything up? (Triple Lindy)

-The burial and body re-arrangement was... Interesting. I'd like to think we'd be more functional than those guys.

-That whole overreaction at the gas station about Whizzers and his paranoia is weird.

-Who would break like Adam did at the rehearsal dinner?

-Wow... Michael killing Adam.

-How many troop rallying speeches does Boyd have in him? This one he has to accentuate with a kiss, though. I think I would punch someone

-Michael mounting Adams wife at the funeral is a weird tonal shift, and the whole overreaction during the funeral. It hard waffles from SUPER dark "comedy" to this almost slapstick, over the top, trying to be funny.

-Blaming Adam for sleeping with a prostitute is interesting... Could work.

-Boyd attacking Lois is unwarranted, but I love her self defense and biting his dick.

-Boyd then killing Michael, framing him for Lois' murder is DARK.

-Laura being morally superior to Kyle, calling his friends 'jackasses' and only caring about the wedding is just so disconnected. She doesn't care anyone was killed, just that her wedding will happen? Strange. We are jackasses messing around, none of us are murderers... That's a bit more than a jackass.

-Boyd attacking Fish for insurance money; then Laura killing him telling him to get to the wedding... Wow.

-Of course Moore accidentally kills Boyd... Should've been Fish somehow though.

-Jesus... Laura is cold as fuck... Just kill Moore and the dog, too?

-Why did they dig up the other bodies?

-It's darkly funny they crash thinking about the other guys.

-You can see Jon Favreaus feet under the wheelchair

-Those kids are little assholes

-Laura is just a shitty person, having her break down.

Top Five Trivia of the movie: 

Top 5 Trivia

1) Adam Sandler was originally cast as Michael Berkow but dropped out at the last minute to make The Waterboy (1998). Jeremy Piven took the role.

2) The word " fuck " is said 124 times through the movie.

3) Alan Dershowitz, the then-respected Harvard Law School professor, had a column for a few years in the late 1990's with PREMIERE magazine in which he analyzed possible legal issues arising from new movies. In this film's case, Dershowitz said that a strong case could be made that the prostitute's death was an accident or involuntary manslaughter, though the huge amount of drugs in the suite would complicate that (and would leave the guys open to major prison time via the DEA). However, he said that all of the men would be charged with first-degree murder anyway because of the deliberate stabbing death of the hotel security guard.

4) While the guys are trying to get rid of the dead body, Christian Slater's character is asked incredulously "Have you ever done this before?" The same thing was asked of him in Heathers (1988) when he is trying to cover up an accidental suicide that he manipulated. In both films, he hears the question, then pointedly does not answer it.

5) The weekend of the night in Vegas can be worked out due to the guys watching UFC 10 on pay-per-view: July 12, 1996. The background shows Don Frye vs. Brian Johnston.

**TRIPLE LINDY AWARD**

**REVIEW AND RATING**

TOP 5

Stephen:

1 Breakfast club

2 T2

3 Sandlot

4 Back to the Future

5 Mail order brides

Chris:

1. sandlots

2. T2

3. trick r treat

4. rocky horror picture show

5. hubie halloween

Trey:

1) Boondocks Saints

2) Mail Order Brides

3) Tombstone

4) Very bad things

5) She out of my league

Tucker:

1. T2

2: Tombstone

3: Gross Pointe Blank

4: My Cousin Vinny

5: John Wick

WHAT ARE WE DOING NEXT WEEK?

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Thank you,

-The Guys

A LONG TIME AGO IN HOME ALONE:

• In an enormous house in Chicago, the enormous McAllister family is preparing to leave for a Christmas trip to Paris.
• But, when designated naughty child Kevin causes a ruckus at dinner, he is sent to sleep in the attic as punishment.
• Then in the chaos of being such an enormous family with shitloads of kids, the McAllisters accidentally fly off to Paris without Kevin, leaving him Home Alone.
• Thus, an 8-year-old who has never even packed a suitcase before has to fend for himself in a hostile adult world.
• AND fend off two serial burglars who are determined to break into the enormous McAllister house! Even after Kevin subjects them to multiple kinds of potentially fatal harm.
• A grim cavalcade of child neglect and violence: ho ho ho Merrrry Christmas!

Join Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman and resident legal expert Lo Dodds to investigate the crimes that take place in the harrowing cavalcade of ultraviolence that is Home Alone, and learn what the penalties would be for such misdeeds as hanging a child on a hook, stealing a toothbrush, leaving your 8-year-old unattended while you jet off to Paris, and shooting a burglar in the dick.

Content note: Home Alone contains storylines concerning child neglect and violence. 

For more about this episode, and to read the transcript, visit the podcast’s official site VMIpod.com/home-alone. And to keep posted about what's coming up on the show, follow @VMIpod on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and sign up for our mailing list at vmipod.com/vmimail.

Next episode, we will be recapping Logan Echolls's favourite film: BRIGADOON! A once-in-a-hundred-years occasion, so join us mid-December for that.

This episode was edited and mixed by Helen Zaltzman; the music is by Martin Austwick and Jenny Owen Youngs.

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We have a lot to do this week all in one episode. We start with episode 2 of The Falcon and Winter Soldier. The move onto the first 3 episodes of Amazon Prime's original series, Invincible.  Finally we wrap up with Seth's movie pick, which was 1998's dark comedy, Very Bad Things.