Very Bad Things

In trying to be hip, "Very Bad Things" only succeeds in living down to its title.

This unpleasant and extremely unfunny dark comedy is one of those rare instances when a "just deserts" ending seems dishonest and unbelievable.

It's also an inauspicious debut as a filmmaker for actor Peter Berg (TV's "Chicago Hope"), who manages to waste a talented ensemble cast in the tale of a bachelor party gone bad.

The buddies of henpecked bridegroom Kyle (Jon Favreau) try to give their pal a break from his domineering bride-to-be, Laura (Cameron Diaz). But their partying gets a little too hearty and they end up with a "105-pound" problem when one of the men (Jeremy Piven) accidentally kills the stripper they hired for the evening.

Worse, while trying to cover up the crime, hustler Boyd (Christian Slater) murders a hotel security guard who has come to investigate. However, rather than copping to the deed, the five decide to chop up the bodies and bury them in the desert.

In the days that follow, guilt overcomes one of the men, the straight-laced Adam (Daniel Stern), who wants to come clean. He, too, ends up in the morgue, as the cover-up gets deadlier and deadlier.

Overcompensating for an underdone script, Berg really piles on the gore, and his plot gets weirder (but not in a good way) with each progressive scene. And for the most part, the performances consist of histrionics, especially Diaz, who has never been worse, and both Stern and Piven, who are equally irritating.

"Very Bad Things" is rated R for profanity, sickeningly gruesome makeup effects and gore, violent fist fighting, a stabbing and disturbing vehicular accidents, full female and male nudity, a graphic sex scene, drug use (cocaine and marijuana) and use of vulgar slang and ethnic slurs.