Amazon.com video review:
Peter Berg's dark comedy about a bachelor party gone horribly awry is
highly ambitious in its attempts to satirize suburbia, male bonding, and
self-help philosophy, and for the most part it does succeed in hitting its
targets with a malicious, misanthropic glee. When five buddies arrive in
Las Vegas for some pre-wedding shenanigans, things quickly spiral out of
control when the requisite prostitute falls victim to a grisly accident,
igniting a spark in an already unstable powder keg of personalities.
Following the lead of real estate agent and self-help guy Robert (Christian
Slater), the men warily agree on a cover-up and covert desert burial. A
couple hours and another corpse later, however, they're already at each
other's throats, and their escalating breakdowns threaten to disrupt the
highly prized wedding of hard-as-nails bride Laura (a stunning Cameron
Diaz). Berg, like most actor-turned-directors (this is The Last
Seduction star's filmmaking debut) helms the film with a wildly sliding
tone and tends to weigh its strengths heavily on its performers. Slater's
psycho turn is by far his most inventive yet (he's more in control than
ever before), Diaz effectively mixes sunshine with poison, and Jon Favreau
is effective and understated as the hapless bridegroom; the rest of the
cast, however, tends to play up the histrionics. Be warned, though: Those
expecting a sunny-style There's Something About Mary gross-out
comedy will probably be shocked by Berg's take-no-prisoners agenda; this is
comedy at its absolute blackest, and no one is spared. --Mark
Englehart
