‘Behaving Badly’ DVD Review
Stars: Nat Wolff, Selena Gomez, Mary-Louise Parker, Heather Graham, Elisabeth Shue, Cary Elwes, Ashley Rickards, Patrick Warburton, Jason Lee, Mindy Robinson, Gary Busey, Dylan McDermott | Written by Tim Garrick, Scott Russell | Directed by Tim Garrick
Behaving Badly is a story about Rick Stevens (Nat Wolff), a boy who makes a bet with a Lithuanian from his school with mob ties that he can sleep with a Nina Pennington (Selena Gomez) before the fortnight is through. Watch Rick lie his way through insane situations as he embarks on a crazy adventure to win the girl of his dreams. Of course to do that, he needs to avoid her crazy ex-boyfriend, the mob, his best friend’s mother who has decided she loves him and more to prove that he is the perfect man for Nina, the girl who wants to be a Priest.
Rick Stevens breaks the forth wall as he talks to the audience, explaining his situation. He has crabs, his best friend is in jail, his father is insane and his mother is attempting to commit suicide after leaving a note which says ‘While I’m dead, feed the dog.” This alone should indicate the crazy, crude and somewhat dark humour that is constant throughout Behaving Badly and Rick’s journey of self discovery. This film never loses pace as Rick seemingly stumbles from one disaster to another, slowly getting in more and more trouble, all for the sake of a foolish bet he makes at the start. Based on the book While I’m Dead, Feed the Dog, this story is a very silly and over the top piece on how much trouble lies can get you into. Especially if you have such a strange family like Rick.
With all the strangeness which happens to Rick, including turning his house into a strip club, getting everyone he knows arrested and regular sexual encounters with his best friend’s mother, it does dampen the believability of the main ‘love story’ happening between Rick and Nina. She is a girl who tries to help people, wanting to be a priest and yet when she is with Rick and they catch his father and another man with an under aged prostitute, she still says she has a ‘good time’. It seemed a little out of character to me, but of course, this is a minor thing compared to the ridiculousness of the entire film and is probably easy to overlook.
Behaving Badly is a very silly adventure with a lot of sex-based humour and jokes which would probably mainly appeal to teenage boys more than anyone else. If that is your thing, this film is probably worth checking out. With a fairly strange but standard storyline, this film isn’t changing the world, but it could be a great time killer.
Behaving Badly is out now on DVD from Signature Entertainment.