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Veteran Los Angeles weatherman Johnny Mountain has signed on with KCBS-TV Los Angeles. Mountain is set to deliver weather reports weekdays on the station's 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. Mountain previously spent 27 years with KABC-TV Los Angeles, where at various times he worked with such current KCBS personalities as Ann Martin, Laura Diaz, Harold Greene and Jim Hill. Mountain departed KABC in January. "This is yet another example of our commitment to recruiting the best people in the business and building the premier television news organization in Southern California," said Don Corsini, president and general manager of KCBS and KCAL-TV Los Angeles.

KCBS-TV, the CBS O&O station in Los Angeles, has recruited veteran news anchor Paul Magers. Magers, who will join KCBS later this year when his long-term contract with the Gannett-owned NBC affiliate KARE-TV in the Twin Cities expires, will co-anchor the station's 11 p.m. weeknight newscasts with Laura Diaz. Harold Greene, who co-anchors KCBS' 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts with Diaz, will now divvy up the station's late-afternoon/early evening newscasts with Magers. Drew Griffin, who now co-anchors the 4:30 and 6 p.m. weekday newscasts, is expected to go back to co-anchoring on weekends. Magers, who is repped by Mendes Napoli of Napoli Management, had been with KARE for 20 years.

'Very Bad' Sets a Nightmare Scenario / Grisly tale of Vegas bachelor party turning to disaster reveals thin plot

By Duane Byrge

TORONTO -- Boys will be boys -- especially in Vegas -- in this acerbic, savage comedy about a bachelor-party weekend that turns into a nightmare. With an appealing and talented cast including Christian Slater and Cameron Diaz, this PolyGram Filmed Entertainment release, playing the Toronto International Film Festival, should draw some initial appeal among males, but its grisly nature will likely turn off mainstreamers. This is a love-it-or-hate-it type of outing.

In this dark escapade, square suburban dude Kyle Fisher (Jon Favreau) is set to marry Laura Diaz), the girl of his dreams, despite her high-maintenance nature. Kyle's favorite bad-apple buddy, Boyd (Slater), arranges one last bash in Las Vegas for his bashful pal, including, of course, a stripper who supplements her earnings with other talents. These middle-class squares head from their suburban Southern California neighborhood for a wild weekend on the Strip. Things get quickly rowdy and out of control, and in a delirious fit of passion, Kyle accidentally impales the stripper on a bathroom fixture. Good-boy Kyle has just killed a young woman. But for bad-boy Boyd, it's a simple question of situational ethics: Bury the stripper in the desert. Why should they ruin their lives for one crazy action? He convinces them of this wisdom.

Essentially, you've got "Lord of the Flies" hurled into "Animal House". Screenwriter-director Peter Berg undeniably fires off some lethal and decadently funny salvos, but the plot soon wears thin. It becomes an exercise in ghoulishness as the fellows, owing to their own craziness and sense of doom, escalate the killings, getting in deeper and deeper.

The film's best feature is the choice casting, with Slater shining as the wily leader of this debauchery. Diaz is hilarious as a very anal bride-to-be, and Daniel Stern, with all his twitches and tics, is sympathetic as the guy who is downright paranoid about getting caught. Favreau is also well-chosen, projecting a naivete and weakness intrinsic to the role.

While there are indeed some thoughtful, provocative moral quandaries in Berg's script, the film is played mainly for noisy, low-level farce; after a while, it wears repetitively thin. Praise to the production crew; they've stoked it with some very funny stuff, most prominently costume designer Terry Dresbach's loud outfits, perfect for the raucous mayhem that ensues.

VERY BAD THINGS

PolyGram Films

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presents

in association with Initial Entertainment Group

an Interscope Communications production

in association with Ballpark Prods.

A Peter Berg film

Credits: Producers: Michael Schiffer, Diane Nabatoff, Cindy Cowan; Screenwriter-director: Peter Berg; Executive producers: Ted Field, Scott Kroopf, Michael Helfant, Christian Slater; Line producer: Laura Greenlee; Director of photography: David Hennings; Production designer: Dina Lipton; Editor: Dan Lebenthal; Music: Stewart Copeland; Costume designer: Terry Dresbach. Cast: Robert Boyd: Christian Slater; Laura Garrety: Cameron Diaz; Adam Berkow: Daniel Stern; Kyle Fisher: Jon Favreau; Lois Berkow: Jeanne Tripplehorn; Michael Berkow: Jeremy Piven; Charles Moore: Leland Orser. MPAA rating: R. Color/stereo. Running time -- 101 minutes...