I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

I had a chance to hear Tucker Max talk about the movie at a screening and he seemed quite confident that it would surpass Wedding Crashers as the highest grossing comedy of all time. After seeing the movie, it became quite clear that he was completely delusional. The movie has poor dialogue, a poor plot, and mediocre acting. I spent a little while trying to think of a redeeming quality, or any basis upon which I could recommend the movie to other people. I came up empty-handed.

If you are a huge Tucker Max fan and feel the urge to see the movie, just re-read the book. If you see the movie, you probably won't leave the theater as a fan anymore.

Having read the book a couple of years ago, I followed the movie's production blog with great excitement.

Tucker mentioned possible Oscar nomination for the script, more than $200M at the box office and revolutionizing Hollywood.

I walked into the theater with 2 other male friends in late 20s - both lawyers, one of whom actually went to Duke. We'd been in the bar for an hour before hand so in merry mood after several beers. One of the guys just picked up the bar girl he'd been after for months, so cause to celebrate. I love independent movies. Edgy scripts. Darkness and the anti-Hollywood approach. Swingers is one of my favorite comedies in the ilk. The perfect movie for the perfect evening ...

There were 4 other people in the cinema. Hmmm. It did not seem to bode well.

And the movie begins. I began with a grin on my face, prepared to laugh my ass off throughout.

About 40 mins in, I was still waiting to laugh. One of my friends, who hadn't read the book, was yawning. Two of the others in the cinema got up and left.

So, let me cut a long story short: Poor script. Underlit. Cheap grain. Little empathy for any of the characters; no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The story arc fell totally flat. I could live with all that if the thing was actually FUNNY. Alas, I managed a couple of forced chuckles.

We left the cinema with me having to apologize to my friend for having put him through the boredom. We should have carried on drinking in the bar instead of wasting our time on this film.

Tucker tipped this as a classic of our time. I'm not even sure it would have merited a straight to DVD release. He said it would top The Hangover in both acclaim, artistic merit and box office. Half a billion dollars later, wide critical and audience reception, and marked as one of the best comedies of the year, if he'd put that sentence in the script, it would have been the funniest line in the whole movie.

I was compelled to make an account on this site to write a review after reading the three most recent reviews for I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Those three reviews were far more amusing than the movie itself. If they were fake (as I suspect)...nice. If they were genuine reviews...what is wrong with you? I'm not going to write an extensive, piece-by-piece review of this movie, because this is all you need to know: It really isn't funny. When I saw the movie, there were perhaps ten people in the theater. I do not recall hearing a single laugh from anyone. I was sincerely amused only once; I mostly just forced chuckles at things that I recognized from Tucker's book and web site--things that were infinitely more funny to read about than to see on screen. For whatever reason, Tucker's stories just do not translate well to film (or he did a very poor job of translating them to film). My one friend who came with me to the movie said, "It wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be." I would be embarrassed recommending this film to anyone. I still think Tucker's web site and book are pretty funny, but if you want to be entertained, don't bother with the movie version of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.

I think I chuckled once so that explains the two stars. Other than that, it's a movie about a total douche-bag who's told he's a douche-bag, realizes he's a douche-bag, thinks about not being a douche-bag but, in response, only amps up his douchiness.

Mind you, my critique of this movie isn't a critique of Tucker Max- I hadn't heard of King Douche until shortly before viewing this movie. The movie is poorly written, poorly paced and, generally, poorly acted. It hints at redemption but instead sees the opportunity as a chance for another half-wit joke.

On the plus side, a movie like this can serve as a useful metric for people you know and/or have just met- If they like this movie, or Tucker Max, then you'll know said person is a douche-bag.

Even though in reality Tucker Max may be a pretentious git and 'I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell' is by no means among the best in comedy, I actually enjoyed the film. I haven't read the novel but I liked the title and the actors so I have been looking forward to it. Then the negativity that surrounded it after release lowered my expectations and when I saw it last night I laughed.

The movie does try to use shock value (how often does one witness someone with a shitty ass on screen) but that doesn't work in its favour. The dialogues are quite extreme and even offensive to women but I liked how the women react to it. The Drew character mostly because of his transformation from heartbroken women hater to a devoted lover. For me the best scenes were with Drew and I enjoyed watching his love story with Lara unfold.

The acting is quite good. Matt Czuchry, Geoff Stults and Jesse Bradford are brilliant. Bradford steals the show with terrific dialogue delivery. This actor deserves some good scripts. Marika Dominiczyk is both sensual and sensational. Kerry Lyn Pratt is very likable.

'I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell' may not be a particularly great movie but it's fun once you're passed the misogynistic part of it. It doesn't really stay true to the title though.