I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

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.

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.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. I have read the book and have been a fan for quite a while now, and when I heard there would be a film I was very excited. That being said, I'm going to do the ultimate evil of comparing the movie to the book. I thought Dan's character was spot on and well drawn, while Drew's attitude may have been a little extreme, and Tucker just seemed slightly "off" somehow but overall a good representation. Some of their antics were quite hilarious, but the main problem I had with this movie was that so many lines were quoted directly from the book (and sometimes out of context), so I already knew exactly what the guys were going to say. I think if they hadn't tried so hard to stick to the exact wording some of the dialog could have been improved or expanded upon. It was a fun ride though, and Tucker even ended up learning a thing or two, which I'm not sure I can say for his book counterpart! If I was the director I would have spent more time telling other stories from the book to help establish the characters, and then move into a condensed version of the film as it is for the second half. If that had been the case, I probably would have given it 9 out of 10. People who haven't read the book probably feel thrust in the middle of something they don't quite understand, and may not want to understand. I feel that it was a good movie, and very funny, but with a slightly different approach it could have been an awesome movie.

The lead characters of this movie are smart - this much is readily apparent early on. I get it.

What I don't think anyone involved in this movie gets is that "smart" and "not funny" are not mutually exclusive.

The characters in the movie are smarter than the people they encounter - great. How do they wield it? By lording it over them; it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Only someone extremely insecure would take pleasure in this. Descriptions of the Tucker Max character as being a sociopath are not an exaggeration. The problem is that - unlike No Country for Old Men or The Shining (also featuring sociopaths)- this is supposed to be a comedy.

In addition, for all the talk of the realism of the dialog, it just sounds fake. All the clever diatribes and snipes one after another just seem like things you wish you'd said after the fact.

Movies are supposed to be about escape and I just couldn't relax into a world where this guy gets away with so much crap and basically walks away unscathed, having learned nothing.

The positive reviews for this film seem fake.

No one who saw this movie could possibly claim that it's good. I daresay one would be hard pressed to even mouth the words "its okay".

This film was bad. Very bad. Even if I ignored the horrible production values, the characters were totally unlikeable and the jokes were either out-of-date, fell flat or were just crude shock talk someone tried to pass off as envelope-pushing edginess.

I loved the book, and I really wasn't expecting this film to be even half has good. BUT I EXPECTED FAR BETTER THAN THIS.

I'm more than disappointed. I'm disgusted.