I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (2009) User Reviews

Seemed like amateur hour

[barnstormer-2 · 4/10 · 19 October 2009]

This is not a terrible movie, but it's not very good either.

I have not read the book but I have read and enjoyed the stories from Tucker's website in the past.

That said I was expecting more from this movie. There are some very funny moments but for the most part it was just boring. Pacing was the biggest problem with this movie, parts of it just plod along without anything happening that moves the story along. I honestly think this could have been made better but cutting about 15-20 minutes out of the film - of course by then the whole thing would have been about 45 minutes long.

There are some funny scenes but the rest just seems to be filler material. For instance, the first bar that Tucker and his pals visit and then walk out of - what was the point of that whole scene? It did not develop the story at all and should have wound up on the cutting room floor.

The movie, as a whole, seems to lack polish. As I said, cut about 15-20 minutes out of it and things would have been improved greatly but it would not have been long enough for a feature film.

Pretty funny but not for everyone

[hudson411 · 6/10 · 21 January 2010]

I gave this a 6/10 because I had some pretty good laughs throughout the movie. Some of the stories Tucker Max told were great. I'm a 24 year old college student and have a pretty dirty sense of humor. I wouldn't recommend this to my mom but I definitely would to my friends. I'm guessing the majority of the bad reviews came from older critics that are disgusted by the vulgarity of this movie. I do agree that the plot could have been improved. The stories were not quite as explicit as the book. The only character that I couldn't stand for the first hour of this movie was Jesse Bradford. He was very intelligent but a little over the top with his negative/depressing outlook on life(due to his recent break up). I would watch this movie again.

I Can't Believe I'm Going to Say This

[critrlvr40 · 6/10 · 27 August 2010]

If I were reviewing this type of movie, I would almost always stop watching after ten-fifteen minutes due to the absolute stupidity of it. However, I LOVED this film. I'm not a genius, but I'm very far from ignorant, so I'm not sure what the appeal was initially, but that poo scene was HYSTERICAL!! I laughed so hard that I could barely catch my breath. BTW, that Visine trick doesn't really cause an attack of violent diarrhea. It can, however, make people extremely ill: shallow breathing, roller coaster blood pressure, visual distortion and a number of other potentially dangerous side effects. Facts aside, the characters are stereotypical males on a bachelor party adventure. The "payback", in the form of poo, was priceless for the quintessential sexually-obsessed narcissist. (If people were honest, they would admit to being in a similar situation-having an "accident" or close to it, the mad dash for the toilet, and the absence of good ole toilet paper when you need it the most!) I consider myself extremely picky about the movies I'll watch, but I'm afraid I'll have to take a second look at it, just to see the scene again. I watched a documentary about the lengths to which people will go for shock value, rather it be blood and guts, or pushing the boundaries of raunchy, disgusting humor. This movie ranks in the top five of all-time poor taste. But I can't help myself; it was really hilarious.

Worst Movie of 2009

[trollmasterflex · 1/10 · 6 October 2009]

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.

Good movie, but with wasted potential.

[duke396 · 7/10 · 22 January 2010]

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.

Shock comedy without the comedy

[HiJon89 · 3/10 · 1 November 2009]

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.

I May Be Wrong But...

[Hammeranvil · 28 January 2010]

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.

This is really just a very funny and entertaining movie.

[Waanders88 · 7/10 · 31 January 2010]

To start off, this is not the next masterpiece of the year, although I bet none of us is expecting it to be. All I can do, is to be fair with you and simply state that this movie left me with a smile on my face. The movie takes a slightly more serious approach than your typical "American Pie- like" movies, and actually makes quite some sense. Yes, it tends to be over the top some times, but it is really just a good portrayal of the different characters most group of friends have and the way they react under different circumstances. The movie did not contain any weird plot- holes that seriously bother me, and I think its creators did a good job on walking the fine line between absurdity and familiarity to make a believable entertaining movie, with more depth than one would actually expect.

A movie about a complete douche-bag for douche-bags

[monolithichex · 2/10 · 9 June 2010]

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.

Not the worst thing ever......

[burgh55 · 7/10 · 17 January 2010]

Well I can only assume that the people who bash this movie and any other stupid humor flick are ones that can't pull themselves out of their mothers basements long enough to cry at the outside world how stupid everyone is and then directly step down off of their self righteous pedestal, and return to their self-loathing positions as the trolls guarding their morbidly obese, over protective mothers bed pan.

Get off it douches, is it that hard to enjoy something without having to justify the worth of the person who's work you obviously don't and will never like. Jesus chill out, you don't like it, cool your deal, just shut up you Rush Limbaugh, whiny, I hate the world losers (who obviously have never laughed, because you were too busy rationalizing why would the chicken cross the road in the first place) Have a good time as life passes you by.........

So what if they're smart?

[Brianlodge · 1/10 · 5 October 2009]

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.

Fun movie

[ChrisMY2001 · 8/10 · 12 February 2010]

I'm not really sure why this movie is being reviewed so poorly. People are complaining about not liking the characters, that's the idea you are supposed to not like them. Let's not forget the "poor" lighting, I've never been to a bar or strip club that is lit up with bright lights. Yes this movie is similar to The Hangover but is based on a book that was written a couple years ago. I watched this movie with my friend On Demand on a Tuesday and Wednesday morning I went out just to buy it. I would recommend this movie to anyone who watches movies for the enjoyment, not the lighting and likable character. It's just a good, dirty time.

Funnier than most of Will Ferrell's movies

[nowego · 6/10 · 25 January 2010]

I give this a 6/10 and really enjoyed it. I would however have to say that if you don't like toilet humour or are offended by humour that puts women down a little, avoid it. The attempts at humour did fall flat in places but I still found it very funny as a whole and laughed a lot through most of the movie.

I am a big fan of the American Pie movies and while this is not up to the standard of the first 3 of those it is still worth watching.

Like one of the previous reviewers I cannot understand why this has such a low rating and like her, I now rarely trust the IMDb ratings anymore.

A good movie that made me laugh and I recommend it to others who want something that takes no brain power but still entertains.

I found this much funnier than almost all of Will Ferrell's movies.

major rewrite needed

[totalfailure · 1/10 · 13 November 2010]

here'e the thing - the movie is billed as a comedy but actually felt a bit like a horror movie. the male characters, are, well, very creepy. now, i've read tucker max material years ago on the web. it was funny stuff. but this movie...

it seemed like these guys were getting ready to kidnap and rape a girl for a protracted period of time before killing her. they were downright threatening and brutal to the various females they met. i got as far as the bar/roadtrip scene before i just had to turn it off.

if this were rewritten as a horror movie, about some psychos looking to brutalize a college girl, i would have stuck around. but the movie is trying to get me to like these protagonists, and i just can't do that.

also, it was totally unfunny. not a real joke or setup in the whole thing.

Bad Movie, Bad Script

[van3672 · 1/10 · 6 October 2009]

"I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell" is a poorly scripted R-rated fratboy comedy based on Tucker Max's book of the same name.

The movie is based on the so-called "true" stories of Tucker Max's book. The problem is that it is now coming out that these stories are likely not that true (and heavily exaggerated) and cinema exposes the weak storytelling of mishmashed comedic moments shoehorned into a script that is designed to glorify Tucker Max - the character and the author - at the expense of drama, comedy and internal logic.

The one positive note would be the quality of the acting. The lead characters are well cast and deliver the material sincerely - the problem being that the material is weak.

Hell Ain't Got No Beer

[Chrysanthepop · 30 August 2010]

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.

Can a good script save an otherwise terrible movie?

[moviesleuth2 · 7/10 · 1 May 2010]

For many guys (especially those of college age), Tucker Max's book, "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell" is something of a Holy Bible. For those of you who don't know, it's a collection of stories about the crazy things that happen to him when he gets drunk and tries to score with women. While the stories are true (he has a disclaimer that says he changed some details to avoid criminal prosecution), the film is not. It borrows from many of his stories and stirs them all together in a narrative that is surprisingly coherent.

The film's story follows Tucker, his friends Dan (a stand in for El Bingeroso, and performed by Jeff Stults) and Drew (a stand in for Sling Blade, and performed by Jesse Bradford) as they go to a strip club to throw a bachelor party before Dan's upcoming wedding to Kristy (Keri Lynn Pratt). Needless to say, things get pretty crazy in a true Tucker Max fashion.

I'm a huge fan of Tucker Max. I've read all his stories multiple times, and they never cease to crack me up. Although my favorite story, "Tucker Goes to a Hockey Game," doesn't make an appearance, the film contains a good number of laughs. Judging by the god-awful trailer, that was more than I was expecting.

The acting is of low quality, which I guess comes with a 10 million dollar budget. The film's biggest blunder was casting Matt Czuchry as Tucker. He's terrible; there's not a single moment where he becomes credible. Czuchry ranges from hyper and over-the-top to low-key and boring, with little room inbetween. Jesse Bradford isn't much better, which is kind of startling considering his resume (which includes films by Oliver Stone, Clint Eastwood and Steven Sodebergh). More successful is Geoff Stults, who is solid. It's not a great performance, but we can feel for him to at least a limited extent. The women in the film give the best performances. Keri Lynn Pratt is a unique choice for Kristy; her high pitched voice is her most notable quality. But Pratt is quite effective in the role of Dan's fiancée. There's a scene where she really shines (I don't want to give anything away, so I won't describe it). It's a clichéd scene, but it only works as well as it does because of Pratt. The best performance goes to Marika Dominczyk, who plays Lara, the stripper with a quick wit and who sees the reason behind Drew's hatred of women. Lara is a really likable girl, and in terms of acting, she steals the show (which may seem like faint praise considering the lack of talent most of the actors here exhibit, but Dominczyk is really good).

The direction is flat, and it's immediately obvious that this was a cheaply made movie. The sound is especially troublesome, because it goes in and out in some parts.

But as bad as the film should be, it really isn't. There are plenty of big laughs to be had. With production values this bad, the only reason why it works is because the script is so funny. It's not perfect; some of the lines are either too cute, long winded, or both), but there's a lot of material here that is funny enough in its own right that it would be near impossible to make it not worth any laughs.

A little on the long side (at least the unrated version is), but "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell" is still worth a few laughs.

Painful to Watch

[j-taylor81 · 1/10 · 5 October 2009]

I can only assume that the people that defend this movie loved the book and consequently went in with rose-colored glasses. Having personally only had the "benefit" of skimming the book picked up from a bookstore clearance table, I can only judge this product as a standalone product: and it's awful.

I'm tempted to blame the actors, but it's only because almost every character in the movie is just so unlikeable. Not in a some roguish, incorrigible way as I think the filmmakers would have you believe - just genuinely despicable people. This gross misstep has to fall on the shoulders of the writer(s) and director. I have never seen a movie where anyone that has an ounce of integrity or shows a sign of a moral compass is depicted as the bad guy and gets brutally shot down every time.

I can appreciate a good antihero; it's just that even the "worst" of them usually have some kind of vulnerability or we at least understand their motivation or there is a foil to their character to show them the way or there is a "real" bad guy to root against. Unfortunately, the Tucker Max character is so irredeemable that by the end of the movie there is nothing he can reveal about himself that justifies his malice.

This is in addition to the fact that the movie is ugly to look at, lacking the production values of most straight-to-DVD movies (which I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell should have been).

Not as bad as some say

[kgeezy · 6/10 · 1 December 2011]

I'll admit, i haven't read the book. I'm not a fan of autobiographies, but I do enjoy a good biopic (if it's less than 3 hours and not about a musician) Looking at the Wikipedia page and this page, it would seem that this movie was going to be horrible. For me, it wasn't. The dialogue with the constant insults, over-enunciated big words, and imaginative physical punishments was pretty fun(ny). I found myself laughing more from a "what did he just say to her?" HAHAHAHA As I've suggested it to some friends, my encouragement has been "man, the stuff they say to each other and other people is the funniest part." Okay, Jesse Bradford's Drew as the stereotypical college geek with an extensive vocabulary who feels compelled to say words greater than 3 syllables with Malkovich-ian enunciation did get on my nerves. Tucker Max's fetishes and excesses are played to humorous effect, but the plot is still predictable. It's not about the destination, it's the ride

It's not Wedding Crashers. Wedding Crashers had endearing characters and Christopher Walken.

The Battlefield Earth of Comedy

[MarkPlatt · 1/10 · 25 September 2009]

This movie was absolutely hysterical. Remember when Alan accidentally gave his friends roofies thinking it was Ecstasy…oh Sorry about that, I was accidentally reviewing "The Hangover," which is what "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" is without the funny, wit, good writing, and personality. I want to do a compliment sandwich with this movie, but the reality is that I cannot give any because there's none to give. So I'll just get into it: This movie is bad. Not offensive bad. Let me repeat: NOT OFFENSIVE BAD. Bad bad. This is the Battlestar Gallactica of comedy. The plot is hackneyed and worn out and executed poorly. The characters are so boring and mundane. There's no character development. There are attempts at it, but it falls flatter than William Hung's face. Remember that William Hung reference folks, because it's as obscure and obsolete as the jokes in the movie.

The lighting is poor. The acting isn't dreadful, but there are scenes in the sandwich added for comedic effect which don't further the plot at all (The breakfast sandwich scene is just one that comes to mind.) The characters are so incredibly unlikable, and the ending with the bouncy castle is so pathetic and ridiculous that it just is assumed that the writers threw it in there for some kind of absurd monkey shenanigans value. Skip this movie, it isn't even pirate worthy.

Wow! Bitter much?

[eweerstra · 7/10 · 23 September 2018]

This movie is funny af! Some ppl got their sense of humor shot off in the war. So what if it's misogynistic? Sometimes single guys need those type of movies.

Beyond Bad

[Greatornot · 1/10 · 12 August 2010]

What were they thinking? This film was basically a ripoff from "The Hangover" and loosely from all those other 'men sowing oats before wedding' flicks. I understood the premise and accept it. Sometimes you eat the lion and sometimes the lion eats you. This time , I was eaten. This film was horrible . Tucker, our main character was an obnoxious fool, but what is worse, he is an unfunny, obnoxious fool. The same old recycled gags; Bathroom sounds,handicap humor, fecal matter, misogyny etc. Where as "The Hangover" was excellent and yes even tastefully done with funny, original material. This film was not. As the film progressed toward its conclusion, Tucker was supposedly redeemed, but he was still an obnoxious clod that one could not root. Basically, He is Ferris Bueller raised by outlaws. Somehow, he convinces his friends to go to a town 3 hrs away to visit a special strip joint. Of course , one of these suckers is the groom. I do not want to give away the whole film, only suffice to say Tucker was not a good friend or even human being for that matter. Blaise acting performances, bad direction and the worst humor, translate to an absolutely awful rating and even worse viewing experience.The only good thing I can say is that I did not pay for this; Although time being money, I wasted an hour and half of my life.

funny...and I'm a girl

[gOldeelOxxs · 8/10 · 19 January 2010]

I really enjoyed this movie. Even though it's a "guy" movie I still laughed throughout. I have no earthly idea how it only has 4 stars...which makes me think I really can't trust the overall average ratings on IMDb. I really thought it was a honestly good script. The story was pretty good, although I can see where people are saying it was like the hangover -- but what I don't agree with is when they said it wasn't funny. I didn't realize that is where the story was going (the hangover) while the movie was on until I read these reviews. If the stories are true from his book though, who is copying who? I don't understand all of the hate votes here, but I would like everyone to know this is honestly an incredibly funny comedy.

Lesson here: Don't make something that it isn't.

[jdmeyer05 · 6/10 · 26 January 2011]

Tucker Max is a very funny writer. This movie was a solid idea taken in the wrong direction. Honestly the only real reason it failed at all is because most people who want to watch it want to see what they have always imagined Tucker doing. I watched an interview where Tucker and Nils talked about making a movie that had something to it. Something that was more than just a weekend story. That would be great if no one had understood previously what Tucker Max is all about. If this movie had been about a crazy trip to New Jersey that landed them in Harlem while drunk and they threw in the occasional midget fack it would have been a much bigger hit with audiences. Lesson here: Don't make something that it isn't.

Horribly Unfunny

[damian-50 · 2/10 · 27 September 2009]

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. It's a cookie cutter story, with clichéd and overused jokes.

The script is terrible and the direction is even worse. The basic premise is 3 friends go on a bachelor party. One guy hates women, but finds love by the end of the movie. The groom is basically just there. Finally, Tucker Max alienates his friends, but makes them love him again after giving a toast at their wedding.

Maybe the movie wouldn't have been as tedious to sit through if the jokes wouldn't have fallen so flat. The Drew character says 90% of his lines into the air and some of the lines were groan-worthy.

There's nothing redeeming or entertaining. For a movie that's supposed to shock the audience, it mostly just bores.