Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Matt Czuchry, Geoff Stults, Jesse Bradford, Keri Lynn Pratt | Written by Tucker Max & Nils Parker
UK Certification 18 | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 102 minutes | Directed by Bob Gosse
Adapted from the New York Times best-seller of the same title by Tucker Max, who also co-wrote the screenplay, comes I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, a sex comedy inspired by, to quote the film itself, “true events, unfortunately”. Well, yes, I can see why they tagged on that last word—the film's mere existence is rather unfortunate in itself.
The character of Tucker, based on Tucker Max himself, is a selfish, arrogant and egotistical young man with a rather tasteless charm which still manages to win over the ladies. With a beer in hand, he'll insult them to his final breath, say he was kidding and then end up in their beds. Tucker isn't just some university student, he's a law student, as are his two best buddies Drew and Dan, who is about to get hitched. The impending marital bliss for the happy couple is what is put in jeopardy when the catalyst Tucker lies to Dan's fiancee by assuring her that the three friends won't be heading to a strip club by the name of Avarice. So what do they do? They get in the car, go for a three hour drive and hit up the clubs. Only, like you'd expect, it doesn't all go to plan and the night ends badly for Dan, with only the blissfully ignorant Tucker to blame.
I have no idea what the book is like and I'm not too bothered about finding out since Tucker Max wrote both—the film is a nightmare for comedy as it just isn't funny in any way. Tucker's perfectly cast and the main actors do a pretty good job, but without a script that has any laughs, their talents are just like Drew, Dan and Tucker at Avarice: completely wasted.
The book may have been a best-seller, but the movie did no business at the box office whatsoever, and I'm really not surprised. While it has a coherent story, it's basically just a rehash of American Pie. And who could really believe that these guys are approaching the end of their terms as law students? I certainly wouldn't want any one of them representing me if I needed a lawyer.
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is just another raunchy teen film that boils down to sex and alcohol. It's reminiscent of The Hangover, except that was funny. If you've seen the box art first you wouldn't have needed to read this review since you would probably have noticed that the three male heads have been Photoshopped terribly, which is never a good sign for a movie (see Bangkok Dangerous with Nicolas Cage). Why have they cut off half of that woman's face? "The Hilarious U.S. hit"?—the movie made no money. And no, the guy on the far right isn't Frankenstein's Monster, that's Drew.
If somehow my love of horror movies catches up with me and I end up rapping on Hell's gates, I'll take the beer, but can only hope that they don't show this movie there.
EXTRAS ★ Just the trailer.