Review: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

The film distills to its essence the worst tendencies of The Hangover‘s bachelor party craziness.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
Photo: Freestyle Releasing

Driven by puerile chauvinism and dim toilet humor, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell distills to its essence the worst tendencies of The Hangover’s bachelor party craziness. Based on one of the short stories featured in Tucker Max’s book of the same name, Bob Gosse’s film concerns Tucker (Matt Czuchry), a cheery boor whose uninhibited crassness is—in what can only be a frat guy’s sexist fantasy—the key to his bedding willing women. After an intro in which Tucker is interrupted from screwing a deaf hottie by the cops and then publicly announces said feat to his college professor during class, the wannabe-shocking protagonist grabs engaged best friend Dan (Geoff Stults) and shut-in woman-hater Drew (Jesse Bradford) for a night of bachelor party debauchery at an out-of-town strip club. This escapade leads to all sorts of physical and legal trouble for Dan, an equally foul-mouthed Halo-playing stripper for Drew (she’s the 21st century’s version of a hooker with a heart of gold), and a gap-toothed, tattooed midget lover for Tucker.

Underlit and generally shot with an eye toward unattractiveness, Beer in Hell also goes for ugliness in its dialogue, which attempts comedy through a barrage of misogynistic comments like “I want to shoot these bitches” and “Your whole gender is hardwired for whoredom.” Such desperate attempts to offend prove more pathetic than odious, but there is something intolerable about the script—after wantonly celebrating Tucker’s nasty selfishness for the better part of an hour—resorting to a prolonged third act in which we’re supposed to tolerate, however briefly, Tucker’s maturation and process of asking for forgiveness from the friends he thoughtlessly screwed over. Then again, between the self-satisfaction of its dude raunch, the dullness of its redemption drama, and the crudeness of its fart and diarrhea-obsessed climactic plotting, there’s actually a whole lot to loathe about Beer in Hell, a dreadfully unfunny film that manages to give piggish man-whores an even worse name.

Score: 
 Cast: Jesse Bradford, Matt Czuchry, Geoff Stults, Marika Dominczyk, Kri Lynn Pratt, Traci Lords  Director: Bob Gosse  Screenwriter: Tucker Max, Mils Parker  Distributor: Freestyle Releasing  Running Time: 105 min  Rating: R  Year: 2009  Buy: Video

Nick Schager

Nick Schager is the entertainment critic for The Daily Beast. His work has also appeared in Variety, Esquire, The Village Voice, and other publications.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.