I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

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Frat-boy humour can be a risky business. Generally, it's best to keep your expectations as elastic as possible. Sometimes you're rewarded with a stupidly intoxicating film like The Hangover. Other times you're asked to stretch your concept of decency farther than the waistband on a worn-out pair of jockey shorts. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, the latest entry in the debauched bachelor-party movie sweepstakes, contains the seemingly obligatory diarrhea scene along with a few lines that could pass for wit among the party-'til- you-puke set. It's also one of the most relentlessly mean-spirited movies I've seen in years.

Directed by Bob Gosse, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is based on the bestselling autobiography of Tucker Max. Max—who cowrote the screenplay—is portrayed by The Good Wife's Matt Czuchry, who's perfected the kind of slimy grin that instantly brands him as a shallow creep. Despite his obvious character flaws, Tucker has two astoundingly loyal friends: fellow law students Drew (Jesse Bradford, who deserves better) and Dan (Geoff Stults).

Drew has just been betrayed by his long-time girlfriend—thereby allowing him to serve as a willing foil for Tucker's deeply misogynistic banter. Dan is about to wed a sweet girl (Keri Lynn Pratt) who's getting a little tired of the way Tucker controls her fiancé's life. Tucker's solution? Have one last bachelor blowout before Dan becomes a henpecked husband.

Along the way, virtually every type of woman imaginable is subjected to Tucker's party-hearty version of serial degradation. Sure, there's one or two female characters who brand Tucker a total pig. But the really offensive aspect of this movie is that several women the boys encounter actually seem to dig Tucker's line.