(Source: http://www.tuckermax.com/movie/)
Tucker Max's "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" novel made the New York Times Bestseller list in 2006, 2007 and 2008. I remember reading the book in high school and laughing out loud at Max's fearless, arrogant yet self-aware humor.
Naturally, a film adaptation of the novel ensued in 2009, but with much less success. According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed about $1.4 million throughout its one-and-a-half month stay in U.S. theaters. To put this in perspective, "The Hangover" grossed over $277 million domestically during its six month reign at the box office.
With adjectives like "horrible," "painful" and "wasted potential" used to describe the adaptation by IMDB users, it's obvious why it performed so poorly in theaters. However, my roommate and I thought the movie was pretty entertaining. This should not set off red flag indicators about my character; don't judge me, jerks.
To my defense, I thought that some scenes were overly offensive (whether they were racist or sexist) in hopes of utilizing shock humor. On the other hand, my roommate laughed for a few of these scenes. You jerks can judge him.
For pious old me, could the reason I didn't find these scenes funny be that I have matured since reading the book? Or, did they seem more offensive because I was watching them take place as opposed to reading about them?
Furthermore, when my roommate's girlfriend walked in, she told us that she and a friend had watched the movie and thought that it was one of the worst movies that they'd ever seen. After she judged our character for laughing, she walked out, leaving me to wonder if Tucker Max's humor is gender-specific.
What I am most intrigued by, and scared of, is that I saw a lot of myself in Tucker Max. No, I am not a misogynist, nor am I a racist. Shallow belief systems have always disgusted me.
In the film, Max's selfish inclination to live life by the seat of his pants leads him to create disasters out of simple situations, but then somehow find a way to make things right. His ability to make things right after he messes them up is what perpetuates Max's selfishness.
In the movie, Max convinces his best friend to lie to his future wife and hold his bachelor party at a far-off strip club, which he raves about. It turns out that Max had not only lied about previously visiting that club, but also had ditched his belligerent best friend, who ended up with two black eyes and one night in jail, in favor of a stripper. Once the wife-to-be found out, the wedding was put in jeopardy.
After being uninvited to the wedding, Max crashed it anyway and gave a speech, somehow winning back his friend.
Last month, while I was on my fraternity's bus to Dallas for the Red River Rivalry, I realized that I had left my ticket to the game in my apartment. Luckily (or so I thought), the bus was just outside my building. I ran up to the bus driver and pleaded that he let me get off the bus and run to my room to grab my ticket, which he did. Somewhere in my subconscious, I'm sure I knew that if I somehow missed the bus, I would still find a way to Dallas.
To make a long story short, my date had to ride the 5 hour trip without me. I ended up being lucky enough to be allowed to catch a ride in a rival fraternity's bus (which is unheard of). When my fraternity arrived in Dallas, my roommate, his girlfriend and my date could not check into the hotel because it was under my name. I had officially messed up the weekend before it even started.
By the time I reached Dallas, I had the wherewithal to get flowers for my date and my roommate's girlfriend. The flowers, coupled with a sincere apology, seemed to fix most of our problems, which enabled me find more ways to screw up the weekend.
Both Max and I fail to learn that "winging it" complicates things, despite the obvious correlation. Although I am curious as to why I found this movie so funny, I am sure (or at least hope) that a significant part of this answer lies in my ability to relate to the main character and his blunders.
Very Brave of you to relate yourself so closely to such a socially opposite character. But your relating to him has brought out different qualities in the character girls come to hate. Now thinking about it, his mess ups are relatable to all of us. I think we all have had those mess up after mess up vicious cycle and the movie does to a good job of promoting that out of his character. I too hated the movie after I saw it, but thats just from a filmmakers standpoint. I guess its got some good things about it, even if those good things are a bit hard to see at first.
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ReplyDeleteWhy are you trying to pretend to be something you are not? How can you say that shallow belief systems disgust you? You know what disgusts me? LIARS! First off, I am not exactly sure what a shallow belief system is, but I assume your referring to how a good looking man such as yourself allows himself to judge a woman based on her looks. What is so wrong about that? If you are not good looking, then you don't deserve any attention from Calvin Berman, Plain and simple. I would assume that the type of girls who would take offense to Max's stories have most likely been embarrassed degraded and/or demoralized from a specific event with someone like Tucker Max (a guy), and haven't gotten over it. I can think of no other reason for why anyone would be truly offended other than the presence of empathy felt for "the loser". Just because the majority of girls have allowed themselves to experience this sort of humiliation (most probably caused by their unwillingness to accept their relationship with a man for what it was, sexual), rendering their sense of humor tainted, it is not fair to call Max's comedy gender specific. Tucker Max's movie merely presents the funny stories of one man and his very natural desire for sexual conquest. True, a female almost always receives the short end of the stick, but again, whose fault is that? I understand that your trying to present yourself as a sensitive guy and all, but seriously, it makes for a really boring blog (that shits gay dude). What happened to the good old testosterone driven Playa pimp Calvin I used to know (Seeekest Guy). What is all this pamby bamby bullshit about "pious old me, could the reason I didn't find these scenes funny be that I have matured since reading the book?" I have read the book, and I would imagine the reason you didn't find the scenes funny was because you were considering peoples judgment of your reactions before you even laughed. If you learn anything from Tucker Max, its that chicks love Assholes, why? Because Assholes are honest, they could care less what people think of them. Max's stories are real, that is partly why his blog was so successful. I have a strong feeling this blog is not, and If i continue to feel this way I am afraid I will have to stop reading it.
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