Gross ‘Beer in Hell’ leaves a wicked bad aftertaste

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buy this photo Tucker Max co-wrote the big-screen adaptation of his book "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell," which opens Friday. Freestyle Releasing Photo

If ever a movie needed a restraining order issued against it, it's "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell." The fictionalized big-screen adaptation of blogger-author Tucker Max's anecdotes about drinking a lot, puking a lot and then having sex with a lot of drunk, puking women is an unfunny and mean-spirited disaster.

Max co-wrote and co-produced the movie, turning down offers from studios who didn't want to give him the creative control he desired. It's too bad, because one of those studios could have explained to him that while it's fine to be raunchy in a sex comedy, it's not fine at all to be cruel and borderline misogynist. There are lines in this movie, such as when one bitter guy tells a girl he wants to "carve a ----hole in her torso," that are so horrible they make your stomach turn.

Matt Czuchry ("Gilmore Girls") plays the fictionalized version of Max, a perpetually grinning guy who always thinks he's the funniest, smartest guy at the bar. In the movie, based on one of Max's stories, he takes his best friend Dan (Geoff Stults) out for Dan's bachelor party to a notoriously nasty strip club.

In tow is their geeky friend Drew (Jesse Bradford), who is bitter over having caught his girlfriend cheating on him. Drew's treatment of women is so harsh (he's the one who utters the "torso" line) that I guess he's there to make Max look good by comparison.

A less appealing threesome on a road trip would be hard to imagine, and the bachelor party itself is kind of depressing - a lot of booze, a few strippers, a lot of time spent insulting women at the bar. It's like actually watching guys having an actual bachelor party, and kind of a sad little one at that. Where's the tiger? Where's Mike Tyson?

For a movie supposedly about unbridled debauchery, it's kind of tame, and the Max character seems to spend a lot of time justifying his behavior. He's not a misogynist, he's just sexist, he explains to one girl. Wherever he draws the line in his own mind, he's not interesting or redeemable as a character, and the constant explaining and lionizing Max the character suggests a deep-seated insecurity, or at least defensiveness, in Max the screenwriter.

I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL

Stars: Matt Czuchry, Geoff Stults

Rated: R for nudity, sexuality, violence and pervasive language

How long: 1:31

Where: Point Star Cinema

For fans of: "The Hangover," "Porky's," guys who call each other "Brah"

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