I liked the film (mainly because I liked the book and the whole process of following the film being made) but I did do the experiment and forced non-tucker fan's to watch. The best and most honest quote from my friend was "the movie was average, it felt like they strung together a whole bunch of one liners and just forced the movie on you..." I understood what my friend meant. I kind of got the feeling the first time I saw it that sling blade's character was trying to be to outrageous and well..."slingbladish?" Tucker had compared it to the Hangover numerous times, his film just didn't have the flow of the hangover nor did the actors have as good as chemistry. I do know why HO's success annoyed him so much, it was because of the ridiculous parts of the film, (the tiger, the baby, cop taser scene) his film was much more realistic. (partly because it was real Mike Ness you moron....you guys know what I'm saying....) I still think there are some fantastic lines and great scenes in the movie, "I couldn't hurt you with a running start and a battle axe" Is one of the best lines I have EVER heard. It's sad because it's one of those films where you see the potential of what it could have been. Of course we are all sad because we started on RMMB and couldn't help but route for Tucker, regardless of arrogance or how he acted I wanted to see him make it. This may get deleted because of you foolish trolls who do nothing but hate, but for all the old members do you think if the film exploded we would still have the RMMB board?? He may have still had to get rid of it. I ask this because as much as I love and appreciate TIB it feels like a little something is missing, maybe it's tuning into the weekly road trips or just how the movie was progressing (who could forget the x-ray blowjob??) I just don't know.
That right there. I probably quote the movie, if even accidentally, once every two weeks or so. Some of those lines were simply priceless. "I'm like a feminist. I assert multiple contradictory positions." Awesome. "I hope you die in a fire" is one of the greatest lines ever spoken. But like you said, there was clearly this massive potential for what it could have become. Some of the lines (not all) were just perfect. Some parts of the characters (not always, though sometimes, the actors) were dead-on. I wish all future comedies make note of the fact that in IHTSBIH the guys actually laughed at each other's jokes. The shit scene was overdone, but the fucking setup of that was excellent. There is zero doubt in my mind that this could have been one of the greatest comedy movies ever. It's still one that I will watch many times. I hope to god there's a sequel. But for a variety of reasons I only peripherally know (realistically, most of what we do is blind speculation), it didn't work. But damnit, it was so close!
DIAF is one of the oldest online gaming lines extant. I do love the running start and a battle axe line though.
Saw this movie at Blockbuster while out with the girlfriend, and picked it up. Went into it expecting the worst based on the shitstorm of hate that it's received. Came out pleasantly surprised. It had potential, but didn't really follow through. I think if they all got back together and took another run at it doing a sequel, they'd really hit home. For a first movie it certainly wasn't bad, and this is one of the few occasions I reckon a sequel would be much better than the first. . The battle axe line nearly made me piss myself laughing.
So the film is out in Dublin? Any news on the London release? It's on some cinema listings but without any times...
IHTSBIH wasn't even released at all in movie theaters in South Africa. I doubt the DVD will come here either. I imagine the situation is the same in Europe? Will I miss not having seen it? Probably not.
You know I have to pay per megabyte in data download charges, right? The movie would cost me several hundred dollars. No thanks.
My review: I stopped watching about 30 minutes into the movie. I watched a DVR'd episode of Top Gear instead. IHTSBIH: 3 out of 10. Episode of Top Gear: 8 out of 10. There isn't much I can say that hasn't already been said. It was shot poorly, I didn't care about the plot or the characters (clearly) and I lost the ability to identify with that type of sense of humor around age 23.
So I saw the film again on PPV. I stand by my review, which was that it's a generic movie in every sense of the word. On top of that, it's not a well executed film on just about every level. Was I one of the only people to notice that the entire story of the movie had very little to do with Tucker's book? I mean, yes, there were those scenes in the book that they did transfer to screen, but they were muffled by putting them in scenerios that were nowhere to be found in the book. Just look at the opening for starters. It's been a while since I've read IHTSBIH, but I don't remember the sex with the deaf girl ending the way it did on screen. The cops busting in on Tucker having loud sex doesn't really establish him as the person he portrayed himself to be in the book. He had great material to work with, and he could have used that material to make a very kinetic and fast paced opening that could have not only wowed the audience, but set up the rest of the film as a potentially hilarious comedy. He could have used his own words that he started his book with as well as touched upon his writing style. What I'm talking about is his "That was me" story from when he got wasted at a football game or whatever. He could have used it in a voice over while hammering away at the audience with a number of his shorter stories that have no connection to the movie if only to set his character. For example, what if you set up the opening with a VO of Tucker saying "My name is Tucker Max, and I'm an asshole." Then put a montage of his stories on screen in a very fast paced edit where Tucker illustrates how he's an asshole. "That guy who pissed in his bed after having sex? That was me. That guy who later blamed the girl he just had sex with that she was the one who pissed in HIS bed? That was me. That guy who even later got the girl to write a check out for 500 dollars so he could buy a new mattress? Yep, that was me too." You do this while showing the scenes he's narrating come to life. And you do this with at least 4-5 other quick stories from his book, like say driving a car into a donut shop, drunkenly fighting a mascot, unleashing mace spray during sex in a van etc. etc. That to me would have rung a lot more truer to his great material rather than seeing him get laid in a boring 4 minute opening to the movie that didn't really occur in his book and it would have been funnier then what I saw. I thought the direction was below average. I'm sorry, but if your reasoning to hire Bob Gosse was because his reason for getting into movies was "pussy" and the fact that he came prepared, you've shot yourself in his foot. He never seemed to mesh well with the material given. There was not a single decent performance by any character that mattered. I'm sorry, but I don't give a shit if the stripper was "good", because she's not the reason why I went to the film in the first place, she's barely ancillary to the plot and had nothing to do with the book. Tucker, as a character, was one note, a conduit to saying lines in a manner that was not only dislikable, but lacked any sort of charisma that I felt the book Tucker had. Drew? Well, it's been said that most of his dialogue was forced, and it was, however I blame that more on the overall plot of the film rather than the fault of the director or actor. The lines felt forced because they were pieced together from a bunch of mismatched stories and used out of context, thereby rendering them almost unnerving. Dan was bland, his character didn't do much, wasn't very funny and ended up having a very predictable character arc. Perhaps it was the fault of the writing, but it was also just as much a fault of the director. A comedy director would have found the comedic heart in these characters and used it to the films advantage. Bob Gosse doesn't come off as a person who is comfortable directing a comedy. Nothing about his past work says that he was comfortable with comedy or he knew how to direct one. The music he used was dull and boring (seriously, Wilco on a Tucker Max film?) and his pacing was even worse. The story itself was my main problem with the film. It just had very little to do with the book, nor did it touch on the theme that Tucker claims is the crux of his work, which is to "be true to yourself". I feel that this stated theme could have been exploited in a number of ways, but it's almost completely avoided in the film. Why not a movie about a recent law school graduate who keeps failing by "being true to himself", but ends up succeeding in an unforeseen way that he gets to accidently? The ending in his book hammers this home and would have been a great finale' for a movie. The guy has a chance to be a good person but chooses plan B, which is empty and ugly, but more his style. He finally realizes he's a horrible person, but he's comfortable with that fact. Yes, it's more solemn then "did you really fuck a midget?", but it's real and it actually did come from the book the movie takes its title from. It also would have been far more poetic and true. What Tucker and Nils did was take the easy way out, which is why the film came off as so generic and boring. Anyway, it's a shame, because the movie was below average in almost every aspect. The weakness being was that it strayed too far away from the book and the filler parts (including the overall plot and story) fell flat on it's face. Perhaps Tucker would have done better to let somebody who could craft a viable story out of his book to take a shot on the script. I won't comment about Tucker's cult of personality because I truly don't care. I don't know him personally, nor do I care how the movie does (or did) financially. Whatever he said, however he oversold the material to his fanbase has nothing to do with my review. I watched the movie as a fan of his book who was more than interested in seeing it brought to screen. I was just really disappointed, as were a great number of other fans of the book. 3/10 In the end, I just didn't find this movie to be anything more then the Bizarro version of a very funny book.
....Or he could use the story about that chick who tattoed his name on her snatch, or the story of him shooting the shit in Texas, or how he paid that girl for her abortion........ The movie is what it is. You can think it's great, it sucks or anything in between. That's your opinion, and I feel that you gave good arguments about why you didn't like it in the rest of your post. But what's up with all these 'he should've used this and that story'? Tucker and Nils chose this path, judge it on what it is, not the what-ifs. Maybe they considered the things you were saying, but chose otherwise. But coming up with other suggestions about the direction you feel the movie should've taken, doesn't mean much right now. It's just discussing the hypothetical. You didn't really expect this movie to be an book-adaptation like Lord of the Rings or Fight Club and all those other books/movies? I mean, it was a collection of short stories with some central themes that ran throughout the book, not a single story. Tucker and Nils took the title of the book, some characters, the funniest lines and a couple of story-elements and used that to make the movie. The book and the movie may share the same title, but are two very different entities.
Okay, you didn't like the movie. But this? That is not a movie review. That is a "this movie wasn't like the book" review. Everything you suggested would have just made the movie terrible (for some of you, more terrible than you already think it is). And that seems to be the common theme throughout your review, "Why didn't he use X from the book?" Try forgetting the book existed and watch it again.
I'm still amazed that there are large groups of people who are just now finding the IHTSBIH book. On Friday night I was hanging out with a bunch of Med School students who had read it and passed a few copies around in the last month or so. They didn't know or really care about any of the background about the book and thought that the IHTSBIH movie was going to be released this summer. So while it sucks that these fans had no idea about the material it's interesting that the DVD might have a far longer shelf life than I originally thought. The question is, will all these new readers automatically search out the movie if they enjoyed the book so much?
With the internet this shit just goes hand in hand. You search of the book you are bound to find the movie. I think it will draw in more people than would have otherwise but I don't think the movie has the same staying power as the book because it simply isn't good enough to. I don't think the movie will be as passed around or recommend as much as the book was.
I just had a genius idea. They should a DVD/Book combo pack. Ehhhh maybe it would bring down the value of the book. I think it sounds like an awesome idea. But, this may bring down the value of the book. I'm not a good person to consult on this, because I'm one of the four people that actually likes the movie. Productions values be damned, it was fucking funny.