Who hates Max? A lot of people: most women, a lot of men, op-ed columnists, and the Chicago Transit Authority, which last week removed crass bus shelter posters promoting “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell,’’ thereby giving the movie more publicity than ever. Max protested but unconvincingly; he knows stunts like this only solidify his rebel credentials to an audience that doesn’t want to think too much.
Anyway, how’s the movie? Ridiculously cheap-looking, smug, scurrilous, but fairly evolved for a project so fundamentally unevolved. Actor Matt Czuchry plays Max with a sleepy Cheshire cat grin, wandering from one boozy conquest to the next and trying to score a personal trifecta by sleeping with a deaf woman, a blind woman, and a mute. (The first takes up the film’s opening scene; it’s the perfect aisle-clearer for anyone in the audience with actual taste.)
Max stands for unrepentant groin-centric hedonism; his best friend Dan (Geoff Stults) is the upstanding groom-to-be, although unlike most grooms in most bachelor party comedies, he’s allowed to have a personality. The third point of the triangle is Drew (Jesse Bradford), recently dumped by his fiancee and venting his anger in bitter, hyperarticulate rants against all women. Drew’s the litmus test: Unless you can laugh at an intentionally outrageous line like “Not all women are sluts, just most of them,’’ you should stay at home; it’s not worth rising to Max’s bait. Still, this man wonders why he’s accused of hating women?
The threadbare plot follows the three friends out of town to a legendary strip club - legendary to Tucker, anyway - and complications ensue. As road comedies go, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before and a lot you have: This movie joins “The Hangover’’ and “The Wrestler’’ in suggesting that a modern guy’s best chance for true love is with a single-mom stripper. The Freudians should have a field day.
