I'm a self-confessed Amazon junkie, among other things, and am on the site on an almost daily basis, not necessarily buying anything, just online window shopping and there's this feature where the site will have these recommendations on products tailored to the consumer's interest. I have a high affinity of reading humorous (semi?) autobiographical accounts of currently living persons like Chelsea Handler's My Horizontal Life, Jen Lancaster's Bitter Is The New Black and Karyn Bosnak's Save Karyn so Amazon always comes up with choices from this genre in my list. So happened, one day, I'm on Amazon and in my list is I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell (henceforth referred to as IHTSBH) by Tucker Max. Now, there's this saying, 'Don't judge a book by it's cover'. I didn't, although the cover was quite bland, black background with a photo of Tucker Max and an unidentified blonde chick whose face has a 'your face here' on it. I did judge the book by its title though. I mean, really, to mimic Chandler, could the title BE anymore inclined to frat boy drunkenness? And so I passed, not my pint of beer, so to speak :P
Now, if it appears I'm going off tangent with this post, bear with me. I'll tie it all up neatly (?) and hand-deliver it to your doorstep in the next 2 paragraphs or so. Gilmore Girls was a huge part of my tube experience and even though it has been a year plus since the show has been off the air, I still have my own re-run sessions. My absolute fave seasons are 5-7 as that's when Logan Huntzberger came into existence in Rory's life. I won't start on why he was the best ever boyfriend out of all the guys Rory dated but Logan had this something about him that made me, and a few hundred thousand other girls/women, root for Rory & him. All credit goes to the actor behind the character and his name is Matt Czuchry.
Watching Matt play Logan against Alexis Bledel's Rory Gilmore was great as it made Rory more multi-faceted since she was seriously in danger of becoming a two-dimensional bore in Season 4. Logan breathed new life into the personality that is Rory and that got me interested in seeing other things Matt's been in which led me to watching Young Americans, Hooked, Advantage Hart and some other projects he's been involved with. After GG went off the air, I IMDB'd him to see what his next moves were as I felt the loss of not getting my weekly dose of Logan and although there were a few new things on the list, they weren't anything concrete. Post-GG, he did guest star on another show I like to watch, Friday Night Lights, but due to the writers strike, the second season of FNL got cut short and his storyline with Minka Kelly was left up in the air. The next step he took was a run in theatre where he acted with Christine Lahti, whom I know from her stint on Chicago Hope, in the play 'Third'. After 'Third', things go quiet for a bit for Matt until out of a fit of boredom, one day, I decided to read the book reviews of IHTSBH, discovered a movie was being made and wondered who in hell did they get to play the title character. And that brings us to the whole point of this post in which Matt Czuchry is now Tucker Max!
So now, here lies the irony, an actor I adore is acting in a movie based on a book that I had originally dismissed a masochistic crap fest. Should you wonder why I'm so down on a book I haven't read, here's the synopsis:
"Everyone has stories of their drunken exploits and, more frequently, disasters, but Tucker Max's are in a league by themselves. Max, a rich restaurateur's son and unredeemable and unapologetic drunkard, regales his readers with stories of sexual conquest and chemical rampages that take the barroom boast or frat house yarn to new heights and depths. A typical chapter, entitled "Tucker tries buttsex; hilarity does not ensue" involves a hidden friend with a video camera, and a lot of vomit and feces. It's incredibly vile but also almost impossible to stop reading."
You can see now, why I thought this book would be a bit much for even my diverse pallette and I've read some pretty weird stuff (I'm looking at you, "You'll Never Make Love In This Town Again"). But the power of Matt Czuchry has overcome most reservations I have about reading the book as I know I'll definitely be watching the movie, might as well go the whole nine yards and read the book as well (I'm one of those who like to 'compare and contrast' the book with the movie/tv adaptation). I haven't ordered my copy yet but I know I'll end up reading it sometime before the movie debuts. I have to give due credit to Tucker Max for being a marketing whizz though...by casting Matt Czuchry who, so far, comes across in interviews as a straight-laced, stand-up all-around nice guy with a handsome face to boot, he has opened up his target audience to include people like moi, who would go see a movie based on the actor. Despite this book being on the NY Times bestseller list, they also reviewed it as 'Highly entertaining and thoroughly reprehensible'. And to be able to recruit Matt on such a project, well, it intrigues me to see the motivation Matt had to inhibit the person that is Tucker Max.
The movie however will not be based on the whole book entirely as I believe the book is a collection of short anecdotal style writing. It covers one of the stories and the description of the movie is:
"The film will follow Max’s trip to a friend’s bachelor party, where he ensnares the groom in a lie that threatens the wedding, then abandons him to pursue further carnal knowledge. After being banned from the nuptials, Max attempts to get back into his friend’s good graces."
Tucker Max is betting on the success of this first film to create an IHTSBH movie franchise. I'm simply hoping more people will get to see how good Matt Czuchry is as an actor. So, against your better judgement, I urge you to go and see this indie flick when it comes out to a theatre near you :)
P.S:
To find out more about Tucker Max and the movie, click anywhere in the post where the movie's name is mentioned.
