Review Transcript

The Beach Bum stars Matthew McConaughey as Moondog, a dude who likes to drink, get high, sleep with multiple women that aren’t his wife, and makes lots of outrageous choices that drastically affect his life and those around him.

I don’t mind silly entertainment if it’s funny, but The Beach Bum’s comedy often misses and it all involves repeatedly using physical humor, penis jokes, weed, and outlandish behavior to grab the audience’s attention. Even if you enjoy this type of humor, I still don’t think there’s much to love. There are a few laugh out loud moments, but the laughs were not frequent enough to warrant a full price movie ticket. The movie feels like it’s scenes are repeating with the same humor being used over and over. It gets old after awhile.

The negative messages in the film could be disturbing to some viewers as Director Korine said in an interview that he wants stressed audience members to be carefree like our protagonist who has no character arc and does not change throughout the film. The message should’ve been advocating against our main character, who uses pot and alcohol to stay happy despite hurting those around him through his crazy actions. Positive mindsets are great, but having an inconsequential attitude is not.

The movie feels longer than it’s short 96 minute running time, as I often kept hoping that it would end and it seemed to take forever.

Supporting actors Isla Fisher, Snoop Dog, Zac Efron, and Stefani Owen who play family member and friends, do very little to stand out as they only exist to act as pawns who suffer consequences because of Moondog’s mistakes or enable him to be as crazy as he is.

Harmony Korine has developed an unfunny stoner movie that should at best be something played in the background but is not worth heading out to the theatre for.