User Reviews

Beach Bum is a movie about Moondog. He's a staple in Key West where he spends his days getting high, drinking PBR and occasionally writing. He's a poet by profession but dedicates all his time medicated. He has a wife that has a lover and a daughter that settled into marrying a man so dull he makes a Mormon seem exciting.

Beach Bum is director Harmony Korine recent attempt to highlight a character that colors outside the lines. If you're familiar with his work, you know that his movie pace can be belaboring such is the case here.

Matthew McConaughey playing a Stoner is not a stretch. Those expectations remain low upon viewing this movie.

Beach Bum has many issues. The movie boasts an all-star cast but grossly misuses them.

The concept for Beach Bum wasn't wrong; its execution is what was troublesome.

Moondog eccentric mannerism was only charming for an hour after that it became laboring.

Snoop Dog was also misplaced. One would think a movie that features weed as one of the themes and the charisma of Snoop would create magic on screen, but it doesn't. He's a limiting sidekick. One of the most dynamic artists of our time and he's lackluster.

Jonah Hill as Lewis Moondog's publicist also isn't very interesting.

I get that this movie was about celebrating Key West laid back way of life. The whole idea of tuning out very much exists there lamented among the thousands of tourists but it's not executed well.

Zac Efron pops up as a fellow stoner and luckily for him, this performance will hopefully be forgotten seeing that he just turned in a fantastic performance as Ted Bundy.

The bright light in this train wreck was Martin Lawrence. Lawrence hasn't made many movies lately. His comedic bone brings much-needed humor to a film that otherwise seemed in slow motion at times.

Director Harmony Korine has given us much better work. I understand what he was attempting here, but the bottom line is the movie got stuck in neutral and just became predictable, instead of giving us an insight to a character that is very comfortable in his skin Moondog became a caricature.

They're not wrong with going of grind, but a movie requires progression. You know a beginning, a middle and an end. We got two hours of a middle.

Matthew McConaughey at this stage in his career should not portray boring characters such as this; however, since his academy award, his roles have been stale. Gone is the young gunner from Texas that shook up Hollywood and in its place an artist that seems to have settled for an easy check. I am not giving up on McConaughey yet, but Beach Bum isn't the way back to memorable.

This movie is beautifully broken. It is strange, disjointed and like trying to recollect the events after a 10 day binged on the beach. It's wild, weird and very pretty in its own way. A complete mess that somehow makes sense. I definitely recommend sticking through it at least once.

I've seen people write that they expected a comedy. Even if labelled that way, this movie wasn't that. I knew guys like this (just not rich) back in the 70s. A lot of them you would meet, spend some time with, and they would just move on. The music fits the 70-80s era better. This movie seems to be more of an "expression" of a certain character you might run into.

There is no real success or failure to this movie, it's just there . I think that if you go into it with expectations of something else you probably won't enjoy it.

Most people would agree with the statement that McConaughey does his best work in stoner roles, this is not a straightforward stoner comedy however so don't be disappointed if that's what you are expecting. Anyone who expects anything other than a strange arthouse film from Harmony Korine must not be aware of his style. There is lots to be enjoyed in this film including the humour, music, and supporting cast. It is worth viewing with an open mind, just don't expect Pineapple Express or Cheech and Chong.

This movie bored me to death with confusion and lack of direction. Only watching this movie if you are in Day 180 of social isolation and with nothing else to watch.

Wow, this movie was terrible. Nothing redeeming, interesting or entertaining unless you like to watch MM playing a drunk stoner. I guess, he's a believable stoner, as is Snoop, but there's basically no story. Just scene after scene of drinking and toking. Arthouse garbage.

In Matthew McConaughey's earnest effort to show his fans a good time, we are left wondering whether he and a generous cast of celebrities (who appear to be improvising considerable chunks of The Beach Bum) are having more fun than the audience. Harmony Korine's film-making style is to create "experiences," shooting music videos in the context of a larger story. This was done with greater success in his previous work, the divisive-but-brilliant-at-times Spring Breakers, and less successfully here. The aforementioned's avant garde style devolves into a more scattershot product in this effort. Stoners may find comfort in knowing that their genre may actually be alive, well, and kicking between Miami and Key West. The rest of us may just enjoy this as a 95 minute party, or better yet, as an ideal film to have on as background for a party.

Don't. Just don't. I know you'll be tempted because of all the stars involved, and the trailer makes it look like it's got potential. But you'll never get that hour-and-a-half of your life back. Unless you like watching drunken fools wander about for 90-minutes, in which case, sure, give it a whirl. It's a slice of life of a so-called genius, but no one learns anything, despite tragedy; and the finale was completely predictable. I dunno... maybe it'd be funny if you're high? I'm not willing to rewatch it to find out tho. But on the plus side, the soundtrack was great! Jimmy Buffet and Snoop palling around? That was genius.

So many bad reviews? Heard of an arthouse film? Seen any other movies by Harmony Korine? Enjoy an awesome soundtrack? Enjoy top notch sceneray/directing? Jimmy Buffet or a Snoop fan? With a hillarious script.. the Martin Lawrence dolphins scene is a highlight amongst many.. do urself a favour, if you can watch a movie and not take it so seriously you are in for a treat!! Moondog rocks on!!

Director Korine expertly maintains a sustained tone throughout the course of this woozy movie. Despite experiencing what would seem to be life's highs and lows none of the events of the story seem to affect McConaughey's character and he glides though it all like a stoned Forrest Gump. Even though he commits some pretty serious crimes none of it seems to stick and he constantly falls ass-backward into sex, drugs and money. The most fantastic element of the story is really that everyone else in his world seems to share his good nature and no evil befalls him. Also that he wrote a whole book without running out of ribbon for his typewriter.

I love every actor and actress in this movie....but....uh wow this is awful

Another post-irony prank. Remember in Spring Breakers how there was this trace of conscience behind it? Just enough to see it at social critique as the girls gradually drop out and return back to humanity or face the consequences of their actions, bringing forth some accountable artist at work behind it. Beach Bum hints at avenues where it might go there with the daughters tiredness and stoicism, the ex-wife's fate, and his legal repercussions; but any traces of lessons, growth or consequences are stomped to pieces moments later. Korine's artist commentary is strangely hidden in its excess. Every one of my audience walked out. It's so gleefully immoral that in this universe he's rewarded with the highest accolades society can offer because nothing matters.

"He just makes me so crazy." Constantly it makes fun of any kind of real authenticity people can have between each other. It's sarcastic Terrence Malick. It don't care about nothing. A canary in the cold mine in late stage capitalism where one has these infinite resources and distribution, to make fun of god. The court jester throws out his inhibition to mock the king, laughing while getting hanged for it. Problem with both this and Spring Breakers is they become the real deal, actual culture in the process of their critique. While works like this you can only see the meaning in the opposite. So the film's function seems to be mocking its own audience and their motives to see it in the first place.

Think of the performance art as the juggle of financing, banking, courting the industry to make this at all, reflecting the machine's decay against itself. You could hate getting dragged through the mud but it's pretty much the definition of iconoclast. Korine said, "These films mean nothing to me and everything." As in it's his way of chipping away and bringing down the structure from within. Its existence is an act in radical accelerationism. The end of the empire. collapse, civil war, the global digital juggernaut paradise-hell.

The ones not concerned with the world around them move the same direction except within delight.

Then the moral frame missing unlocks its true motive in reflecting the surrounding culture at war. Individual to a satiric extreme; laissez-fair 'life is fun, have a laugh, there's Moondog in all of us', while really believing the opposite. Bum is a pejorative. The film's conscience is not missing but inherent, and all the 'endearing' and 'feel good,' despite its endless evils and debauchery, are maybe being fooled by Moondog's charm, which might have been its actual prank.

Korine is following up the success of 'Spring Breakers' with 'The Beach Bum,' starring Matthew McConaughey as Moon Dog, who gives a fantastic performance which is the end result--and perfection--of the caricature McConaughey has seemingly been developing since his role of Wooderson in the movie Dazed and Confused.

The supporting cast of 'The Beach Bum' does an admirable job, especially Jonah Hill who looks as fit and trim as he has in a long time, since 21 Jump Street. The exception to this is Jimmy Buffet, who Korine assumably just wanted to hang out with, since we've seen better acting from a house plant.

The story of 'The Beach Bum' and the character of Moon Dog aren't very deep. In both respects, what you see is what you get. But they're both interesting and fun, to say the least, and worth the price of admission.

I wish this movie was an hour shorter. The pastel and neon dizzying hedonism is artfully directed. However, when the film's pace begins to slow, it's like the lights coming on in a club. The characters then become annoying and boring, the plot holes more obvious, and the movie excruciatingly boring. The end is an interesting homage to KLF.

Now I'm not comparing the movies or characters entirely here. But like with Fear and Loathing there does not seem a goal our hero/main character is trying to reach. Actually Beach Bum seems even less straighforward. And I guess some might call it sexist. It is quite in the world of or rather in the head of that one character - and Matthew has said in interviews he drew inspirations of people he had met in real life.

So great acting, but kind of hard to really pin point, really make up our mind. Even another reviewer who rated it a bit higher than me was like "I liked it (I think)". And that really sums it up, because I too think I liked it, but it's just a fine line with the movie. It is quite easy to slide over to the "I'm annoyed now" side. So keep that in mind with a movie that defies a lot of things - and while it is comedy, it is not conventional in that regard either

A gross misuse of pot, Van Morrisons music and white kittens

I watched this movie in hopes that it would be a comedy and have some context and relevancy of what is happening or going to happen, but this movie was completely obscure.

The pornographic content and all the radical behavior is not the problem, it was the story of the movie. There was none. If the goal of the movie was to have a movie about drugs and sex then you don't even get that in this movie. This movie is a complete failure.

A waste of time. I could have been reading a book rather than watching this film about a druggy write a book.

How much you like or dislike this movie depends on how much you're into Matthew McConaughey and Harmony Korine making their Cheech and Chong/Hunter S Thompson flick (well, Thompson but as a poet and more The Dude than Raoul Duke).

This is funky, loose, crazy, and dumb, but often wildly funny. I dont know if Korine is going for a terribly deep message, and thats ok! It veers into mania and real darkness and terror, and it is legitimately shocking because he's got his chops as a provocateur (in part because Debie, for all his filters, has a sense of naturalism alongside his director), but the whole experience is riveting. It's his most "conventional" movie in that it isn't aggressively full of oddities, but that doesn't mean it doesn't dance enough there to be what it is.

I knew at times I shouldn't be laughing, or at least questioned it, and I think I can see someone coming to it and not having any of it. I wouldn't be mad if someone told me this got on their nerves - like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it'll either hit you or it won't. For me, I dug McConaughey (how much this is how he is deep down and how method or who knows what for it, don't care, I was equally charmed and repulsed and couldn't look away) and I dig seeing Martin Lawrence, as the world's greatest dolphin tour guide, make a quasi comeback in one of the more insane comic set pieces I've ever seen. It keeps you on your toes and doesn't let you know how to feel about the shenanigans go down.

Soundtrack is an all-timer (give or tair a Creed song).

The film was pointless but that's the whole point of the film, just take it for what it is. Matthew McConaughey's 'Moondog' is living the life to the full, talk about having fun. It's a whacky trip that almost seems you've smoked as much weed as the cast did. It's a comedy, remember this when watching it. Some will like it others will not.

Boring and pointless. No character development or plot.

The Beach Bum shows us the joys of life despite the pain of loss, death and poverty. It's a celebration of life embodied in a remarkable performance by Matthew McConaughey. Moondog is an exultant poet, more enamored with life than poetry, who lives an excessively pleasurable life with a poetic bent. Give yourself over to the film and you will have a good time, and in the end that's what it's really about.

"The Beach Bum" is one film as you watch you enjoy it's a carefree feel good time of just living out things doing pleasure and not having a care in the world. Set between Miami and Key West, Florida you the viewer really get in the mood with the music and it's nice to see musicians and see clips of the music video "Key Largo" by Bertie Higgins(plus the song is sung during the movie) so you know your treat is a beach movie.

Now on to the lead character Moondog(a brash blunt turn from Matthew McConaughey) who's a cheap beer drinking weed smoking ladies man who loves the boat and sea. Also Moon has a socialite trophy sexy lingerie wearing wife named Minnie(Isla Fisher who's so sexy in that silk green bra and panties scene!). And the love making and sex scenes are raw and far out as this guy holds nothing back. Even rapper Snoop Dog has a role as a family friend.

Aside from it all Dog does have some talent in the form of writing like poetry can you believe it! He wins in the end in his own way at his own cost. Overall good brash blunt pleasure film of freedom showing how one can live life their own way and have fun and enjoyment all these elements made this film a pleasure to watch.

Simply pointless. I cannot simply waste more words on this movie.