Writer Moondog (Matthew McConaughey) is the beach bum. He lives a hedonistic lifestyle in the Florida Keys. His wealthy wife Minnie (Isla Fisher) is busy with their daughter Heather (Stefania LaVie Owen)'s upcoming wedding. Their friend Lingerie (Snoop Dogg) has a special weed plant. After the wedding, Moondog gets into a car crash which kills Minnie. She leaves her fortune in Heather's control. After yet another drug rampage, Moondog is sentenced to twelve months in rehab where he meets fellow addict Flicker (Zac Efron).

This movie leaves me with a lot of questions. Is this actually funny? Do I actually like Moondog? Do I actually care about Moondog? All too often the answers come back, "No". McConaughey is channeling his cool surfer dude persona. It's a good start but it stalls pretty quickly. None of it is pulling me in until Moondog gets dark for one second. He and Flicker stealing from the handicap guy is the first intriguing moment and then it quickly fades away. The shark attack isn't funny and is much too silly bordering on stupid. In the vein of Dumb & Dumber and Dude, Where's My Car?, Moondog needs to be fun and likeable to endear himself to the audience. The comedy would follow but it won't work if he doesn't work.

The film centers on author-poet Moondog who is an unemployed beach bum living in the Keys off of his wife's money. Her money allows him to drink, do drugs, have indiscriminate sex, and drink some more. When his wife dies, his money is cut off until he finishes his book.

The film was rather pointless which seemed to be the point. Major stars lowered themselves to be in this film, apparently Harmony Korine calling in some favors. The character was anachronistic, attempting to make a Jack Kerouac type an 80's author.

Guide: F-word, sex, plenty of topless nudity.

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