Beerfest

Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar

Bubbling up in theatres nationwide beginning 8/25/2006

Hollywood may be the place where (per William Goldman), “Nobody knows anything.” However, one thing you can be sure of is that when there is a mid-level sleeper hit, within a year there will be a slew of imitators all exactly duplicating their predecessor in everything but spontaneity, creativity, and originality. The first demon spawn of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is Beerfest, the latest effort from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe.

But unlike the made-up sport of dodgeball, the sports on display are the sort of beer drinking games used mostly for the purposes of getting girls drunk. Good-natured layabouts Jan and Todd Wolfhouse (lizards Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske) are asked by their grandfather (an uncredited Donald Sutherland in a taped last will) to deliver his ashes back to the old country. But once there in the land of beer gardens and Fassbinder (actually New Mexico not Germany), the pair discover an underground beer Olympiad (events include the long distance pour, beer pong, quarters, and the unbeatable draining the boot). As if losing at their favorite pastimes were not enough, the assembled Teutonic throng (led by Das Boot’s Jurgen Prochnow) tells them that their grandfather was a thief and their beloved great grandmother was a whore.

Sent home with their tails between their legs, they return to the USA only to find that the story is mostly true, but after a pep talk from Great Gam Gam (a delightful Cloris Leachman combining her characters from Malcolm in the Middle and Young Frankenstein), the Wolfhouses decide to gather together a proper team, train like demons, and rescue their family’s honor.

The Broken Lizard gang is a bit of an anomaly; not so much their relative talentlessness that has gotten them three projects relatively undistinguished by extraordinary financial success, humor, or promise. The surprise here is that the stuff is relatively (by their standards) funny. This is not a movie totally lacking in laughs (such as Club Dread) or simply regurgitating jokes done better elsewhere (as in Super Troopers). If they could figure out a way to make sure their target audience was well-lubricated while watching Beerfest, you might even be able to ramp up this review by half a star.

The Broken Lizard gang may not be able to do much better, but you can.

2.5 *

–Bill Henry

Related Reading:

Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film, Second Edition ( Set with DVD)

Film Art: An Introduction with Tutorial CD-ROM

Film History: An Introduction

Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies

Juno Music From the Motion Picture Soundtrack