During the end credits, the filmmakers behind Beerfest hinted at a possible Amsterdam-based sequel, which may or may not be a joke, but if Beerfest is any indication of how awesome it will be, it's enough to whet my appetite.
Broken Lizard's previous effort, Club Dread, was not a well-received film. I believe it was because of their very particular comedy style that makes a mockery out of movie cliches like a group of immature guys sitting in their living room would. If you don't really get what they're referencing with their jokes, it just may come off as stupid. Or maybe stupid is the point. Who knows with these guys? Director Jay Chandrasekhar has made quite a resume for himself. Along with gaining loyal fans with his Broken Lizard troupe, he also directed numerous episodes of the critically acclaimed Arrested Development, and he has proven that he can make a box office hit with The Dukes of Hazzard, though he swears that the latter was just a "paycheck" gig and he doesn't consider it part of his Broken Lizard film career. It was a PG-13 movie, and Broken Lizard works best when they're allowed to go all the way in R-rated glory, random naked boobs and curse word variations and all. If you didn't find all the previews you've seen humorous, that's mostly because the jokes shown were butchered to meet FCC standards or taken out of context.
So what exactly is this proudly juvenile movie about? There is a plot somewhere, about a legendary beer recipe and heir to a royal European brewery family or some such, but does it really matter?
Donald Sutherland appears in a brief cameo as a dying grandfather, who instructs his two grandsons to spread his ashes in Oktoberfest. There, they stumble into an underground World Cup of beer called Beerfest, whose moderator is the brewery master Baron Wolfgang von Wolfhausen -- also the grandfather of the German team. In a hysterically amusing in-joke (at least to me anyhow), Jorgen Prochnow plays Wolfhausen, and the German team specializes in drinking a tall boot-shaped beer glass named -- you guessed it -- Das Boot. The movie then follows your standard sports movie steps: it starts with a competition that gets personal, the hero(es) recruit team members, they have a training sequence, the team breaks up, the team get together again at the last minute, they have the big tournament at the end, and face the bad guys in the final round.
Many of the jokes in the film come at the expense of Germans. The German team is a complete mockery of every German stereotype there is, sans Hasselhoff love. SNL's Will Forte plays a demented little German who screams every word, and Eric Christian Olsen is so good at playing that annoying shrilling bastard. There are also two muscle bound bruisers in the team that at times slip into Schwarzenegger impersonations. Mocking Arnie is so easy to do, but it's still funny every time. They don't overdo it here, and the jabs are surprisingly subtle.
Pretty much anything that has to do with beer in this film is hilarious. It's kind of impressive to see how so many jokes can derive from consuming alcohol. The film starts to lose steam halfway, because the fill-in jokes that don't involve beer games are old and we've seen them all before in other raunchy comedies.
When the big tournament finally arrives at the end, it not only picks up with the jokes, but it's also refreshing and exciting to see silly college beer games treated with such gusto and life-or-death determination. Sure, one can say that it feels like a skit stretched into a 90-minute movie, but hey, it is a farcical spoof. It's Hoosiers with Beer Pong. This is a movie that you already have to decide from the moment you purchase the ticket if you're going to buy into the concept or not.
Beerfest will no doubt be the marriage between the Broken Lizard mentality and the hit mainstream comedy. It's accessible enough to appeal to a regular crowd looking for laughs, but also insane enough to garner a following. Frat boys will undoubtedly eat it up. It's a movie that they will buy on DVD four months from now to watch in their dorm room with a bunch of friends and a six-pack. Maybe even a ping pong table.
Now if you'll excuse me, this reviewer would like to crack open a cold Bud.
"Beerfest" opens August 25, 2006 and is rated R. Comedy. Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. Written by Jay Chandrasekhar & Kevin Heffernan & Steve Lemme & Paul Soter & Erik Stolhanske. Starring Cloris Leachman, Erik Stolhanske, Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, MC Gainey, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Will Forte.
