Click Poster to Purchase
 |  | Get Showtimes... |
Review #227 of 365
Film: Beerfest (2006) [R] 110 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $3.00
Where Viewed: AMC Theatres Flatiron Crossing 14, Broomfield, CO
When 1st Seen: 25 August 2006
Time: 7:45 p.m.
Soundtrack: order the CD below
Review Dedicated to:
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
At the risk of alienating 100s of Super Troopers fans, I have to begin by indicating some trepidation when a movie's tag line includes "from the people who brought you Super Troopers". I understand a huge, is it mostly underground (?), following for the Super Troopers film. I cannot judge it, for I did not see it. I did however see the film now brought to us by the guys who brought us Super Troopers called Beerfest, and if Super Troopers was anything like Beerfest, then, again at the risk of alienating the Super Trooper fans AND the Beerfest fans, I'm going to have to admit that I am not sorry I did not plunk down $9 bucks and change to see it. Since I began movieEVERYday.com, and I implemented the W.I.P. (What I'd Pay) Scale™ for movies, I've given very few $3 (the lowest possible score) ratings. Beerfest, and with all due respect to the Broken Lizard comedy writing team which includes a bevy of Colgate graduates, is the first film I've seen since 12 January that has made me question my adherence to a $3 minimum rating. You know how critics that give stars and they give a really awful film no stars? Yeah. I'm not sure Beerfest is even worth $3. The saddest thing about Beerfest is that there is much evidence in the film that the Jay Chandrasekhar / Kevin Heffernana / Steve Lemme / Paul Soter / Erik Stolhanske are brilliant, funny, clever, creative, men. Why they would waste their time and talent on a script like this, I can only speculate but never fully comprehend unless, of course, they are in this only for the money and their ability to extract it so cleverly from the 16* 17-23 year olds. I can hardly imagine anyone outside that age range really finding this movie anything but utterly regrettable. Certainly fans of Cloris Leachman should not see this movie and have their picture-perfect impression of their dear friend, Phyllis Lindstrom from the legendary "Mary Tyler Moore" show ruined once and for all in case her role in Scary Movie 4 didn't do that already.
"…utterly regrettable…"
So, here's the quick plot summary for those that care. Brothers Jan (Paul Soter) and Todd (Erik Stolhanske) Wolfhouse inherit both a bar and a secret beer recipe from their grandfather, played by an un-credited Donald Sutherland in what could labeled the worst performance of his lifetime. Shortly after his death, their Great Gam Gam (Cloris Leachman) sends them to Germany to spread his ashes at the traditional family location that turns out to be a shelf in a highly secret, underground den of beer worshippers who meet annually during Oktoberfest to compete in an international tournament of team beer drinking competitions the most challenging of which is Das Boot (I'll leave that up to your imagination). After some belittling by the championship German team overseen by Baron Wolfgang von Wolfhausen (Jürgen Prochnow), the two vow to assemble their own team and return next year to win it all. The script then concerns itself with these two tracking down old college buddies capable of consuming as much beer as quickly as possible including: Barry (Jay Chandrasekhar), Steve "Fink" Finklestein (Steve Lemme), and Landfill (Kevin Heffernan) and training them to handle Beerfest. It is truly incomprehensible the depths to which they will stoop for a laugh in this movie. From auto-erotic relations with frogs to a drunken encounter by Barry where he thinks he is having relations with a voluptuous woman who later turns out to be Mo'Nique—whom I cannot believe allowed herself to be used as a foil in this fashion—to the eventual drowning of Landfill in a vat of beer from which he cannot escape. After suffering this tragedy, an inspirational speech by Great Gam Gam brings the boys together and sends them back to Germany for the competition. Minus the gross, crude, perverse material, the plot is not all that bad. I would think it important to mention, though that if people actually consumed as much beer as these characters, they would be most likely either be dead or at the very least without a functional liver by age 40. Something to keep in mind as a big disclaimer at the beginning of the movie reads, "Don't try this at home, you will die."—always a cheerful way to start a movie, don't you think?
I apologize to those fans of this comedy group if they have taken offense or don't feel I've given these guys their due. I readily admit I was in a theatre full of people laughing themselves silly. I guess this film does have certain appeal for a certain audience of people. I just wonder what kind of ingenious movie these guys could make if they decided to sit down and put their minds toward creating a movie that would contribute more significantly to the library of comedic masterpieces rather than detracting from it.
__________I apologize to those fans of this comedy group if they have taken offense or don't feel I've given these guys their due. I readily admit I was in a theatre full of people laughing themselves silly. I guess this film does have certain appeal for a certain audience of people. I just wonder what kind of ingenious movie these guys could make if they decided to sit down and put their minds toward creating a movie that would contribute more significantly to the library of comedic masterpieces rather than detracting from it.
*Strike that, this is an Rated-R film and we know that every good multiplex out there is carding people on the way into this film, right? Actually, to their credit, I was carded by ushers on the way into the theatre at which I saw Beerfest, but this is the first time I have ever been carded at a movie theatre. Interestingly enough, they were not carding people on their way into Little Miss Sunshine [also R-rated] just next door because, "The kinds of people trying to sneak into Beerfest are not smart enough to figure out that Little Miss Sunshine is a much better movie."
Back to Top | W.I.P. Scale™ | Most Recently Reviewed Films | Films of 2005 | Films of 2006
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Other Projects featuring: Paul Soter • Erik Stolhanske • Cloris Leachman
Jürgen Prochnow • Kevin Heffernan • Jay Chandrasekhar
Steve Lemme
| CD Soundtrack | VHS | DVD |
| Related DVD | Related DVD | Related DVD |
Beerfest (2006) Review-lite [150-word cap]
Are you filled with trepidation upon hearing "from the people who brought you Super Troopers" as a movie's tag line? Well hold that fear and steer clear of Beerfest. Given the evidence that Jay Chandrasekhar / Kevin Heffernana / Steve Lemme / Paul Soter / Erik Stolhanske are funny, clever, creative, men, why they would waste their time and talent on this script? I can only surmise it must be for the money, because it's incredibly difficult to imagine anyone outside the age range of 17-23 finding this movie anything but utterly regrettable. Even though the plot isn't that bad, there is no depth to which this film won't stoop for a cheap laugh. I wonder what kind of ingenious movie these guys could make if they decided to put their minds toward creating a movie capable of contributing to the library of comedic masterpieces rather than detracting from it.
No comments:
Post a Comment