Despite the title, this latest purported comedy from the Broken Lizard troupe (following Super Troopers and Club Dread) is hardly a cause for celebration. Beerfest is essentially a takeoff on sports movies, pitting an American team of beer-swillers against their arrogant, dismissive German relatives. The five-guy U.S. contingent, all “characters” of one sort or another, train for a full year, eventually go off to Germany for the guzzling contest, and...well, does it really matter how it turns out? Of course not: the so-called plot is merely a slender thread on which to string a collection of gags that vary from bawdy to gross and dumb to dumber. Some will find the mix of raunchiness and blissful stupidity to be amusing, but others will consider it just poor taste (hopefully, Cloris Leachman and Donald Sutherland were fortified with some strong spirits before doing their embarrassing scenes). Writer-director-costar Jay Chandrasekhar's Beerfest sports only one good running gag: villain Jürgen Prochnow's ribbing of his signature role as the captain in Das Boot; but it's likely to go over the heads of most of the audience for this loud, boozy bust. Not recommended. [Note: Available in either unrated widescreen or full screen versions, or a R-rated widescreen version, DVD extras include two audio commentaries by Broken Lizard costar/production team members (one by Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske; the other by director Jay Chandrasekhar and Steve Lemme), 27 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary, a 15-minute “Beer 101” featurette on the history of beer, “Party Foul” alcohol-related stories from the cast and crew (10 min.), a “Frog Fluffer” segment on the frogs in the film (5 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a so-so comedy.] (F. Swietek)
Beerfest
Warner, 112 min., R, DVD: $28.99, Dec. 5 Volume 21, Issue 6
Beerfest
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