Tweet

Release Date: August 25th, 2006

There’s one big problem with Broken Lizard’s Beerfest. The release date. As the box office returns show, Beerfest is suffering at the box office, and I’ll tell you why. College. All them learned kids just aint be goin to them motion picture shows. Seriously now. Beerfest, which I guarantee you will become a smash on DVD with the college crowd, came out the first weekend most of its target audience are moving into their dorms and frat houses. None of them were interested in seeing a movie with school around the corner. If this would have come out two weeks later, we’d be sitting on a winner.

That’s not say Beerfest isn’t a winner, in a way. It’s a very funny movie that I really enjoyed. It’s obviously not a thinking man’s movie, but if you enjoy your beer by the pitcher and your nights blacked out, this is the movie you should see.

The story follows Jan and Todd Wolfhouse, two brothers who stumble open Beerfest, the Olympics of Drinking Games, while taking their grandfather’s ashes to Germany during Oktoberfest. Disgraced and embarassed during a beer drinking challenge while attempting to defend their grandfather’s honor, the brothers return to America to assemble the greatest drinkers in all of America.

After exhaustive training, the crew is back in Germany to compete. Surprisingly, much of the movie is over by the time we actually compete in Beerfest, but the training sequences and secret-beer subplut fill the space nicely. If I had one problem, it was the lack of actual Beerfesting. What comes is obviously the final showdown between the Americans and the Germans culminating with a tie breaking match of DAS BOOT. Other fun drinking games are beirut, the monkey chug, beer pong, line chug, and quarters. All in all, you’ll leave this film with quite a thirst and new ideas on how to satiate it.

Technically, the film is well directed and the acting is ok but hey, this is Broken Lizard here, and we aren’t expecting any Oscar wins. The jokes are mostly hits, especially with college aged kids, although there are a few that don’t work, as is to be expected. It’s not a perfect film, but my friends and I had a good time and I can’t wait to watch this on DVD, in the comfort of my living room, with 12 friends and ample booze. I say see it.

Final Grade: B+

The Upside: A fun and funny drinking comedy that is fun to see with a group of people and will undoubtedly be a blast to drink to.

The Downside: Not enough time is spent at the actual Beerfest. I would have liked to see more drinking games!

On the Side: Due to poor box office performance, Broken Lizard has been appealling to their MySpace friends to start a grassroots campaign to get people into movie seats.