|
The Movie: The Broken Lizard comedy troupe has gained a following through cult films like "Super Troopers" and "Club Dread". Some members were also involved in the remake of "Dukes of Hazzard", which nearly swept the Razzies. "Beerfest" reunites the whole Broken Lizard gang for a bizarre romp through the German countryside. The film focuses on brothers Todd and Jan Wolfhouse (co-writers Erik Stolhanske and Paul Soter), whose grandfather (Donald Sutherland)'s last wish to have his ashes spread at Oktoberfest in Germany. However, when the duo arrive, they find themselves in an underground beer drinking event, where the German coach, Wolfgang von Wolfhausen (Jurgen Prochow, of "Das Boot"), accuses their grandmother of being a whore and their grandfather of stealing a beer formula. So, after being embarassed, they decide that revenge is in order and head back to America in order to try and round up a team to take on the Germans. The team includes biologist Steve Finklestein (Steve Lemme), Landfill (Kevin Heffernan) and male hooker Barry (Jay Chandrasekhar). The group essentially goes into lockdown in preparation of the championship, going through various drinking games for months, even crashing various college parties in order to try and practice. As for flaws, "Beerfest"'s main issue is length, as the nearly two-hour flick could easily be trimmed down to around 85-90 minutes. As with the troupe's other movies, the film seems to throw everything at the wall and hope it sticks, then forgets to trim off some of the bits that flop (an issue even more apparent in this extended/unrated version.) That's not to say there aren't some good bits here, as there are: some of the training moments are amusing (such as a bit where Barry demonstrates his skills at quarters by throwing what appears to be hundreds of them, rapid-fire, and getting every one into a glass in the room) and the fact that the Germans travel by sub is funny, for example. However, the downtime between gags that click starts to feel noticable. The middle of the film also starts to drag and feel aimless as the picture takes a while to begin to head towards any sort of conclusion. The movie is operating with a moderately funny core idea in the whole underground Oktoberfest competition and it does get some laughs out of it all. However, some trimming would have really helped the pace and made this a less uneven flick. The DVD VIDEO: "Beerfest" is presented by Warner Brothers in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. While the low-budget picture can look a bit rough at times, this presentation is likely the best the picture's going to look. Sharpness and detail weren't outstanding, but remained at least consistently fine. As for flaws, some minor artifacting was spotted, but the picture was otherwise clean and clear. Colors looked warm and bright, with no smearing or other issues. SOUND: "Beerfest" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Crowd sequences have some ambience in the surrounds, but otherwise this is a front-heavy "comedy" mix. EXTRAS: Commentary one is from Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter, and Eric Stolhanske and commentary two is from Steve Lemme and Jay Chandrasekhar. The commentaries offer up some funny stories about filming and joke about didn't go according to plan. We also hear about casting, locations and other production issues. "Party Foul" is a 9-minute featurette about "party fouls", inspiration and drinking games. "Beer 101" has the members of the group discussing the history of beer. "Frog Fluffer" has actor Steve Lemme interviewing a scientist about extracts semen from frogs, which is what Lemme's scientist character does in the film. Finally, we get 27-minutes of deleted scenes (w/commentary) - some of them are funny, but the movie's long enough as it is. The trailer is also included. Final Thoughts: "Beerfest" has its moments, but there's a few too many gaps between good gags. The DVD presentation offers fine audio/video quality and a solid supply of extras. Rent it. 
Film Grade The Film C+ DVD Grades Video 89/B+ Audio: 88/B Extras: 85/B |