Beerfest
Who would have though that a movie, seemingly about booze, babes and buddies, would also carry an overriding message of patriotism? In Broken Lizard’s newest adventure, Beerfest, we catch up with the fine entertainers from the classic comedy, Super Troopers. The whole gang’s here: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Erik Stolhanske, Paul Soter and Steve Lemme (who you won’t recognize in the least.) Also written by the team, Beerfest is an enjoyable little flick that is warm and touching as much as it is entertainingly silly. That is, if you can handle frog and octogenarian summer sausage masturbation, ram urine cocktails and random bride boxing.
The movie begins in an apparent gambling dungeon. Soon, we discover that the card shark running the ring is actually a priest. Next, we discover that the setting is actually the basement to a funeral home and a funeral is being staged at that very moment--- for the grandfather of two of the fun-loving gamblers. Gag after gag we finally unearth a plot. It turns out that those two fun-loving gamblers must return to their ancestral homeland of Germany during Oktoberfest to scatter the ashes of their much-loved grandfather. While there, though, they stumble upon the underground version of the annual festival that is, you guessed it, Beerfest. It seems like a utopian victory for these guys with the flowing beer and the endless beer hall games. Instead, it is there that they publicly and humiliatingly learn of their family’s secret disgrace: their beloved grandfather had stolen the land’s best beer recipe and, to top it off, their grandmother was a whore! Of course the boys only plan of recourse is to rush back home to train for next year’s Beerfest bar gaming contests in an effort to regain the family’s pride. It makes total sense, right?! The whole movie is kind of like this: a series of gags, odd storylines, joke-cracking. But it’s what you kind of expect from these guys, and it somehow works.
Sure, Broken Lizzard’s newest adventure, Beerfest, is overladen with a ridiculous amount of apparently gratuitous nudity. But if you look closer, you’ll see that the unending bounty of breasts are there, in fact, with purpose. They are there for entertainment.
The way they were continuously thrust in my face was even amusing to me, a heterosexual female. I suppose I should be offended. But, instead, I didn’t really mind them. All twenty of them. Pairs. On the contrary, I found the scene in which topless girl #1 fell onto the next girl accidentally ripping off her top which segued into a domino effect onto the next buxom beauty and so on and so on to be pretty amusing in its planned blatancy. I mean, in the old days (like the 80s!) directors of the fine cinematic representations like Porky’s and Revenge of the Nerds were forever featuring toplessness almost as a main plot! These days we suddenly have to have a reason to throw a little something to the male audience? It was almost admirable that the Broken Lizard troupe put on no fronts about it and even managed to mix their breast-fix with some humor. After all, this movie is about entertainment. With silly jokes or abundant nudity, these guys just want to entertain.
Grades
Overall: B+
Story: C+
Acting: B+
Visuals: B
Originality/Innovation: B+
Enjoyability: A
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