The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/ae/2006/09/01/beerfest_review

September 1, 2006 > Arts & Entertainment > Beerfest less super than Troopers

Beerfest less super than Troopers

By Kim Hartson | For the Thresher

Broken Lizard, the comedy troupe that amassed a cult following with the release of Super Troopers and Club Dread, returns with its most advertised release to date: Beerfest.

The film follows brothers Todd (Super Troopers’ Erik Stolhanske) and Jan (Super Troopers’ Paul Soter) Wolfhouse as they journey to Germany during Oktoberfest to spread their grandfather’s ashes at the family plot. Once there, the two are led to an underground drinking games competition called Beerfest. The brothers find themselves in over their heads and vow to return the following year to defend their family’s honor.

This premise sets up the film to offer an interesting and entertaining satire of the feel-good sports movies the Hollywood filming factory continues to turn out. Unfortunately, the film falls short of this vision and ends up being more of a lackadaisical tribute to the sports hero film than an offbeat comedic parody.

The film does not take itself seriously enough to find purpose and makes itself too serious in its refusal to digress from the plot’s parameters to be billed as a Super Troopers-esque series of meandering inside jokes. Viewers are left with a film in which many of the jokes are forced and the plot contrived — not dissimilar to Super Troopers and Club Dread. But unlike Broken Lizard’s earlier films, where viewers laughed too hard to care about plot holes, Beerfest forces viewers to sit through feeble narrative dribble in order to get to every punchline.

The film does have its moments of one-liner and slapstick hilarity that make audiences laugh out loud, but these moments, while often quote-worthy, are too few and far between to carry the film. Instead, Beerfest appears to rely on the viewer’s ability to relate to the characters’ antics. Audiences are expected to find themselves reminiscing mid-film about drinking game victories and the trouble “beer goggles” have gotten them into — perhaps this is why the plot is so thin.

For some viewers, this sense of camaraderie and nostalgia does carry the film, but for most, even the memories of their own triumphs in Beirut will not suffice to make the $7.50 theater ticket worthwhile.

The film ends with a plug for Broken Lizard’s next film, Potfest. Its an empty promise endorsed by Willie Nelson, along the lines of Mel Brooks’ History of the World, Part II. Unfortunately, this unproduced film sounds much more interesting than the one it preceded. For longtime fans of Super Troopers’ quick (if idiosyncratic) wit, Beerfest’s slow start, slower pace and incomplete ending raises questions as to whether Snakes on a Plane may have been a better investment of time, money and popcorn.

End of article

Back to top