Image courtesy of www.impawards.com
Director :
Jay Chandrasekhar
Cast :
Kevin Heffernan …. Landfill
Jay Chandrasekhar …. Barry
Steve Lemme …. Steve “Fink” Finklestein
Paul Soter …. Jan Wolfhouse
Erik Stolhanske …. Todd Wolfhouse
The Broken Lizard comedy troupe shares plenty of common with the old Monty Python group, at least on the surface. The Python group didn’t come into prominence until well after their heyday was over. Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Life of Brian developing cult audiences well after their initial release in theatres, giving them a legacy to a generation that missed the film’s initial release. Broken Lizard’s Super Troopers developed a cult following after repeated airings on Comedy Central and other cable networks, though the film doesn’t have nearly the quality level of Holy Grail, and the principles have gone to have memorable roles in other films. And after Club Dread fizzled at the box office as well, finding its audience on home video and cable, the troupe hasn’t collaborated on a full project until Beerfest.
Beerfest is an offbeat comedy from the troupe that combines Oktoberfest and Fight Club in an underdog sports story about one of the oldest competitions known to man: the drinking contest. Jan (Paul Soter) and Todd (Erik Stolhanske) are brothers mourning the death of a beloved relative when they are called upon to scatter his ashes in Germany during Oktoberfest. After discovering the drinking games, and being humiliated badly during it, the brothers decide to train for the competition so they can come back and humiliate the defending champions Germany. Recruiting two old friends from college, Fink (Steve Lemme) and Barry (Jay Chandrasekhar), as well as local eating champion Landfill (Kevin Heffernan), the team trains for 12 months before embarking on a mission for redemption at the drinking games known as “Beerfest.”
And it’s easy to see what Chandrasekhar is going for early on; the film is a spoof of the formulaic plot about the underdog (or in this case underdogs) triumphing over the bad guys in a sporting competition. Everything about the film, from its character development to the alcohol-fueled finale, is meant to take shots at the formula and clichéd characters from the growing trend in sports movies. Even a character death late in the film is used to prod at the formula, as this film tries to be a satire of the underdog. It’s not the film’s plot that makes the film barely watchable, however. It’s the film’s attempts at humor that take away what could’ve been a much stronger story.
Beerfest goes for so many low-brow and gross-out jokes early and often that the film’s story tends to get lost. While many of the jokes are quite humorous, as a well-timed gross out gag or blue humor escapade is often funny in the film, the problem is that the film is filled with nothing but these types of humor that early on it becomes very stale. In this case more doesn’t necessarily mean better, and at points when the film should break away from the low brow and try something else to break up the monotony there’s another below the belt joke to use.
It’s a shame because the story is strong enough that different types of humor could be used and the film would’ve been much stronger. Chandrasekhar is taking aim at a relatively easy target in the same manner The Bad News Bears did, except he does it in a much different manner. Focusing away from a traditional sport and more into a group activity, there are plenty of ways to use this for comedic effect and there’s obviously the attempt at trying to spoof the genre. It’s just that instead of going a different route, Chandrasekhar tries to make this film more like Super Troopers when an alternate direction seems almost predetermined early on.
| CATEGORY | SCORE |
| STORY | 5 / 10 |
| ACTING | 4.5 / 10 |
| LOOK/FEEL | 8 / 10 |
| ORIGINALITY | 9 / 10 |
| ENTERTAINMENT VALUE | 6 / 10 |
