Beerfest got lucky. As a 20 year old college junior, I happened to catch this movie right before I went off to a “Beers of the World” party with some buddies where we partook in a few games of caps. I was Beerfest’s target demo, and it totally works that frat boy level, because a part of me cherishes those times like the Wolfhouse Brothers cherish their Schnitzengiggle beer. If you’re outside that specific demo? Depends on your shelf life for frat boys.
The Broken Lizard Boys trade out their goddam liter of cola for a boot sized amount of hopsy goodness. Jan (Paul Soter) and Todd (Erik Stolhanske) Wolfhouse are Colorado boys with roots in Germany. At the request of their Gam Gam (Cloris Leachman), the brothers go to Munich’s Oktoberfest to spread their dead grandfather’s ashes. Their they encounter the secret Beefest, a drinking Olympics that the Germans win every year. Turns out their great uncle (Jürgen Prochnow), who despised the brothers’ grandpa, runs the competition, and humiliates them away. Determined to win Beefest, the brothers enlist their 3 friends Landfill (Kevin Heffernan), Barry (Jay Chandrasekhar), and Fink (Steve Lemme), to become USA’s first team in Beerfest.
Beerfest isn’t the quote machine that Super Troopers was. Instead, it sticks to a frat boy movie formula that works. Have a couple solid cameos (in this case, at the beginning and end), pick an activity around booze or drugs, have a few naked ladies, and build the story into a sports movie story about winning a big competition. And if you strike some gold with your gags, that’s a win. Setting the movie at Oktoberfest was a stroke of genius, as every young adult has heard of that wild paradise of drunken fun. I know for a fact, a few friends and I got beer boots at a local German bar, and tried to avoid the bubble. New drinking games were made thanks to this one. And thankfully, there’s a couple great shock and awe moments, usually revolving around Director/Star Chandrasekhar, who really goes for it here. The best joke though revolves around Landfill, that’s truly unexpected, and has a great payoff without messing with what Beerfest is doing. Most importantly, this movie’s joy is almost a meta thing, as you enjoy watching Landfill, the Wolfhouses, Fink, and Barry hanging out while you hang out with your best buds. It’s not a movie for the everyman, but certainly one for the everybro.
Come on in, have a beer, drunkenly pentabike home. Beerfest is for that inhibitionless drunken haze of those college years, and the joy in those nights playing drinking games chatting about nonsense. Now, drink your beer asshole, and while you’re at it, eat that whole tomato! Not my favorite of the drinking games for sure…