Film Reviews

Beerfest

• Rating:
• Director: Jay Chandraeskhar.
• Starring: Jay Chandraeskhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Jurgen Prochnow.
• Details: US / 110mins (15A).

Beerfest is the movie equivalent of that glassy-eyed, try-anything-once college mate who visits for the weekend - you're happy to see him coming on Friday but by Saturday night you've had enough and wish he'd just go home. Two brothers, Jan (Paul Soter) and Todd (Eric Stolhanske) Wolfhouse, stumble upon Beerfest - a secret drinking tournament - in Germany and thinking they can wipe the floor with the Europeans, they enter the competition. The boys discover that it's a marathon, not a sprint, and the American lightweights bow out at an early stage, unable to keep up the pace. They return home to recruit friends for the next year's tournament and this time they're determined to come home champions. Everyone needs a little low-brow humour every now and then but at 110 minutes, Chandraeskhar and his Broken Lizard mates far outstay their welcome. Even if the jokes were of consistently top quality, it's still a little much to ask anyone to sit through that much trash humour. However, the jokes aren't that good to begin with and it looks like the writers got drunk, threw a couple of ideas down, ordered pizza, fell asleep and, too hungover in the morning to attempt a rewrite, decided to shoot what they had. Beerfest works best when there's an ad-lib feel to the lines but when they actually try to get a laugh, they don't. If you have to see this, my advice is to get very drunk beforehand - you'll enjoy the jokes a lot more and hopefully nod off during the boring bits.

Review by Gavin Burke