Let's Get Sour On Some Krauts! (Beerfest (DVD))

Member Name: Andy.mack

Product:	Beerfest (DVD)
Date:	22/10/09 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some very funny moments

Disadvantages: All been done on previous Broken Lizard films

When two brothers travel to Munich for Oktoberfest to take their grandfathers ashes to the family resting place they discover a secret drinking tournament. It turns out that the host of this secret tournament is their grandfathers brother but it seems their grandfather wasn't very highly thought of and with accusations of him being a thief and their great grandmother a whore they are sent back to America. Now the Wolfhouse brothers want to get even and set up an American team to compete at the Beerfest the following year.

This 2006 release is the latest film to come from the Broken Lizard writing stable. After their previous efforts Super Troopers and Club Dread this is further proof that the team of 5 writers have a natural ability to write funny films. While their brand of comedy won't appeal to everyone, they seem to have an ability to write about drinking, women and drugs and make it reasonably funny. The film is littered with Crude jokes from the start of the movie and it's fair to say if you like your comedy to be a little highbrow you'll hate this.

What director Jay Chandrasekhar tries to do with this movie is keep it incredibly simple and let the funny moments speak for themselves. While I didn't find the movie to be quite as funny as Super Troopers this is another well written and well directed film from Chandrasekhar and the rest of the broken Lizard team. There are no over the top special effects they just stick to a simple idea and focus on making that work. Between them they have written some rather disturbing scenes within the movie but when taken in the context of the film as a whole they are reasonably funny.

While there are a lot of positives there are equally as many negatives about this movie. Firstly I'd been able to watch the previous Broken Lizard movies a few times but it seems with Beerfest the jokes only work on the first viewing. There is also a lot of comparison back to Super Troopers and this results in some of the jokes having been done before, perhaps in a slightly different way but this isn't quite as fresh. That said the film is still enjoyable for that first watch, just don't expect it to have a very long lifespan as second time around it's nowhere near as funny.

Unless you've seen one of the previous Broken Lizard movies then your unlike to have seen these actors in very much before. I guess if you can't get roles in other films the best way is to write and direct your own movies and star in them. The lead two brothers are played by Broken Lizard's Erik Stolhanske and Paul Soter. Both actors do a reasonable job as the Wolfhouse brothers and you really get the feeling that the characters are written to play to their strengths. Both of them have natural comic ability and that really helps to make them convincing lead characters.

The rest of the cast fill their parts adequately but there aren't any outstanding performances. The rest of the lead characters are taken by the other members of Broken Lizard. All of them play the parts they are given but having seen the groups other films you start to accept certain members of the group playing certain characters and it becomes a little predictable. The rest of the supporting cast are made up of a combination of stereotypical German and British characters that work for their purpose in the film but none of their performances are outstanding.

Overall it is fair to say that this film is funny and disappointing in equal measures. While it retains the comical style that the Broken Lizard team are becoming known for it is also that aspect that makes it a little predictable. The film works the first time you watch it and I would recommend that it is left at just being watched the once. It is a decent comedy the first time round if you are looking for something along the lines of Dude Where's My Car or American Pie but if you don't like your comedy coming from drinking and sexist jokes then this is one to avoid.

Amazon: £3.98
Amazon Marketplace:£1.94

Summary: Another film from the Broken Lizard stable