Beerfest

Beerfest (2006)

HBO On Demand, Seattle, WA

September 07, 2007

* / ****

It was with modest expectations that I began my late night viewing of the R-rated comedy, Beerfest. Still, I was dreadfully underwelmed. Using the raunch-specific style of the ‘80s where girls gratuitously lose their tops, dudes drink and belch, fart and curse, and use all manner of crudeness and lewdness to win over their teenage target audience, Beerfest tries hard but inevitably falls short as raunchy guffaw fest entertainment.

Brought to you by Broken Lizard, the comedy troupe that made the juvenile Super Troopers and the boring Club Dread (not to be confused with the ridiculous Stallone vehicle, Judge Dredd) Beerfest makes it blatantly apparent that four things continue to be missing from The Lizard’s approach to comedy: tact, timing, subtlety, and focus. No doubt they have the ideas for greatness but sadly they lack the skill to execute them in true cinematic fashion inevitably causing their films to crash and burn in a blaze of good intentions and lousy affect.

The idea of Beerfest is genius. Hidden amongst Germany’s Oktoberfest underworld is a secret society of international boozers who meet once a year to determine which country harbors the world’s best drinkers. To determine the champion, a strict set of rules and regulations are used to govern and inevitably determine the world’s best. This constitution of drinking includes a competitive format where each country’s representatives square off in a series of events one more ridiculous than the next. For anyone who has ever attended college those events should come as no surprise (the boat race, thumper, asshole, quarters, etc.). And that, my friends, is the blueprint for comedy gold.

Where Beerfest fails is in its execution. Tact is abandoned 100% meaning there is no bigger picture to enjoy, no sensitivity whatsoever, and not one character to connect with in any capacity. The ‘80s comedies thrived because as inane as they were there was always some sort of nerd, outcast, or delinquent to cheer on. With Beerfest, the main characters (who all happen to be the loudmouth Lizards, themselves) are bigger assholes than the antagonists and that’s rarely a good thing.

Timing is also a problem in Beerfest. The movie seems to never know when to kill a joke and instead just slams the viewer over the head with everything but the kitchen sink over and over and over again. If an idea pops into The Broken Lizard’s minds then they throw it at the audience seemingly as soon as they think it. Juvenile humour delivered in a juvenile way just doesn’t cut it over a 90 minute run time.

Subtlety likewise is completely abandoned in this film. Not only do The Lizards tell their jokes as soon as they think them, but they tell them in the most crass way possible. No inferences, no hints, just clobbering blows, which rarely have the comedy power to generate a laugh. Even when they wink with references toward An American Werewolf in London and other cool films, the references fail to hit the mark. Merely referencing something funny doesn’t make it funny; it’s how you make the reference that makes it humourous and The Lizards again fail to deliver.

Focus is the final element thrown out the window by The Lizards sealing their doom. Making jokes it seems is infinitely more important to them than making a funny movie resulting in few funny jokes and an otherwise lousy film. Every joke is face value and no joke ever builds for a larger pay off later in the movie. The only running joke that does have a final payoff, about a slutty old lady whose reputation may or may not be true, doesn’t draw a laugh the first time so when the cat is let out the bag in the end it is groan inducing stupidity at its worst.

Surely all this basic comedy know-how is common sense for any aficionado of the great raunch fests of the ‘80s. Contemporary comedies Eurotrip and American Pie knew this well, executed them effectively, and that’s why they are funny flicks. Beerfest did not and is not. Maybe next time gentlemen.