听 Broken Lizard, the erratic US comedy team that gave us Super Troopers and Club Dread, returns with a lame-brained frathouse comedy that centres on a secret beer-drinking contest held in the caverns beneath Oktoberfest. When hapless brothers Todd and Jan Wolfhouse (Erik Stolhanske and Paul Soter) stumble upon this ritualistic arena, they are naturally humiliated by the German experts. Chastened by the experience, they vow to return the following year and win for America.
While we'd probably be exaggerating to claim that Beerfest is the least funny film ever made, it's undoubtedly top ten material. There are more laughs in Taxi Driver. However, it's a relief for once to endure a comedy that doesn't rely on gross-out tactics to entertain. In its way, Beerfest is pure: it's about drinking and being drunk. Thus the setpieces centre on such rib-tickling delights as falling over, burping, having a headache, going to bed with somebody manifestly unsuitable, and so on. The film's success rests on the premise that drinking beer is intrinsically funny. Which it ain't, at least not for 110 agonising minutes.
"STARTLINGLY SLOPPY"
Director Jay Chandrasekar, perhaps dimly aware that he's making a dud, occasionally fills the screen with cheerfully bouncing breasts and saucy strudel-bearing Rhinemaidens. Which is nice, but not especially funny either. The problem is not so much the film's relentless adoration of alcohol, but the sheer ineptness with which it is made. Filming and editing are startlingly sloppy, and the presence of proper actors like Jurgen Prochnow and Donald Sutherland in cameos merely highlights the shortcomings of the regular cast. The whole thing looks as if it was made by drunks, and should probably only be seen by drunks.
Beerfest is released in UK cinemas on Friday 8th September 2006.
I thought it was quite funny actually
