Susan Granger’s review of “Beerfest” (Warner Bros.)
When American brothers Todd and Jan Wolfhouse (Erik Stolhanske and Paul Soter) are sent to Germany on a mission to spread their grandfather’s ashes at Oktoberfest, they stumble onto a frothy, super-secret, centuries-old competition – the Olympics of beer guzzling. And the reigning champions are their belching, beer-brewing cousins, the Von Wolfhausens, who literally drink them under the table as the Great Beer Baron (Juergen Prochnow) dumps their grandfather’s remains over their heads.
Vowing to return to Munich next year to defend their honor, the Wolfhouse lads recruit a thirsty dream team: a down-on-his-luck beer games champ (Jay Chandrasekhar, who also directs this debacle), a chubby chugging machine (Kevin Heffernan) and a lab technician (Steve Lemme) whose unscientific hobby is collecting frog ejaculate.
While the Americans square off against aggressive Aussies, belligerent British sailors and two Teutonic bingers known as Hammacher and Schlemmer, the family matriarch, Great Gam Gam (Cloris Leachman), watched over by a saucy caretaker (Mo’Nique), lasciviously strokes a frankfurter, murmuring, “I always sleep better when I have some sausage in me.”
I’m told that five irreverent comedians who form The Broken Lizard comedy group can be funny, but there are few traces here. As the story goes, inspiration for this outing erupted when they were in Australia promoting “Star Troopers” and wound up at a beer festival in Queensland where they challenged – and were lathered by – a mob of drunken roughnecks. According to the press notes, this movie is their revenge, with Jay Chandraeskhar (“The Dukes of Hazzard”) tying together their silly skits and sketches, the highlight being their boozy ride on a bicycle-built-for-five. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Beerfest” is a tepid 3. This R-rated celebration of binge drinking goes flat fast.
