This generation doesn't have a definitive comedy troupe. Our grandparents had the Marx Brothers and our parents had Monty Python, but we've got hardly any official troupes to call our own. The group that comes the closest is Broken Lizard, who have already crafted one genuine cult classic (""Super Troopers""), but their subsequent efforts have been less than stellar (the spotty ""Club Dread"" and, although it doesn't technically count as a Broken Lizard movie, the abominable ""Dukes of Hazzard""). Their new movie, ""Beerfest,"" is about as sophomoric as immature comedy comes, but it is a sloppy, often hilarious return to form.
All of the Broken Lizard regulars are back—Erik Stolhanske, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Kevin Heffernen and star/director Jay Chandrasekhar—and they all get their fair share of laughs in ""Beerfest."" The movie initially sputters with a bit of lame exposition involving Todd Wolfhouse (Stolhanske) and his brother Jan (Soter) traveling to Germany to spread their grandfather's ashes at Oktoberfest. They are soon led underground to the Olympics of beer chugging competitions, where they promptly get their clocks cleaned by their hostile German cousins, the Von Wolfhausens. Determined to regain their family's glory the following year, Todd and Jan rustle up a team of old college buddies to prepare for the competition.
The motley crew consists of perennial eating contest winner Phil ""Landfill"" Krundle (Heffernen, Farva from ""Super Troopers,"" who is arguably the funniest one of the bunch), dorky Jewish scientist Charlie ""Fink"" Finkelstein (Lemme) and Barry Badrinath (Jay Chandrasekhar), a once-esteemed pong player reduced to turning tricks on the corner.
The training sequences are among the funniest in the film, as Broken Lizard doesn't skimp on the opportunity to milk their decidedly cheesy underdog storyline. Along the way the guys face tragedy and the requisite declines in confidence, but they chug ahead to triumph over the goofy German Apollo Creeds of competitive beer guzzling.
The movie is disjointed, terribly paced, overlong and incredibly uneven, but hey, it ain't Bergman, folks. It's a movie about the joys, hangovers and celebration of drinking beer. A juvenile lark like this lives and dies by its laughs, and save for the oddly lackluster first 10 minutes, ""Beerfest"" provides many of them.
It also has a surprisingly impressive supporting cast, including Cloris Leachman (Grandma in ""Bad Santa,"" here called Gam Gam) and Jurgen Prochnow (the captain of ""Das Boot""), and has an amusing set of cameos. Of the troupe, Stolhanske and Soter have the least to do, but Heffernen is responsible for the most memorable bits, and Lemme has more than adequately proven himself to be the chameleon of the group.
Chandrasekhar, who has been one of the ensemble's weaker links in the past, gives his best performance as the pong-virtuoso-turned-hustler. The irreverent gags which mine his checkered sexual past are among the most hysterical in the movie.
Overall, this is still a step down from ""Super Troopers,"" which is the ""Citizen Kane"" of lowbrow frat-boy humor. When ""Super Troopers"" burst on the scene at Sundance in 2002, it was a smart-assed breath of fresh air, and it's unlikely that Broken Lizard can ever replicate its spontaneity. ""Beerfest"" is Broken Lizard's shoddiest movie in terms of structure. These characters will never be as memorable as the highway patrolmen in ""Super Troopers,"" and Mo'Nique shows up all too frequently as Gam Gam's treacherous maid.
Fat and obnoxious do not translate to funny, and Mo'Nique once again displays her recurrent ability to suck the laughs out of anything like a vacuum. But ""Beerfest"" is one of the better party movies in the wake of ""Old School"" and one of the better beer flicks since ""Strange Brew,"" and what with its surplus of hops and boobs, will probably become a staple of inebriated viewing on Langdon and elsewhere. Just remember: It ain't Bergman, it's ""Beerfest.""
