2008 Woodie Awards
Beerfest: a Festival of Comedy
JD Casto
Issue date: 9/4/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Brothers Todd and Jan Wolfhouse stumble upon a secret beer drinking competition when they are sent to Germany to spread the ashes of their dead grandfather during Oktoberfest.
Todd and Jan meet their German cousins and find out that their grandfather stole the recipe to, "the greatest beer in all the world," and that Great Gam Gam is a prostitute. They are humiliated in a beer-drinking contest and are forced back to America. They want revenge and set out to form the first American team to compete in Beerfest.
Beerfest grossed $6.5 million during its opening weekend compared to Disney's all too familiar underdog movie Invincible (starring Mark Wahlberg) which grossed $17 million topping the box office.
While sitting through this 110 minute movie I couldn't help the urge to stand up and scream, "A two year old could make a better movie!" As far as stupid comedies go, Beerfest is about as juvenile as they come.
The movie lacked a plot (which isn't surprising) and contained crude humor that would make anybody laugh. The movie glorifies binge drinking and relied on computer generated (CG) beer in the final act. If you're going to make a movie about beer, use beer, not low grade CG beer!
I enjoyed Super Troopers and couldn't wait until Beerfest was released. Papers across America gave Beerfest awful reviews. The Chicago Sun Times' Bill Zwecker comments by saying, "The entire time I watched this film, I felt I was merely observing a bunch of self-absorbed frat boys who got drunk, wrote a 'script,' got some clueless Hollywood suits to cough up the cash to make it, turned on a camera and then forgot to hire an editor to properly finish the whole thing."
I'll admit that I wasn't thoroughly impressed by the film, but who is watching the trailer and saying, "Let's go see Beerfest guys. It looks like it has a great epic plot." No one. People who went to see Beerfest went to be entertained by mindless jokes and beer drinking.
From the opening scene, which states that the actors are professionals and if anyone tries to drink as much as they do, "You will die" to the hilarious ending with a surprise special guest star, you will be laughing for the better part of the movie. Beerfest creators know the movie is a stupid comedy, but if you go into it knowing that you're watching a film called Beerfest you'll enjoy the cultural comedy.
2/4 Stars
Todd and Jan meet their German cousins and find out that their grandfather stole the recipe to, "the greatest beer in all the world," and that Great Gam Gam is a prostitute. They are humiliated in a beer-drinking contest and are forced back to America. They want revenge and set out to form the first American team to compete in Beerfest.
Beerfest grossed $6.5 million during its opening weekend compared to Disney's all too familiar underdog movie Invincible (starring Mark Wahlberg) which grossed $17 million topping the box office.
While sitting through this 110 minute movie I couldn't help the urge to stand up and scream, "A two year old could make a better movie!" As far as stupid comedies go, Beerfest is about as juvenile as they come.
The movie lacked a plot (which isn't surprising) and contained crude humor that would make anybody laugh. The movie glorifies binge drinking and relied on computer generated (CG) beer in the final act. If you're going to make a movie about beer, use beer, not low grade CG beer!
I enjoyed Super Troopers and couldn't wait until Beerfest was released. Papers across America gave Beerfest awful reviews. The Chicago Sun Times' Bill Zwecker comments by saying, "The entire time I watched this film, I felt I was merely observing a bunch of self-absorbed frat boys who got drunk, wrote a 'script,' got some clueless Hollywood suits to cough up the cash to make it, turned on a camera and then forgot to hire an editor to properly finish the whole thing."
I'll admit that I wasn't thoroughly impressed by the film, but who is watching the trailer and saying, "Let's go see Beerfest guys. It looks like it has a great epic plot." No one. People who went to see Beerfest went to be entertained by mindless jokes and beer drinking.
From the opening scene, which states that the actors are professionals and if anyone tries to drink as much as they do, "You will die" to the hilarious ending with a surprise special guest star, you will be laughing for the better part of the movie. Beerfest creators know the movie is a stupid comedy, but if you go into it knowing that you're watching a film called Beerfest you'll enjoy the cultural comedy.
2/4 Stars