Relax the throat muscles, focus, tilt the glass, chug, repeat. This is essentially the format of this weekend’s top five box office title, “Beerfest.”
According to boxofficemojo.com, the Warner Brothers feature netted a $7.03 million opening weekend gross, which is not too shabby for a film that had enough alcohol consumption to put “Animal House” to shame.
Following last weekend’s B-movie gem, “Snakes on a Plane,” fans of the sauce could rest easy knowing that “Beerfest” would satisfy their thirst for barley, hops and yeast.
Starring the collective talents of the comedy troupe, Broken Lizard, which released “Super Troopers” and “Club Dread,” “Beerfest” caused laughter to ensue from the moment audiences saw an elderly Bavarian man pound three beers in the Intensive Care Unit all the way until the final credits rolled.
The plot outlay of “Beerfest” was pretty simple. The Wolfhouse brothers, played by Paul Soter (“Super Troopers”) and Erik Stolhanske (“Super Troopers”), travel to Germany to bury their grandfather’s ashes at Oktoberfest.
They go there and find their way into an underground drinking competition known as Beerfest.
While at Beerfest, the Wolfhouse brothers meet their long-lost German cousins. An exchange of ideas takes place, the brothers get shamed in the beer-drinking arena and return to the states to form their own Beerfest team.
In order to compete in Beerfest, the Wolfhouse brothers must gather up true men of valor to create a team – this is where the rest of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe comes into play. Jay Chandrasekhar, Steve Lemme, and Kevin Heffernan each bring a unique element to the beer guzzling profession.
The first recruit to the team is Phil “Landfill” Krundell (Heffernan), a former brewery employee turned competition eater with a passion for pint pounding. As his nickname indicates, he is the muscle of the team, the anchor in the relays and the heart of the squad.
The next member is Steve “Fink” Finklestein (Lemme), who makes up the brains of the operation and is possibly the only human to combine liquid transfer physics with drinking.
The final addition to the crew is Barry Bandrinath (Chandrasekhar), a master of all games involving drunken motor skills with a suave pickup routine.
Honestly, what girl couldn’t resist a man slurring the words, “Let’s get you out of those wet clothes and into a dry martini?”
This group begins intense training under the coaching of Gam Gam, played by Academy Award winner Cloris Leachman, and from then on, beer-fueled mayhem ensues.
Sure, one may say the movie is a compelling story about a group of two-bit guys working their ways to the top, such as “Karate Kid” or “Rocky,” but in reality, this movie served audiences three things: beer, breasts, and lederhosen.
This is a film best suited for watching with a group of friends in a tavern or as an instructional video on chugging. “Beerfest” teaches the true ideals in life: friendship, teamwork and shotgunning beers.
