Beerfest

A pair of American brothers discover an underground beer drinking competition in Germany called Beerfest, which they decide to enter, in order to maintain their family’s beer-laden heritage. Back in the States, they scramble together a group of their buddies and beer-train for the event, before heading on over to Deutschland for the event itself. Lots of beer drinking, boobies and beer drinking ensues. Did I mention the drinking of beer?

I’ve been known to enjoy an alcoholic beverage or two in my day, and can even admit to subsidizing most of my high school party buzzes with the gentle froth also known as “biere”, but even the young Joseph Blo himself could likely not hold a candle, or its stick, to any of the Beer Olympics demonstrated in this fun movie, which like it or not, takes the concept of drinking beer and turns it into a competitive event, sandwiched between spurts of profanity, naked boobies, toilet humor and a little comedic gang known as Broken Lizard. Speaking from a definite biased point of view (I enjoy the act of drinking beer), I’m not exactly sure if this film will speak to everyone, even though much of its humor is just plain ol’ funny, no matter if you’re an alcoholic or not, but somehow I think beer-drinkers will get so much more out of this movie, and at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters, no? Despite the film’s many trailers pushing the actual BeerFest Olympic event itself (I thought that was gonna make up the entire movie), the actual film only concentrates on the competition during its final 20 minutes or so, while the entire first two acts are the guys getting together, beer-training, developing their skills, drinking, having fun, drinking some more…and yeah, having more fun!

Jokes aside, if the young kids get a hold of this film and haven’t drank a drop of beer in their lifetime, something tells me that they’ll be full-blown “alchies” by the time they turn the legal age, as the film does little to dissuade anyone from seeing the “dark side” of drinking (even the long-ass pissing sessions look oddly satisfying!). The film could likely have been cut by about 10 minutes though, and some of the training stuff went on a little too long, but overall, the film moves at a sweet pace, and its final competition sequence is particularly invigorating. I’ve also been known to enjoy a naked boobie or two in my films, and this picture doesn’t hold back on that front either, with breasts popping out within its first 5 minutes, and continued appearances throughout. The film also features a number of hilarious scenes, like the one in which Jay Chandresehkar imagines himself to be something that he’s not as a very drunk man in a bar, the sequence in which the same dude tells the others about his “Ping Pong incident” (classic stuff), as well as many funny one-liners – in reference to how good a certain beer tastes, one of the boys exclaims, “I want to brush my teeth with it.” Funny shit. The German dudes were also quite comical and over-the-top, Cloris Leachman was a gas as “the whore”, I enjoyed the cameo appearance by a famous Canadian actor, as well as the DAS BOOT references throughout, but ultimately, the film is a fun ride for anyone who enjoys beer, drinking, girls, sauerkraut and good ol’ fashioned raunchy comedy. “He’s got the eye of the Jew.” Fun times.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian