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Shelf Beauties
by Willie Waffle
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Beerfest
It’s the latest installment from
the Broken Lizard guys, but
Beerfest proves there is a comedy hierarchy in Hollywood.
The Frat Pack is comedy royalty with Will Ferrell,
Owen Wilson, Ben
Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Steve Carell (among others) delivering the
big box
office numbers and laughs. Adam
Sandler’s working class crew comes in second with David
Spade, Jon Lovitz, Rob
Schneider and all the rest of the former Saturday Night Live gang in
hit or
miss movies as good as Click and as bad as The Hot Chick, The
Benchwarmers and
Deuce Bigalow. The
Broken Lizard
guys? Third class,
with a few laughs
along the way, but too much dependence on obvious potty humor and jokes
you
thought were funny in 2nd grade.
Paul Soter and
Erik Stolhanske star as brothers Jan and Todd
Wolfhouse. Their beloved grandfather
(Donald Sutherland) has passed away, and they have been asked to take
his ashes
to Oktoberfest in Germany,
where he can be properly honored.
However, the two are directed to an underground beer drinking games
Olympics, called Beerfest, where their family honor is impugned, and
they are
laughed out of the Beerfest coliseum.
Jan and Todd decide they must win back that family honor, and put
together a team with their buddies Fink (Steve Lemme), Landfill (Kevin
Heffernan) and Barry Badrinath (Jay Chandrasekhar) that can train all
year for
the next Beerfest.
Will Team USA
beat the Germans? What is the truth
behind Grandpa Wolfhouse’s move to America all those years ago?
Beerfest is a movie that is funny when it
goes for
outrageous and farcical, but tedious when it displays the originality
of a Kevin
Federline rap. The
Broken Lizard guys
(all of the stars named above) have some ability, which is obvious when
they
deliver more daring and intelligent jokes, but often rely on the easy
way out
with cheap burping jokes and gross out humor.
The entire idea sounds like one dreamed up by a
bunch of college
students on their 13th beer at 4 AM on Saturday
night, but serves as
a great launching pad for humor when done right.
The movie needs to take itself less seriously
and make fun of the fact that they are making a
cliché-ridden film. They’re
also funnier when silly, outrageous
plot twists come out of nowhere, and make Beerfest feel more like a
parody of
the kind of movie they are making.
None of the acting is anything
special, but I have to admit
Heffernan made me laugh more than any of the other actors with his
over-the-top, energetic portrayal of a guy who loves beer a little too
much. Chandrasekhar and the rest of the
gang could be great if they want to go for it.
Until then, they will be the kings of Comedy Central movies of the week.
1
½ Waffles (Out Of 4)
Copyright
2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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