A Quick Shot: Beerfest Review

Remember how much you hated the second halves of "Wedding Crashers" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin"?

You know, once the characters had to start falling in love and learning lessons? Yep -- none of that here to water down this movie. It's about one thing only -- drinking beer. And a lot of it.

Todd and Jan Wolfhouse (Erik Stolhanske and Paul Soter) stumble into Beerfest, a secret, Olympics-style, beer-drinking competition in Germany, where they are insulted by their German cousins.

They return home to assemble a formidable team of beer chuggers in hopes of defeating the Germans at the next Beerfest, and the majority of the movie covers their training regime (and beer goggle escapades).

It is exciting to see Broken Lizard return to "Super Troopers" levels of funny after the comedic misstep that was "Club Dread." Whereas that film featured too much plot, this one goes down smooth.

Broken Lizard does not let plot get in the way of the drinking, drugs, drag queens and surprisingly witty skits. Thankfully, the film only treads into groan-worthy terrority a few times (see scenes involving the frog) and generally stays on track.

In a summer of disappointing PG-13 comedies, ("You, Me and Dupree," "Talladega Nights") it is nice to see a film that makes you want to laugh out loud. And grab a drink or two afterward.

The Verdict: ***

Originally published Aug. 31 in the Marquette Tribune