Beerfest (2006)

Two brothers travel to Germany for Oktoberfest, only to stumble upon secret, centuries-old competition described as a "Fight Club" with beer games.

Director:

Jay Chandrasekhar

Writers:

Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan,

Stars:

Paul Soter, Kevin Heffernan, Jay Chandrasekhar

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
M.C. Gainey	...	Priest
Paul Soter	...	Jan Wolfhouse
Erik Stolhanske	...	Todd Wolfhouse / Young Baron Ludwig
Cloris Leachman	...	Great Gam Gam
Jürgen Prochnow	...	Baron Wolfgang von Wolfhausen (as Juergen Prochnow)
Cameron Scher	...	Helmut
Owain Yeoman	...	Aussie Sailor #1
Tom Tate	...	Aussie Sailor #2
Allan Graf	...	Soup Waiter
Chris Moss	...	German Producer
Bjorn Johnson	...	Mr. Schniedelwichsen (as Bjørn Johnson)
Kevin Heffernan	...	Landfill / Gil / Sausage Lady
Jay Chandrasekhar	...	Barry / Blind Sikh
Steve Lemme	...	Fink / Emcee
Collin Thornton	...	Little Boy

Storyline

After the death of their grandfather Johann von Wolfhause, the brothers Jan and Todd Wolfhouse travel to Munich to fulfill a family tradition, spreading the ashes of Johann during the Oktoberfest. Their contact brings them to a secret beer competition, the Beerfest", where they are offended by Baron Wolfgang von Wolfhausen and the German branch of their family that accuse their great-grandmother of being a prostitute and their grandfather of stealing an old recipe of the best beer in Germany. Jan and Todd returns to USA humiliated and decide to organize a beer team to dispute the next Beerfest. They join Landfill, Barry and Fink and train long the year to participate in the competition. When they find the lost recipe hidden in a dummy, they feel that their German relatives told the truth. But the team is ready for the tough dispute.

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Plot Keywords:

beer | competition | oktoberfest | germany | prostitute | 

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Taglines:

Bring on the beer. They've got the nuts.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive crude and sexual content, language, nudity and substance abuse

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. [us]

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English German

Release Date:

25 August 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bierfest

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque Press Club - 201 Highland Park Circle SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$17,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$7,031,228 (USA) (25 August 2006)

Gross:

$19,179,969 (USA) (27 October 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Legendary Pictures, Gerber Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Will Forte impressed the cast with his beer drinking speed.

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Goofs

Todd plays in the final game because the Germans claim he has not participated in any of the events, which breaks the rules of Beerfest. However, he is seen (poorly) playing Beer Pong against the English team shortly after the competition begins. One possibility is that every team member must participate in every round.

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Quotes

Steve "Fink" Finklestein: I once saw him fart a plum... I was plum surprised.

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Crazy Credits

Gag Reel is shown

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Connections

Spoofs Shaft (1971)

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Soundtracks

"What I Drink and Who I Meet at the Track"
Written by Jack Grace
Performed by The Jack Grace Band
Courtesy of Radia Records

User Reviews

You won't regret having seen Beerfest the morning after...

Caught Beerfest last night in Milwaukee at a special screening. Heffernan and Stolhanske were there to introduce it. Broken Lizard's Beerfest is HILARIOUS. I really liked Super Troopers (although it's a bit too self-aware at times), and Club Dread was more of a miscalculation than a misstep. It was a solid flick and a superior horror film spoof to the Scary Movie series that lost a lot of people because the BL guys played such different characters than in Super Troopers. They got a little too far away from what people loved about Super Troopers. Puddle Cruiser, their first film from 1996, is a great little indie flick with some great characters and lines that just never really adds up to anything special. But, it's very worthy of checking out. Beerfest is a whole different monster. It's loose and confident and ditches the overly punchy dialogue of their preceding films. It takes its time to get going, but when it does, the laughs come unbelievably fast. Many lines were lost in the laughter.

There isn't much of a plot (as would be expected), but it's better than I would have guessed and revolves around 2 brothers (Soter and Stolhanske) who discover their German ancestry and stumble upon an event that would make Oktoberfest its bitch. Beerfest. The brothers are shamed by their long lost German relatives and accused of hiding an old, stolen beer recipe. Upon their return to America, they decide to honor their family name and train for next year's Beerfest. They recruit three other team members (Heffernan, Chandresehkar, and Lemme). The middle third of the movie is the funniest, which features the team's training. It feels a little long as a whole, but most of the film moves quite fast. While Stolhanske stole Puddle Cruiser as Freaky Reaky, Heffernan stole Super Troopers as Farva, and Lemme stole Club Dread as Juan, Jay Chandresehkar owns Beerfest. Who says the director can't have some fun? His character is sort of a perverted, sexual deviant/prostitute on-the-side who is a former beer games champion who has just lost his chops. I don't wanna spoil anything more, but this movie is completely hysterical.

Even if you didn't love Super Troopers, this still might be for you. There were things in all previous Broken Lizard movies than I could understand some might think were "annoying," but that style is absent here. If you dig Broken Lizard's stuff, you'll love this. If you like "Old School," you'll have a good time with Beerfest. If you love beer, this movie is for you. If you're an Adam Sandler fan, well, this flick is probably too sophisticated for you so you best stay away. Beerfest has all I could ever want from my comedies. Tons of laughs, memorable characters, tons and tons of nudity, and it never pusses out. This is a hard "R" folks. Check it out and leave any Broken Lizard pretenses at the door.

8/10