Product Code Database
Beerfest is a 2006 American comedy film directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and written by the comedy group Broken Lizard (Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske), who also star in the film alongside Nat Faxon, Will Forte, Ralf Möller, Mo'Nique, Eric Christian Olsen, Jürgen Prochnow, Cloris Leachman, and Donald Sutherland. The film was theatrically released on August 25, 2006.
Swearing to get revenge on the Germans, Jan and Todd return to Colorado where they recruit their drinking friends from college—binge drinker and competitive eater Phil "Landfill" Krundle, American Jews scientist Charlie "Fink" Finklestein, and male prostitute and ex-competitive drinking gamer Barry Badrinath—to assemble an American Beerfest team, though they do not divulge this to Great Gam Gam. During the team's year of training, Jan and Todd find out that their grandfather did not steal the family beer recipe, but was actually the rightful heir to the family brewery in Bavaria. The team finds the family recipe in Johann's puppet, Po-Po, and uses the recipe to brew Schnitzengiggle Beer, whose delicious taste fills them with awe.
After the German team receive a bottle of Schnitzengiggle in the mail, the Wolfhausen clan goes to America vowing to take the recipe back. Following a confrontation between the Wolfhausens and Jan and Todd, the Wolfhausens forge evidence and pose as immigrant workers claiming that the brothers' restaurant has health issues to put them out of business. Barry quits the team after a fallout with Todd involving his past with Todd's wife. Fink quits the team, having been fired due to a slipping performance at the lab. Meanwhile, Landfill catches Great Gam Gam's caregiver Cherry stealing the beer recipe for the Germans. He overwhelms Cherry in a fight, but is pushed into a vat full of beer in which the yeast ingredient submerges him, during which he attempts to drink his way out only to drown. Minutes later, Jan discovers Landfill's body. Thinking Landfill committed suicide because of the strain that his involvement was putting on their marriage, the team decides to disband.
After the funeral, Great Gam Gam reveals that she knew about Beerfest the entire time while stating that she was a whore. She then motivates the bereaved team with a rousing speech, and everyone except Barry change their minds. Barry explains that he cannot join due to a traumatizing incident years ago during a game of table tennis in Thailand that he won, in which the big end of a racket was forcefully shoved up his anus. Sympathizing with Barry, Great Gam Gam encourages him to rise above it, causing him to relent and join the team. Shortly after, Landfill's Southern twin brother Gil reveals himself to the group and offers to join the team, which they accept. Like his brother; Gil can drink copious amounts of beer, stating that he taught his brother everything he knew about drinking, and he even invites the other members of the team to call him "Landfill" in his memory.
The team arrives in Germany and uses an empty wooden keg as a Trojan Horse to get inside, where they emerge to boos and jeers. The Americans are allowed to participate after Jan and Todd show how uncannily they resemble the two Beerfest founders, thus convincing the crowd and some of the competitors of their von Wolfhausen ancestry. During this time, Fink discovered how to beat Das Boot while everyone sees that Cherry was working for the von Wolfhausens the whole time. The Americans and the Germans face off in the finals, and upon reaching the tie-breaking bootline chug, Cherry gibes Gil about the death of his brother, causing him to crack under pressure and the Germans to win. Jan offers the Germans a double or nothing opportunity, The family recipe and their family's brewery are put up for grabs. The Germans tell Jan they already have the recipe and thus no need for a rematch, but Fink points out that Cherry only stole a recipe for a low-carbohydrate strawberry beer, prompting Wolfgang to have Cherry killed. They face off in another bootline chug this time with 10 boots. When one of the von Wolfhausens knocks off Fink's yarmulke, he enters into a state of purely concentrated rage which allows him to coach the team to victory, barely gaining the win when the German team's anchor fails to finish "Das Boot" (beer boot) by one drop, breaking a tie between them. Some time later they meet Willie Nelson in Amsterdam and agree to participate in a pot-smoking competition.
Two versions of the film have been released on home media: the theatrical version and an unrated version. The unrated version runs ten minutes longer and includes another eight brief scenes.
David Jenkins in Time Out magazine wrote it "appears to have been conceived on the back of a beermat and its trashy direction, nonexistent plot and dismal comic mugging would seem to suggest that preparations progressed no further". Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times disagreed: "Best viewed while sloshed, Beerfest is idiotic, tasteless and irrepressibly good-natured in other words, a frat-house classic".
|
|
