'Beerfest'

A A A Comments By Scott Foundas Tuesday, Aug 22 2006

photo: Warner Bros.

Drunken masters: Beerfest

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Beerfest
Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar
Warner Bros., in release

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Connoisseurs of le cinéma de Broken Lizard can take modest consolation that this ode to "cold, fresh joy" marks a distinct rebound for the Colgate University–spawned comedy troupe from the dregs of Club Dread and Dukes of Hazzard. A pair of brewsky-loving brothers (Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske) travel to Munich to scatter the ashes of their dear old dad (Donald Sutherland), where they stumble upon the titular olympiad of inebriation and, after getting their asses whooped, vow revenge. Topped off with politically incorrect potshots at the Fatherland (characters escorted off-screen and shot; a jackboot-shaped stein) and an impressively idiotic litany of drinking games (beer pong, trick quarters, the line chug), Beerfest bubbles with the cheeky irreverence of early John Landis and David Zucker. Yet, like almost every other American screen comedy of the moment, it's far too long in the tooth, with a scattershot final half-hour that seems the work of an editor battling a bad hangover. The Lizards are a likable bunch, but in the pantheon of pilsner-scented comic pleasure, Strange Brew's immortal McKenzie brothers could chug them under the table with one liver tied behind their backs.