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Beerfest (Unrated) (HD DVD)
Warner Bros. // Unrated // January 30, 2007 // Region 0
List Price: $28.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
It's a time-honored tradition in der Wolfhouse family to scatter a loved one's ashes in Munich during Oktoberfest, and when Todd and Jan (Erik Stolhanske and Paul Soter) make the trek after their grandfather keels over, they're introduced to another family tradition. After being dragged to Beerfest -- a super-secret, underground beer drinking competition -- their Bavarian cousins accuse their grandfather of running away to 
America with ze recipe for ze greatest beer ze vorld hast ever known. Their cousins, the heirs to one of Europe's greatest breweries, drink the yanks under the table and put the humiliated, kinda ashen brothers on a plane back to Colorado.
Determined to exact their revenge, Jan and Dean...I mean, Jan and Todd assemble a crack team of sud-suckers, including a dweeby Jewish scientist (Steve Lemme), a dumpy, dim-witted prick (Kevin Heffernan), and a low-rent male prostitute (Jay Chandrasekhar). Together, they spend the next year training for Beerfest, guzzling ram's piss, flinging oversized quarters, and emptying kegs, and...yeah, hilarity ensues.
No, it really does, something I wasn't sure Broken Lizard could pull off again after suffering through Club Dread and the not-an-official-Broken-Lizard-flick-but-might-as-well-have-been Dukes of Hazzard. Okay, if you're seeking out incisive wit, a movie with "beer" and "fest" in the title probably isn't your best bet, but if you're looking for boobs, booze, and two scoops of raunch....? Highlights include Cloris Leachman giving a summer sausage a handjob, a yarmukle-clad Jewish stereotype repeatedly jerking off frogs, an epic beer googles riff (one of the best gags from the trailer is just the beginning), slapstick with an embalmed corpse, and damn near every drinking game you've ever heard of and then some. The comedy's more hit-or-miss than Super Troopers, and the movie drags on for at least twenty minutes too long, but it's funny enough, and sometimes that's all that counts. I dug the movie solo and sober, and I'm sure it plays even better when flanked by a bunch of half-drunk friends.
This HD DVD includes an unrated version of Beerfest, and although I'm not sure what the differences are between this and the R-rated cut that played in theaters, it's probably just a marketing ploy, tossing in stuff that was trimmed for time rather than anything too raunchy for theaters.
Video: Kinda unexpected to watch a $160 million summer blockbuster and a low-budget flick about a beer-guzzling competition back to back and give Beerfest the nod, but this HD DVD does look pretty slick. Clarity and detail can vary a bit from shot to shot, but for the most part, the
2.39:1 image is reasonably sharp and extremely colorful. No real flaws of note and definitely a notch or two above average.
Audio: The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio is also a step up from the usual standard issue comedy mix. Sure, pretty much everything's anchored front and center, but the audio really comes to life during the competition scenes and crams fistfuls of sound into every channel. The low-end is fairly punchy too, and dialogue's balanced pretty well even in the rowdier scenes.
Beerfest also sports dubs in Spanish and that Quebec-brewed flavor of French along with the usual set of subtitles.
Supplements: The extras are a retread of the unrated DVD. Nothin' new. Nothin' in high-definition. Trailer aside, nothin' even in anamorphic widescreen, and since most of the extras are letterboxed, that means you'll have to stare at the bells and whistles through a tiny window with black bars on all four sides. Weak.
Like all of Broken Lizard's DVDs, the troupe pairs off into two commentaries. This time around, it's director Jay Chandrasekhar and Steve Lemme on one and Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske pulling up the rear. There's kind of an intra-DVD rivalry with the battling audio commentaries, and the not-a-director track wins out if you only have time to give one of 'em a listen. They both cover a good bit of the same ground, telling the same stories about coincidental Das Boot references and telescoping sausages, with Chandrasekhar and Lemme's having a laid back, quippy feel while the other is more caffeinated. They're both pretty good, though. The director-plus-one's commentary tosses out
a second-hand story about John Landis' legendary answering machine messages along with notes on a real-life, fun-sized 'das boot', the marginally less shameful job Barry was originally supposed to have, gags they thought up months too late to make it into the movie, and whether or not it's possible to actually drown in beer. The other track has a bit of a faster pace and comments on how the movie came together and how irresponsible just about every studio in Hollywood thought the project was, nabbing Donald Sutherland and shooting him on the set of E.R., the beer goggles sequence stemming from a note from the studio that there weren't enough women in the movie, and nods to at least a half-dozen sports flicks.
There are right at half an hour of deleted scenes, including an entirely different and mostly booze-free Oktoberfest, a nod to Hoosiers, a few more tits, some more stuff with the Germans trying to reclaim their recipe, and a couple of subplots completely gutted from the movie like Finkelstein's hypermasculine beer-swilling position and a fanny pack-totin' Todd trying to pawn off the Schnitzengiggle. A lot of these aren't scenes so much as a line or two of dialogue, and most of it deserved to have been yanked out of the final cut. The only real stand-out is a ball-busting drinking game with a bunch of veterans at a bowling alley.
The deleted scenes also feature a couple of commentary tracks, although the Cliff's Notes version is that the rough cut of the movie was three hours, that it took way too long to get the team together, and that a lot of this stuff was redundant or really just kinda lousy. The commentary with Chandrasekhar and Lemme is polite and quiet, and what little they have to say is covered on the chattier track with the rest of the Lizards. Neither commentary is exactly essential listening, but the second one has more personality, tackling the scenes deleted from the deleted scenes and the logistical challenges in
taking a piss after chugging fake ram pee on a rooftop.
A few short featurettes are also tacked on, including a partially animated, cringingly unfunny recap of beer's impact on history (15 min.), a funny but kinda twisted clip of Steve Lemme getting a biologist pal to, uh, massage a stream of eggs from a frog (5 min.), and a ten minute bit about the best ways to torment lightweights who pass out mid-party. My favorite is entombing 'em in a coffin made from a couple of couches. Gotta stow that one away for a rainy day.
Last up to bat is a widescreen theatrical trailer that features just about as much footage that was trimmed out of the movie as actually made it in.
Conclusion: Beerfest is exactly the movie you think it is, and if you caught the trailer and thought you might like it, you're probably right. Recommended.
The usual disclaimer: the pictures scattered around this review are from promotional stills and don't necessarily reflect the way Beerfest looks on HD DVD.
America with ze recipe for ze greatest beer ze vorld hast ever known. Their cousins, the heirs to one of Europe's greatest breweries, drink the yanks under the table and put the humiliated, kinda ashen brothers on a plane back to Colorado. Determined to exact their revenge, Jan and Dean...I mean, Jan and Todd assemble a crack team of sud-suckers, including a dweeby Jewish scientist (Steve Lemme), a dumpy, dim-witted prick (Kevin Heffernan), and a low-rent male prostitute (Jay Chandrasekhar). Together, they spend the next year training for Beerfest, guzzling ram's piss, flinging oversized quarters, and emptying kegs, and...yeah, hilarity ensues.
No, it really does, something I wasn't sure Broken Lizard could pull off again after suffering through Club Dread and the not-an-official-Broken-Lizard-flick-but-might-as-well-have-been Dukes of Hazzard. Okay, if you're seeking out incisive wit, a movie with "beer" and "fest" in the title probably isn't your best bet, but if you're looking for boobs, booze, and two scoops of raunch....? Highlights include Cloris Leachman giving a summer sausage a handjob, a yarmukle-clad Jewish stereotype repeatedly jerking off frogs, an epic beer googles riff (one of the best gags from the trailer is just the beginning), slapstick with an embalmed corpse, and damn near every drinking game you've ever heard of and then some. The comedy's more hit-or-miss than Super Troopers, and the movie drags on for at least twenty minutes too long, but it's funny enough, and sometimes that's all that counts. I dug the movie solo and sober, and I'm sure it plays even better when flanked by a bunch of half-drunk friends.
This HD DVD includes an unrated version of Beerfest, and although I'm not sure what the differences are between this and the R-rated cut that played in theaters, it's probably just a marketing ploy, tossing in stuff that was trimmed for time rather than anything too raunchy for theaters.
Video: Kinda unexpected to watch a $160 million summer blockbuster and a low-budget flick about a beer-guzzling competition back to back and give Beerfest the nod, but this HD DVD does look pretty slick. Clarity and detail can vary a bit from shot to shot, but for the most part, the
2.39:1 image is reasonably sharp and extremely colorful. No real flaws of note and definitely a notch or two above average. Audio: The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio is also a step up from the usual standard issue comedy mix. Sure, pretty much everything's anchored front and center, but the audio really comes to life during the competition scenes and crams fistfuls of sound into every channel. The low-end is fairly punchy too, and dialogue's balanced pretty well even in the rowdier scenes.
Beerfest also sports dubs in Spanish and that Quebec-brewed flavor of French along with the usual set of subtitles.
Supplements: The extras are a retread of the unrated DVD. Nothin' new. Nothin' in high-definition. Trailer aside, nothin' even in anamorphic widescreen, and since most of the extras are letterboxed, that means you'll have to stare at the bells and whistles through a tiny window with black bars on all four sides. Weak.
Like all of Broken Lizard's DVDs, the troupe pairs off into two commentaries. This time around, it's director Jay Chandrasekhar and Steve Lemme on one and Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske pulling up the rear. There's kind of an intra-DVD rivalry with the battling audio commentaries, and the not-a-director track wins out if you only have time to give one of 'em a listen. They both cover a good bit of the same ground, telling the same stories about coincidental Das Boot references and telescoping sausages, with Chandrasekhar and Lemme's having a laid back, quippy feel while the other is more caffeinated. They're both pretty good, though. The director-plus-one's commentary tosses out
a second-hand story about John Landis' legendary answering machine messages along with notes on a real-life, fun-sized 'das boot', the marginally less shameful job Barry was originally supposed to have, gags they thought up months too late to make it into the movie, and whether or not it's possible to actually drown in beer. The other track has a bit of a faster pace and comments on how the movie came together and how irresponsible just about every studio in Hollywood thought the project was, nabbing Donald Sutherland and shooting him on the set of E.R., the beer goggles sequence stemming from a note from the studio that there weren't enough women in the movie, and nods to at least a half-dozen sports flicks. There are right at half an hour of deleted scenes, including an entirely different and mostly booze-free Oktoberfest, a nod to Hoosiers, a few more tits, some more stuff with the Germans trying to reclaim their recipe, and a couple of subplots completely gutted from the movie like Finkelstein's hypermasculine beer-swilling position and a fanny pack-totin' Todd trying to pawn off the Schnitzengiggle. A lot of these aren't scenes so much as a line or two of dialogue, and most of it deserved to have been yanked out of the final cut. The only real stand-out is a ball-busting drinking game with a bunch of veterans at a bowling alley.
The deleted scenes also feature a couple of commentary tracks, although the Cliff's Notes version is that the rough cut of the movie was three hours, that it took way too long to get the team together, and that a lot of this stuff was redundant or really just kinda lousy. The commentary with Chandrasekhar and Lemme is polite and quiet, and what little they have to say is covered on the chattier track with the rest of the Lizards. Neither commentary is exactly essential listening, but the second one has more personality, tackling the scenes deleted from the deleted scenes and the logistical challenges in
taking a piss after chugging fake ram pee on a rooftop. A few short featurettes are also tacked on, including a partially animated, cringingly unfunny recap of beer's impact on history (15 min.), a funny but kinda twisted clip of Steve Lemme getting a biologist pal to, uh, massage a stream of eggs from a frog (5 min.), and a ten minute bit about the best ways to torment lightweights who pass out mid-party. My favorite is entombing 'em in a coffin made from a couple of couches. Gotta stow that one away for a rainy day.
Last up to bat is a widescreen theatrical trailer that features just about as much footage that was trimmed out of the movie as actually made it in.
Conclusion: Beerfest is exactly the movie you think it is, and if you caught the trailer and thought you might like it, you're probably right. Recommended.
The usual disclaimer: the pictures scattered around this review are from promotional stills and don't necessarily reflect the way Beerfest looks on HD DVD.
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