Beerfest

infobox film
name = Beerfest


director = Jay Chandrasekhar
producer = Michael Beugg
Bill Gerber
Steve Lemme
Richard Perello
Erik Stolhanske
writer = Jay Chandrasekhar
Kevin Heffernan
Steve Lemme
Paul Soter
Erik Stolhanske
starring = Jay Chandrasekhar
Kevin Heffernan
Steve Lemme
Paul Soter
Erik Stolhanske
Will Forte
Ralf Moeller
Eric Christian Olsen
Mo'Nique
Bjørn Johnson
with Jürgen Prochnow
and Cloris Leachman
cameo appearances:
Donald Sutherland
Daniel Poyner
distributor = Warner Bros.
released = August 25, 2006
runtime = 110 min.
language = English
country = United States
budget =
gross = Domestic
$19,185,184
Worldwide
$20,387,597
imdb_id = 0486551

"Beerfest" is a 2006 beer-themed comedy film by the comedy group Broken Lizard. Along with the regular members of Broken Lizard, other actors who appear in the movie include James Roday, Hugh Elliot, Nat Faxon, Will Forte, MC Gainey, Cloris Leachman, Mo'Nique, Eric Christian Olsen, Daniel "Ducky" Poyner, Jürgen Prochnow, Blanchard Ryan, and Donald Sutherland. "Beerfest" was filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Plot

At the funeral of their German-born grandfather Johann von Wolfhausen (Donald Sutherland), brothers Jan and Todd Wolfhouse (Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske) discover that family tradition demands they travel to Munich during Oktoberfest to spread his ashes on the Theresienwiese.

Their great-grandmother, Gam Gam (Cloris Leachman), gives them two tickets to Munich, where a Mr. Schniedelwichsen (Bjorn Johnson) will take them to the family resting place. While waiting for Schniedelwichsen after their arrival, the brothers unintentionally start a brawl that takes down an entire Oktoberfest tent.

Schniedelwichsen leads Jan and Todd to Beerfest, an underground drinking game tournament run by Baron Wolfgang von Wolfhausen (Jürgen Prochnow). The triumphant German national team is furious that Schniedelwichsen would bring outsiders to the contest, so he is shot. Jan and Todd discover that the von Wolfhausens are related to the Wolfhouses. The German team reveals that Johann was a stable boy who stole the recipe for "the greatest beer in all the world" decades ago and ran away with his prostitute mother, Gam Gam. The Germans celebrate an easy win over Jan and Todd in a drinking contest by urging the audience to pelt Jan and Todd with vegetables, destroying the urn containing their grandfather's ashes, and spilling them all over the brothers.

Swearing to get revenge on the Germans, Jan and Todd return to Colorado, where they recruit college drinking friends for an American Beerfest team:

*Phil "Landfill" Krundle (Kevin Heffernan), an overweight former brewery employee and competitive eater;
*Charlie "Fink" Finklestein (Steve Lemme), a nerdy Jewish scientist with extensive knowledge of beer and chemistry;
*Barry Badrinath (Jay Chandrasekhar), an amazingly frequent winner of drinking games but currently a homeless male prostitute.

During the team's year of drinking training, Jan and Todd find out their grandfather did not steal the family beer recipe. Before the Baron Wolfhausen of the time died, he hid the recipe in a doll he gave the boy Johann before Gam Gam took him to the U.S. Since he was the Baron's first-born child, Johann was the rightful heir to the family brewery in Bavaria. The team uses the rediscovered recipe to brew Schnitzengiggle Beer for the first time in over a generation. It is easily the best beer they have ever tasted (being so delicious that it makes them cry).

After the German team receive a bottle of Schnitzengiggle in the mail, the Wolfhausen clan goes to America to confront their Wolfhouse cousins and snatch the recipe using various tactics. Disguised as a nurse for Gam Gam, a spy named Cherry (Mo'Nique) (who had sex with Barry while he was in a beer goggles state of inebriation from drinking the family beer) presumably steals the recipe. When Landfill discovers her true identity, Cherry makes him fall into a beer vat, where he dies trying to drink his way out. The team decides to disband, but suddenly, in an obvious deus ex machina, Landfill's very talented twin brother, Gil (also played by Heffernan), shows up and asks to join the team.

In Germany, Jan and Todd have forgotten where Beerfest is held. Getting Todd drunk, though, jogs his memory through what is referred to as "Drunken Recall". The team 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 of their von Wolfhausen ancestry. In the finals (bootline chug), Cherry tells Gil at a crucial moment how Phil died, causing Gil to crack and the Germans to win.

Jan, still unaware that Cherry stole the recipe, offers the Germans a rematch. If the Germans win, they get the recipe; if the Americans win, they get the Bavarian brewery. The Germans tell Jan they already have the recipe and thus no need for a rematch, but Fink points out the stolen recipe is the wrong one, which prompts Wolfgang to have Cherry killed. Originally, Gil is the anchor for the team, but Jan changes him out with Fink after he acquired "The Eye of the Jew". The Americans actually lose to the Germans at chugging, but since there was still a drop left in Hammacher's boot, the Americans win by a technicality.

The team celebrates in Amsterdam, where they bump into Willie Nelson (in a cameo role). Because his marijuana-smoking tournament teammates, Cheech and Chong, have backed out of the contest, Nelson invites the team to join him. They are glad to help out, and the film ends with a smoke-filled screen and the words "Coming Soon - "Potfest".

"Potfest"

Despite the statement at the end of "Beerfest" that "Potfest" is "coming soon", Broken Lizard intended this as a joke to get publicity. They have stated both that fans were very supportive of the title and that Broken Lizard may decide to make an animated film of the same name. [Steve Head. " [http://movies.ign.com/articles/750/750114p1.html Exclusive: Broken Lizard on the Road to Potfest?] ", IGN, December 8 2006.]

External links

* [http://beerfestmovie.warnerbros.com/ Official website]
*imdb title|id=0486551|title=Beerfest
*mojo title|id=beerfest|title=Beerfest
*rotten-tomatoes|id=beerfest|title=Beerfest

References