Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Beerfest

 

Beerfest is a 2006 comedy that spoofs the concept of Oktoberfest. The film was made by the same team behind Super Troopers and the Dukes of Hazard movie (but it was not as good as either of them, and much closer in quality to Dukes of Hazard than Super Troopers). It was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and stars Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Stoter, Erik Stolhanske, Eric Christian Olsen, and Will Forte. Monique and Cloris Leachman have hilarious supporting roles, and Donald Sutherland, James Roday, and Willie Nelson have cameo appearances. The movie is one of the spate of raunchy comedies released in the early 2000s after American Pie became a huge hit. The crux of the story is that after the death of their grandfather (played by Sutherland), two brothers (played by Stoter and Stolhanske) travel to Germany to spread his ashes. They discover an underground beer drinking competition called Beerfest, where they find out their grandfather allegedly stole a beer recipe from their German cousins. After being humiliated at the competition, they put a team together to compete at the next year's competition to take on the German team.

The Blu-Ray's A/V quality is good but nothing to write home about. The extras include two different commentary tracks on the movie, one with Chandrasekhar and Lemme and one with the other lead actors. Then, there is about a half hour of deleted scenes that can be played with or without commentary, some behind-the-scenes material, and the trailer. The movie is okay, but not great. It is definitely not as good as other films in the raunchy comedy genre, but it does have some funny moments. However, I would say that among stupid comedies, it is more stupid than funny. It has a lot of swearing, some sexual content, and nudity. If you are not a fan of that type of comedy, then you absolutely want to skip this. Even if you are generally a fan of that type of comedy, you may or may not like it. Personally, I would not have gone out of my way to purchase it, but it was delivered by mistake and wherever I purchased it from did not make me send it back. Ultimately, it is an okay comedy, but you are not missing anything if you skip it.