Talk about a guilty pleasure. Super Troopers is still the group's best effort to date, but this comes in a somewhat close second. It's a very funny movie. The only thing that I didn't like about the movie, with the exception of a couple of slow scenes here and there, is Monique. Thankfully she is only in the movie in three scenes, but she sucked the life out of those scenes. Besides her though, the film is consistently funny. This should definetly have a long life on DVD.

A-

First off, this isn't really going to be about the movie. I'm going to tell you about my movie experience . As for the movie, it wasn't very funny, but it was an alright time waster. Anyway..my friend Andrew and I saw this at 9:10 tonight, and there was a group of college kids behind us that were so drunk. It was kind of funny to listen to at first, then it just got really annoying. Well long story short, the guy DIRECTLY behind me puked his fucking brains out in the middle of the movie. It didn't slide down anywhere or anything, it was in stadium seating, but it was disgusting. I felt really bad for him though, because all his friends left him, and moved to the front of the theater, leaving their puking, drunk friend all alone. I felt really bad for him . But it was so gross, through the second half of the movie, all we could smell was beer and puke.

Anyway, grade for the movie..

5/10 ( C )

Awful, misogynistic piece of junk. The pacing is terribly off, as the film runs at least 30 minutes longer than it should. It should be a crime for a comedy like this to run almost 2 hours. The acting was terrible (The Broken Lizard group are terrible actors and hardly funny judging by this, Dukes of Hazzard, and Club Dread as I've never seen Super Troopers and now have little desire to).

The jokes consistently fall flat, trying to mix gross with funny and finding only the former to disgustingly tasteless degrees. Like the idea of a frog ejaculating on a guy? How about a guy waking up next to a dead deer and proclaiming "Not again!"

In supporting roles, the likes of Donald Sutherland, Cloris Leachman, Jürgen Prochnow, Mo'Nique, and Eric Christian Olsen should be ashamed of themselves for agreeing to appear in this junk. Lucky for Sutherland he's only in one scene.

The music is akin to a sports movie with many "inspirational" bits. Functional, nothing more.

Frank G. DeMarco's cinematography is rather ugly, as the film stock used is unusually grainy at points.

In all, an awful film.

That's actually really funny.

Tasteless crap, that's what it is.

Splendid internal story logic propels Beerfest into the stratosphere of low comedy movies!

Yup, this one is going into the pantheon of all-time low comedy classics. And color me surprised after being underwhelmed by Broken Lizard's patently & painfully obvious writing in Super Troopers. This one's in another whole league of humor.



The cameo scene alone, with... [spoil]Donald Sutherland[/spoil] ...is worth the price of admission.



Beerfest is a keeper. (Can't wait for the sequel!)

8 out of 5.

Will I like it if I "kind of" liked Super Troopers but hated Club Dread?

Never saw any other Broken Lizard film but I thought it was hillarious and decently made. Sure, it showed signs of being low budget and some of the humor did go a bit too far of course, but all in all it kept the laughs rolling at a decent pace.

Not the best comedy of recent memory but not half bad either. B

B/B-

I was a bit... disappointed? I mean it's a hell lot better than Club Dread, and I had a good time, but after the early word and reviews I was expecting something a bit closer to Super Troopers and Puddle Cruiser. Film-making wise, it's probably their best constructed film to date, but I never found it hilarious. I guess I don't drink beer really as I'm young and I didn't have that connection, but I also think that there lies some other problems.

One snag it runs into is that the two worst members of Lizard are the leads in this one, it's not that they're playing it straight, it's just that they aren't all that interesting compared to the other 3. Now that they've gone through the rotation though, they'll probably get back to Lemme or Chandrasekhar, hopefully. In particular Lemme hasn't had a big role post being popular, so I'm hoping he can be next, as he's my fave of the group.

Another thing is that the movie is painfully unrealistic in parts, it gets toooo dumb, and I'm not talking about the drinking unorthadox amounts which is fine for the storyline, but rather the scenes apart from that. For example where Jay goes through that "I'm better when I'm drunk sequence" and does his crazy billiards, darts, quarters trick, that's taking it too far. Another one would be Heffernan's character lowering an entire vat of beer by just sucking it in, or one of the german guys running on a treadmill easily with the keg above his head. Dumb comedy is fine, but I'm not a fan of obvious impossibility.

Storyline was decent, I guess. Same old competition underdog plot, with the rebound to beat the baddies at the end, but it had a few more layers than any of their previous works. In terms of a plot it was better developed than any of the previous 3, though that isn't a hard feat as neither one of those really worked hard in those areas. The death of a character really surprised me, it shows that Lizard has grown in terms of their character work. As always the Lizard crew themselves carried the movie, making it what it is, and no matter how the rest of the movie turns out, I was always be a fan of them. Their acting was probably the best that they've ever done, in particular I really liked Lemme's transformation for the film, and Jay was a high point as always. Heffernan will probably never reach a Farva level again, but he's still pretty decent.

The biggest problem with the movie for me though, was that it just wasn't all that funny. Jay waking up beside the deer was a nice chuckle, as was the whole drunk "oops" sex sequence, as was the german team. But did it ever have me actually laughing hard? Unfortunatley, nah. It didn't really sustain the humor quite like Troopers, part of that was the dialogue I guess, it never got on a comedic roll like in that movie. To be honest, I kind of laughed more on my 10th viewing of the opening scene or the fast food joint scene in Troopers, than I did in this whole movie. But Beerfest isn't that bad, really, it just wasn't spectacular like I was hoping it to be.

You've become a parody of yourself.

how long betfore bradley hits the 25/5 and makes his entire scale utterly useless.

5 out of 5 is not even that good when you think about it. He's given an 11 out of 5, I think, so 5 out of 5 would be the equivalent of a C or C-, even though he's usually enthusiastic about it.

I think 5 out of 5 is about a B+ for him, he generally likes them, nothing more.

6 out of 5 = A-/B+
7 out of 5 = A
8 out of 5 = A+/A
9-11 out of 5 = A+... for now.

Lol.

Remember, 11 out of 5 was the grade I gave 2001: A Space Odyssey, which sits at the very peak of my lifetime top ten list...

Though I hardly find it necessary to explain my advanced grading system to those who cannot appreciate it, I will deign to attempt to briefly communicate it's essence to you primary graders.

5 out of 5 is not equivalent to a C, it is just the start of my expanded A scale, instead, my lower numbers are fairly equivalent to your common grading systems:

1 out of 5 = F
2 out of 5 = D
3 out of 5 = C
4 out of 5 = B
5 out of 5 = A

6 out of 5 and up are increasing degrees of what you would call an "A+" - I love having some range to express my enjoyment of movies that I find particularly outstanding (...and how many times have I seen people here rate movies "A+++++", etc. - let ye who are without sin cast the first stone...).

So, anyone who can't handle the Patented Bradley Witherberry Grading System (PBWGS), please remain incarcerated in your ABCDF prison - your words only inspire pity in me...

I think I'll start using PBWGS.

That makes the average grade for movies you see each year around 5-6 out of 5...so does that mean the avergae grade for movies in a year is an A?

How many times must a man ask about a movie rating system, before he knows he's a man?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind...

Once more to clarify, though my system is not directly translatable into the common grading system, one way for those not hip to it to begin to comprehend it, is to think of the grades above 5 to be eqivalent to 0.1 in the simplistic grading plane. For example "6 out of 5" might be thought of as 5.1, and "11 out of 5" as 5.6. But ultimately it's a lot more complex than that and is based on an emotional logarithmic scale which phases in and out of this particular time-space continuum.

But to more directly answer your question, Herr Doktor -- I do find my average grade for the movies I've seen in the past 5 years to be pretty high, hopefully because I choose the movies I see wisely, and try to avoid crap like POTC2, which brought down my average this summer.

BTW, getting back to Beerfest - since you hail from Germany, Dr. L -- can you tell us how authentic a portrayal of Germans and Germany this movie gives. Are there really super secret beerhalls hidden under major German cities?

Do you really care about the average though?

I always thought your grades were more of an expression. I know there is a group of people here who catalog people's reviews looking for their stars or letter grades. I *actually* got a few pieces of slightly annoyed PM when I decided that I would stop using grades.

Yes, you are correct.

The first mistake some people make is attempting to apply rationality to my grading system.

Movie's are my love, not my field of study.

There we go.

Someone's not a horror movie fan.

For the record bradley, your last post here explains to me your rating system more then any post has before. Then again, maybe it's partially because andaroo is on your side, and his posts have this wonderfully unsettling way of making me agree with whatever he's saying. BTW, I really, really doubt you'd like this one Andaroo. Our opinions don't always match up all that well, but I will say that when they don't I can usually understand why.

So yeah, it was everything I hoped and dreamed it'd be, and maybe a little more. Considering I laughed harder then any movie released in 2006, I can't wait to see this movie drunk with a group of close friends (saw it in an all-but-empty theater with a girl who I'm much more attracted to then I have respect for). It got a bit uneven and does go for a bit too long, but some of the dialogue and visual gags were killers. Broken Lizard sorta reminds me of SNL in it's prime - the jokes can be sorta painful when they don't work, but when they do they're gold. A-

"Beerfest" was not as bad as I expected, but it's not great either. What really killed the movie for me was the opening 20-25 minutes. The funeral (including a cameo that was essentially saying "Look who we got in our movie! That's great, right?"), the introduction of our lead characters, and the introduction of Beerfest was all done poorly. After that, the film picks up a bit. It's funny in spots, but not hilarious. It's got a decent story. But it's not all that good. Just a decent effort.

For the record, I initially hated "Club Dread", but ended up liking it on repeat viewings. I only saw "Super Troopers" once, and liked it a bit more than "Beerfest". I plan on buying it soon, and seeing if it gets better with repeat viewings. Broken Lizard seem to do well on repeat viewings.

Grade: C+

Super Troopers? Decent.

Club Dread? Awful.

The Dukes of Hazzard? Baaaad.

Beerfest? AWESOME. Definitely the best film from Broken Lizard so far, and quite funny. Not ridiculously hilarious or anything, but it's definitely a good time.

B+

Watched the first half. Not impressed at all.


In fact, the only difference between this and the director's previous film (the beloved Dukes of Hazzard ugh...) is that this one earns its R-rating. That's all.


D for the first half.