Beerfest Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I have yet to love a Broken Lizard movie, but I have a definite soft spot for the goofy comedy group, which somehow manages to be both lowbrow and esoteric. I missed Beerfest, but fondly recall individual moments of brilliance in Super Troopers (e.g. Kevin Heffernan flipping out on the fast food joint surveillance tape) and Club Dread (Heffernan again, losing his cool at the "fun police"). Their jokes can be vulgar and crude, but they can also be so subtle that they're almost not jokes, if that makes any sense. The way they embrace that dichotomy is really interesting to me.

Anyway, the Broken Lizard boys have unveiled a redband trailer for their latest effort, The Slammin' Salmon, and it's a gem. They've recruited Michael Clarke Duncan to play the lead role of a boxer-turned-enthusiastic-seafood-restaurant-owner, which makes perfect sense. He has one line in the trailer about a swordfish that may singlehandedly turn the film into a cult classic. Or if it doesn't, Duncan's girlish shriek certainly will.

I'm even more excited for The Slammin' Salmon because it was directed by Heffernan who, if it wasn't obvious, is far and away my favorite member of the troupe. Jay Chandrasekhar, who directed all the previous films (as well as the execrable Dukes of Hazzard remake) co-wrote with Heffernan and stars.

The movie premieres at Slamdance this month, and will be released this year on a date to be determined. (I'm hoping it shows up at SXSW in March.) Check out the trailer over at Collider.

I'm conflicted on the Broken Lizard comedy troupe. I thought Super Troopers was pretty funny, but Club Dread was a complete disaster. Beerfest was extremely uneven, but had some really hilarious moments. So I approach their new project with a mixture of excitement and indifference I'm calling "indiffitement." The Slammin' Salmon will get all the Broken Lizard guys back together -- Kevin Heffernan, Jay Chandrasekhar, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske. Chandrasekhar typically directs Broken Lizard projects (and also did the dreaded Dukes of Hazzard), but this one will be helmed by Heffernan (he played Farva in Super Troopers), making his directorial debut.

According to Variety, the comedy will revolve around "a restaurant owner and former heavyweight champ who pits his wait staff against each other in a Glengarry Glen Ross - like competish." (Hey Variety, I love you -- you supply me with a lot of my movie news and for that I am grateful. But..."competish?" I like abbreves as much as the next guy, but writing out "competition" only takes two more strokes of the keyboard!) Sounds like it could be funny, and The Slammin' Salmon is certainly a title you don't forget. The gang is doing this film independently, to beat a potential Screen Actors' Guild strike. "We wanted to go back to our independent roots and get a project off the ground and into production quickly," says Heffernan. Expect Salmon to swim (upstream of course) into theaters next year.

Wow. Either we have some really funny readers, or you guys were hitting the keg before you submitted your entries to our Caption This! Beerfest Unrated DVD Giveaway. We had a hard time narrowing down our winner and runners-up, but we finally managed to make a decision. Our winner will receive our fabulous Beerfest Unrated DVD Prize Package, which includes:

1 Completely, Totally Unrated Beerfest DVD

1 Navy Blue Bottle Opener Hat (Everyone who has seen this wants it!)

1 Black "Schnitzengiggle Tavern" Tee

1 Beer Mug Glasses (The kind you wear!)

1 Beautiful Beer Stein with Domed Lid

1 Alcohawk ™ Personal Breathalyzer (This is real and high-end.)

Our four runners-up will each receive a copy of the Beerfest Unrated DVD.

Winner and runners-up after the jump ...

Beerfest -- Those oh-so-wacky knuckleheads who brought you Super Troopers (yaaaay) and Club Dread (boooo) are back with a beer-soaked semi-sports comedy that celebrates the irreprressable beauty of yeast, malt, barley and fermented hops. (At least I think that's what beer is made of.) Haven't seen the flick yet, but I'm told it's actually pretty darn funny. Extras include two audio commentaries, a handful of featurettes and more than 20 deleted scenes.

How to Eat Fried Worms -- Yet another kid's book turned into a movie that nobody really cared to see. Then again, home video is where titles like this one make their bread and butter anyway. Extras include a director/kid actor commentary, a gag reel ("gag," get it? cuz it's about the eating of worms!), and a handful of featurettes.

Idlewild -- Kim was pretty surprised by how much she liked this flick, but going only by the box office numbers it seems she was most definitely in the minority. The "Outkast musical" was lauded by some and derided by others, but most seem to agree that it sure is ... different! Extras are pretty slim: two deleted scenes and a pair of music videos.

Miami Vice -- I think it's one of the worst movies of the year. Honest. But hey, if your idea of fun is 140 minutes of two preening actors wandering through a plotless and a stunningly generic plot construct, have a ball. Yeah, Michael Mann knows how to swing a camera around the room, but this flick's about as deep and edgy as an episode of Murder She Wrote. (Rant over. Sorry.) Extras include a director's commentary, six featurettes and a 15-minute-longer Director's Cut.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest -- I can be pretty critical of the Disney output from time to time, but where the Pirates movies are concerned, I'm little more than a hyperactive 8-year-old screaming "Yay, yippee, more!!" And the 2-disc release of DMC is an absolute treasure chest of digital awesomeness. The movie looks and sounds great, the screenwriter's commentary is quite illuminating, and there's more supplemental material to choke a Kraken: Blooper reels, documentaries, featurettes and yes: at least five hidden goodies!

Pulse -- The remake nobody asked for became the movie nobody went to see. I paid to see it only because of my Kristen Bell crush, and while it's certainly not a GOOD movie, I don't think it's as worthless as most PG-13 horror flicks I've seen lately. Extras include two commentaries, three featurettes, some deleted stuff and (of course) an "unrated" cut.

Rocky Anthology -- I'm pretty sure that all the sequels in this new collection are the same DVDs as before, but the original Rocky is given a rather swanky new digital release that should thrill anyone who loves the flick as much as I do. (Available separately) the Rocky 2-disc Collector's Edition comes with three audio commentaries, a half-dozen featurettes / mini-docos and some old-school archival footage that's never been released before. Yo, MGM! Thanks!

Wow, how the time flies. You only have until midnight PST tomorrow -- that's Tuesday, December 5 -- to get your funniest caption entry in for our beertastic Beerfest Unrated DVD Giveaway. I'm sure you've slept since then, so go back to the contest page and reread the rules, and then enter your entry in the comments. Do NOT enter your caption in this post, or it will not be considered. Enter the contest here. Right HERE.

Give it your best shot -- we have a fantastic prize package for you:


1 Completely, Totally Unrated Beerfest DVD

1 Navy Blue Bottle Opener Hat (Everyone who has seen this wants it!)

1 Black "Schnitzengiggle Tavern" Tee

1 Beer Mug Glasses (The kind you wear!)

1 Beautiful Beer Stein with Domed Lid

1 Alcohawk ™ Personal Breathalyzer (This is real and high-end.)

Four runners-up will win Beerfest Unrated DVDs. Pretty cool prize package, eh? So go enter the contest now for your chance to win!

In anticipation of the release of the Beerfest DVD (in both regular and unrated versions!) on December 5, we're bringing you one of the best prize package giveaways we've ever done for a Caption This! contest. You know the drill: Take a good look at the still from the movie above, then give us your best shot at a caption in the comments. The winning caption, as determined by either Erik's Magic 8 Ball or a team of highly-paid humor analysts (whichever gives the best pitch for why they should get the gig), will get this amazing prize package:

1 Completely, Totally Unrated Beerfest DVD

1 Navy Blue Bottle Opener Hat (Everyone who has seen this wants it!)

1 Black "Schnitzengiggle Tavern" Tee

1 Beer Mug Glasses (The kind you wear!)

1 Beautiful Beer Stein with Domed Lid

1 Alcohawk ™ Personal Breathalyzer (This is real and high-end.)

How's that for a great prize package? Four runners-up will win Beerfest Unrated DVDs. You love beer, you love Beerfest -- and even if you don't, hey, if you win you can wrap it all up and give it to your friends for Christmas. So put on those thinking caps, try out your caption ideas on your frat brothers or your mom, and get your captions in the comments. You have until midnight PST on December 5 to get your entries in.

Note: You MUST give a valid email address in order to activate your comment. Entries that are not activated by the reader will not be considered valid entries.

On a quiet box office weekend, Mark Wahlberg and his Invincible co-stars effortlessly outdistanced the competition: The film earned about $17 million over three days, while nothing else even broke the $10 million mark. In its fourth week in release, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby took in $8 million, good enough for the second spot; finishing third was Fox Searchlight's indie dreamboat Little Miss Sunshine which, after doubling its exposure to just over 1400 screens, made about $7.5 million, pushing its total earnings to $23 million. Though we still don't know exactly how much Fox spent on the rights to the movie, it's hard to believe they're not extremely please with its success so far -- only the craziest suit could possibly have dream of something like this.

Among the films making their debuts this week, Invincible was really the only success. Beerfest opened on more screens (just short of 3000), but did disappointing business -- the Broken Lizard flick made only $6.5 million, the weekend's fourth highest total (since their stuff tends to blow up on DVD, though, they're probably not going to have to sell the house or anything). In more limited exposure, Idlewild found itself in sixth with $5.9 million, but its average of $6055/screening was easily the best in the top ten. (Oh and yeah, Snakes on a Plane stumbled badly: It dropped almost 60% to $6.4 million from a massive 3555 screens.)

Full numbers are after the jump.

How do you turn a standard pre-release filmmaker interview into something fun, funny, and packed with Patrick Swayze references? Well, you start off by interviewing 2 of the 5 Broken Lizard lunatics -- because regardless of what you thought of Club Dread, these are some seriously funny dudes. The second method for turning a potentially standard interview into something fresh and amusing -- do it in comic strip form! CulturePulp's Mike Russell has been doing the strip interviews for quite some time now, and they're all pretty darn great. And for those who prefer their filmmaker interviews to be delivered in a standard format, Russell's got you covered there too.

His most recent piece is an irreverent-yet-informative chit-chat with Steve Lemme & Erik Stolhanske, aka 2/5ths of the comedy troupe that gave you the hilarious Super Troopers, the bizarrely un-hilarious Club Dread, and the best Broken Lizard flick yet: Beerfest. Topics of animated (and somewhat drunken) conversation include Road House, Vincent Spano, Adam Sandler, Donald Sutherland, Cloris Leachman, Brian Bosworth, and the long-delayed release of The Onion Movie. Oh, and beer.

Ah, I almost forgot: The fate of Broken Lizard's most ambitious project yet (an ancient Olympian comedy called Greek Road) lies firmly within your hands, my friends. If enough people go see Beerfest, the Lizards will most likely get the bankroll they need to bring Greek Road to life ... and the concept alone sounds pretty damn funny.

I never played drinking games in my collegiate youth -- I was never in a fraternity, did not study engineering and grew up in Canada, so the general idea was to just drink. Beerfest, the new comedy from the five-comedian collective known as Broken Lizard, begins as two American brothers, Jan (Paul Soter) and Todd (Erik Stolhanske) Wolfhouse take their dear departed father's ashes from Colorado to Munich, Germany to fulfill his last wishes. Along the way, they stumble into a secret international competition of drinking games called "Beerfest" -- an alternative to commercialized drink-fests, for as one member of the Australian team notes profanely, "Oktoberfest is for tossers and sheep-shaggers!" While disastrously failing to enact their dad's final wishes, the brothers have their family honor and national pride desperately bruised by the VonWolfhausen clan -- the German branch of the family, who perennially win Beerfest. Shamed but not broken, the Wolfhouse brothers set out to make a rag-tag team of drinking game, uh, athletes (and with ESPN2 carrying hot dog-devouring coverage between spelling bees and spear fishing, that's not such a crazy phrase) to win next year's Beerfest.

Beerfest is dumb as a box of rocks. It's a brawny, badly-shot mess that goes on a little too long. It has, as its stars, a group of five men who are far from conventionally handsome, and not conventionally funny. It doesn't hate women, but it doesn't have a lot for them to do aside from bare their breasts and provide exposition. And I loved it -- or, rather, I laughed during it and was consistently amused by audacity and stupidity going hand in hand. It's a dumb movie made by smart people, who took a pitch of 'Fight Club with beer' and managed to wrest a sports-movie parody out of it through sheer force of will while still mocking bad '80s action cinema, world cultural relations, and our relationship with, as noted sage Homer J. Simpson put it, "... Alcohol: The cause of -- and solution to -- all of life's problems." Beerfest is the best smart-yet-dumb American comedy since Dodgeball.

Finally, life has purpose! Speaking at Comic-Con this past weekend, those Broken Lizard boys announced plans for a long awaited sequel to their underground cult flick Super Troopers. Though an official announcement has not been made, according to Moviehole, the Lizard's were confident the film would begin shooting soon. Is that a good thing? Based on the horrific tale that was Club Dread, I'm not sure these guys would know clever comedy if it repeatedly smashed them over the head. Seriously, after watching the trailer for Broken Lizard's upcoming film, Beerfest, I could actually see the brain cells escaping my head and leaping to their death.

Super Troopers 2, which will be a prequel to the original, finds the comedy troupe playing the father's of their characters in the first film. Having mildly enjoyed Super Troopers, I sincerely hope the sequel (or prequel) entertains. Heck, it's set in the 70s -- mix a whole lot of drugs with an afro or two and you've got yourself a winner. Right?