What is a BROKEN LIZARD???  Why do these BROKEN LIZARD's get to make movies???  What is so special about this particular species of reptile that ensures them to make hilarious films that tend to seem lost on the general public???  Were these BROKEN LIZARD's once persecuted and hauled into lizard concentration camps by other lizards, and now they thrive in our Hollywood movie system much like the Chinese (you were thinking different???)

All I know is I am glad we have the BROKEN LIZARD's to make us some funny movies, that if nothing else make me happy!!!! BEERFEST THE "COMPLETELY TOTALLY" UNRATED EDITION is my new favorite holiday film, as every time I watch it I get that warm fuzzy "holy shit, this guys jacking off a frog" feeling that sends me swooning into the holiday spirit much like I assume WHITE CHRISTMAS did for my ancient ancestors (WHAT?? Their old aren’t they???).  Though as I am sure you can tell from my scathing review of this film that it's not really my cup of tea (where is the style button for sarcasm??)  OK, ok, jocularity aside I am a fan of both BROKEN LIZARD (SUPER TROOPERS, CLUB DREAD) and their film BEERFEST and highly recommend this film for anyone who has a sense of humor!  It has an entertaining story, fun memorable characters and chicks and lots of simulated drunken charades, what more could you ask for???

For those like me who are a fan of the film, the "COMPLETELY TOTALLY" UNRATED EDITION of BEERFEST on DVD does not fail to deliver the extras. With the hilarious PARTY FOUL extra with the cast and crew recalling their personal drinking stories, deleted scenes, commentaries and featurettes to boot you will have plenty to dig through to find some extra laughs.

Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Commentary by Jay Chandrasekhar and Steve Lemme
Commentary by Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske
Deleted scenes
"Party Foul" featurette
"Beer 101" featurette
"Frog Fluffer" featurette

As I headed out last night to the screening of Broken Lizard's newest comedy BEERFEST at the MANN's BRUIN THEATER in Westwood, I  found myself wondering exactly how the Broken Lizard troop would be able to make a full length feature film that was solely based on a beer festival?  Not that I didn't think the premise was interesting but with such a finite topic I was interested to see what sub-story would take the place of filling in the 80% of the film spent outside of said BEERFEST.   Though being the fan of Broken Lizard's last few films (SUPER TROOPERS, CLUB DREAD) as I am, I knew that even if the plot wasn't all their, at least the jokes would be, and much to my surprise neither was missing!!

As BEERFEST opens we are introduced to two brothers TODD and JAN WOLFHOUSE (PAUL SOTER & ERIK STOLHANSKE) at their grandfathers funeral, during which a video that their grandfather (a hilarious cameo role played by DONALD SUTHERLAND) recorded before he passed away containing his last toast to his family.  After the funeral Jan and Todd are met by their GREAT GAM GAM (CLORIS LEACHMAN) who tells the brothers of a festival in Germany where all the Von Wolfhausen family is buried and that they must take their grandfathers ashes to this festival and place them amongst the rest of their family.  This of course leads the two brothers to Germany during Oktoberfest, and as they reach where they are to rest the ashes of their recently departed grandfather they find out that their family history holds much more than they had ever expected.



After total humiliation in Germany at the hands of their distant relatives, the brothers set out to become the winners of the next years BEERFEST, to atone for their country and family.  With only a year to train, the brothers build their Team USA with friends from their past including LANDFILL (KEVIN HEFFERNAN) a competitive eating champion, FINK (STEVE LEMME) a Hassidic amphibian stroking science genius and BARRY (JAY CHANDRASEKHAR) a down on his luck drinking game champion/male companion.  With the team built and the festival just months away the beer drinking American team spends all their time practicing the drinking games of the festival as well as raising their tolerance levels, and all culminates in the biggest beer drinking show down ever on the silver screen (of course it may very well be the only one too).



All in all, the Broken Lizard crew has triumphed again with another hilarious and well thought out film that I am sure will be garnering the cult fans it rightfully deserves (just wait until all the High School kids are running around in German accents, screaming "Scheizen" and "Nein"). The best thing (in my opinion) about Broken Lizard's BEERFEST is that the film knows not to take itself too seriously, it doesn't try to fill in gaps with cheesy heartfelt dialogue.. err.. well it does, but only in the sense to poke fun at such scenes from other films.  As well the film pokes fun at the "ex deus machina" that seems to be overly used in todays cinema with their disappearing/re-appearing LANDFILL gag, and not to mention plenty of "blue" humor to add (I never knew hearing an 80 year old woman talk about how much sausage she can take on would be something I would laugh so hard at rather than vomit prefusely, but then again I guess we learn something new everyday).