Stealing shamelessly from a Guns & Ammo filler piece that I skimmed at the doctor’s office (no, he wasn’t a trauma surgeon), I thought that it would be cool to do a feature on the five greatest beer movies of all time. The problem is that I couldn’t decide whether to order them chronologically, in order of quality or in order of beer-relatedness. Worse, all that I could think of were Animal House and Strange Brew.
Animal House shouldn’t need much of an introduction. Any college movie pitting a bunch of sloppy renegades against a crotchety dean out to bring them down is trying to recapture Animal House’s insane magic. Usually you want to pull the lead aside and tell him that he’s not John Belushi and no, drugs won’t help. Enjoy it with a six-pack of Budweiser Budvar, brewed in the same Czech town from which the similar American brew gets its name (contrary to popular myth the American brew began production 19 years earlier). The light-drinking Czech pilsner, similar to American Budweiser like wedding silver resembles a spork, will give you a vague connection with the film without actually tasting like watered-down cat piss. Look for it in the States as Czechvar.
Strange Brew is awesome in ways that nothing whose synopsis containst the words ‘Rick Moranis vehicle’ has any right to be. People who have a problem with cultural strereotypes mightl skip this and rent that weeper where Meryl Streep teaches violin to Harlem because this movie will blow gaskets (Ok, cultural stereotypes are immoral and wrong. Except when they’re funny and then they’re mostly ok. When are they funny? I have no idea what the rules are for that sort of thing but Canada is cool, eh). Moranis and Dave Thomas stretch an endless series of Canada jokes over a demented plot that riffs on Star Wars, B movie tropes and Shakespeare. I never counted but it feels like beer comes up every thirty seconds.
Enjoy it with a 22 oz Maudite from Unibroue in Quebec because cultural stereotypes are wrong, eh. Canada makes hooch that shames grocery-store staples like Molson and Labatt’s along with practically everything else on the North American continent.
Two stinking movies? Jeesh, talk about cultural illiteracy. Read two more reviews here. Topping anything that I could do in a year, All About Beer magazine has a comprehensive feature article:
Beer has a history as the drink of the common man. When filmmakers want us to think of a character as “one of us,” that character often drinks beer. And if one of the film’s central themes is class conflict, you can be sure there’s a snooty wine drinker on the horizon, and worlds are about to collide.
Consider “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938), wherein the evil Prince John (Claude Rains) drinks wine from golden goblets in a Norman castle and plots murder. Meanwhile, his good-hearted brother, King Richard the Lion Hearted (Ian Hunter), drinks English ale from a pewter mug in a Saxon inn.
Cocktail probably counts but I don’t remember it that well and Tom Cruise vehicles aren’t my thing. Share your own fave beer movies and movie beers in the comments.
cheers!
Paul Wartenberg
Movies that involve beer as a primary theme?
There’s a little seen gem called ‘Happy Hour’ starring Jamie Farr, Tawny Kitaen, Rich Little and the incomparable Eddie Deezen. Oh, the leads are played by people you never heard of. The plot is that a chemist discovers the Perfect Flavor, which gets added to beer and after which changes the planetary drinking habit (drinking age limit drops to like 4 1/2 yrs old for example). Oh, and the director behind this inanity is the same one responsible for the Killer Tomatoes series.
Speaking of Tawny Kitaen, that epic comedy she starred in with Tom Hanks (back when he was funny), Bachelor Party, could be construed as a beer (well, massive substance abuse at most) movie.
Andrew
Blue Velvet gave us a singularly wonderful nugget of beer wisdom.
Doug
Old School had an awful lot of beer in it, as did PCU. Not sure I’d call beer the “central theme,” but I probably wouldn’t call beer the central theme of Animal House either. In any case, both Old School and PCU are good for drinking beer while watching.
MXH
The Sure Thing has John Cusack teaching a young Daphne Zuniga how to shotgun a beer. Plus, didn’t Burt Reynolds have to deliver beer in Smokey and the Bandit?
Grotesqueticle
I am tapped out (heh) of beer movies, but there was a funny episode of Buffy that involved beer and devolution (are we not men?).
Speaking of Buffy, is there anything more pathetic than a middle-aged male Buffy fan? Because, I’d like to have a group of people to look down on.
Krista
Gad, seeing that picture brings back memories of those old Labbatt’s stubby bottles. Now I’m curious as to how often I actually do say “eh”.
Beer movies? I seem to recall an awful lot of Red Stripe flowing during The Firm
srv
You can make your own movies in Cesky Krumlov, drink all the Budvar and eat all the pretzels you want for the change in your pocket.
Go there before it gets expensive.
canuckistani
My favourite booze movie is actually Whisky Galore, which I strongly recommend.
But Bob and Doug are a key part of our cultural heritage, and last month, I bought a 12 of Connor’s Best Bitter because I was nostalgic for the stubby bottles. It’s pretty good beer, too, if you’re ever in the Toronto area.
Pb
How about expanding it a little to drinking/bar movies, or gambling movies? I nominate California Split, it has both!
As for puerile college movies (invariably with beer involved), there’s always Back To School–I tell ya, it gets no respect!
Finally, there’s science fiction, as it were–didn’t Young Einstein split the beer atom? :)
Mr Furious
The fact that they got Max Von Sydow to be in “Strange Brew” always astounds me.
One of my favorites…
Baron Elmo
Five ales comin’ up! BLOUGGGGGHHHHHHUURRRRGGGGHH!
TexasMike
Take this job and Shove it was a mediocre movie about a bundh of guys working in a brewery. Just thought I’d offer it since there seems to be very few to chose from.
Otto Man
Don’t forget the imminently forgettable movie Beer, starring Loretta Swit and Rip Torn.
canuckistani
Kind of a tangential beer movie – The Lady Eve, with Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyk. He’s heir to a beer fortune,and she’s the con artist after the beer fortune. Very funny.
Perry Como
Not a beer movie, but a beer article:
The Government Has Its Nose In My Beer
Sam
I feel safe in writing that Maudite is quite possibly the worst beer ever conceived. Drinking it is the equivalent of getting punched in the groin for five to ten minutes…straight.
Keith Demko
Good stuff .. I’m pretty sure I could watch “Strange Brew” 100 times and still find something new to laugh at
Heraldblog
Hubers is the worst beer of all time. When I was in college, you could buy a whole case of this swill for $2.50, making it the number one choice of 1:45 am beer runs. More laxative than beer, it tasted like carbonated spit and gave you a three-day hangover.