Want to hear more from the actors and creators of your favorite shows and films? Subscribe to The Cinema Spot on YouTube for all of our upcoming interviews!
Lead Critic for the site, as well as serving as an editor when needed.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever, Peter Farrelly’s follow-up to Green Book, is a resulting poor execution of a fantastic story that could have been treated better had someone else been at the helm. Farrelly also co-wrote the screenplay with Brian Currie & Pete Jones, while Zac Efron leads the cast as John “Chickie” Donohue. Russell Crowe, Bill Murray, Jake Picking, Kyle Allen, Will Ropp, and Archie Renaux co-star.
Very minor spoilers to follow.
Farrelly’s Involvement in The Greatest Beer Run Ever
The Greatest Beer Run Ever — based on the book of the same name by John “Chickie” Donohue & J.T. Molloy — is entertaining at its best. While the film isn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, that still doesn’t make it all that good, either. The main problem plaguing the film is Farrelly’s direction. Now, not to say that Farrelly is a bad director, because he isn’t, by any means, but perhaps what would have saved this adaption is a more serious choice for the director. Maybe the Coen Brothers, for instance.
Farrelly’s writing is also a hitch and another thing that weighs this one down. It seemed as if the most serious moments in the film couldn’t maintain that tone for more than five minutes. Nearly every time a character would say something serious, there was a retort by another that attempted to get a laugh out of the audience, which just doesn’t work. The oddity of making the story into a drama seemingly gives the story less value as well. It would’ve served better with a comedic tone rather than a serious one. However, Efron does his best with the material given to him. The second act also feels way too long and tends to drag.
Portrayals of Persons Who Played a Part
Despite the fact that Efron’s Chickie is written like someone whose sole purpose in life is to simply laze around all day and drink as much as you can, the real Chickie was rather experiencing a lull in his life and wanted to feel like he was doing his part. Crowe’s Arthur Coates is an amalgamation of several war correspondents Chickie met during his adventure in Vietnam, and the actor works well with Efron.
They bounce back and forth quite nicely despite The Greatest Beer Run Ever‘s small script issues. The actors portraying Chickie’s in-real-life friends of Rick Duggan (Picking), Tommy Collins (Renaux), Kevin McLoone (Ropp), and Bobby Pappas (Allen) take their roles seriously even with the film’s lighter tones. They are happy to see Chickie when he can finally deliver them their Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, albeit that it’s warm, but each time he is given more to think about. The Vietnamese representation is approached idly as well. Thankfully, they did enough to not insult the culture notwithstanding the other issues.
Getting to the Issue at Hand
The resolution to Chickie’s eventual problem of being stranded in Vietnam finds its solution in another weird, comedic element of posing as a member of the C.I.A. in Vietnam on assignment; another thing he makes amends with by the end of the film. Chickie also seems to become more self-aware of the real danger around him: death. He wants to do his part to serve his boys in the neighborhood, but he needed to seemingly see it enough to actually recognize it, which doesn’t make sense in the grand scheme of things.
The explicit core message seems to still jump off the page by the end of it all, that war is usually a messy business and you need to keep your friends close, even if it’s a little boring in the result of The Greatest Beer Run Ever.
Final Thoughts on The Greatest Beer Run Ever
At the end of the day, if you want something to keep you entertained for just a little over two hours check this film out. Otherwise, you’re better off watching something else about Vietnam like We Were Soldiers. While I wasn’t entirely let down, it still didn’t knock it out of the park, and The Greatest Beer Run Ever will probably be something I check out every now and then for a guilty pleasure.
3.5/5 stars.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever is now playing in select theatres and streaming on AppleTV+. Did you happen to take notice of this insanely true story’s adaptation? For more reviews of the most outlandish stories, stay right here with The Cinema Spot.
Lead Critic for the site, as well as serving as an editor when needed.
This article was edited by John Tangalin.