Four years after Peter Farrelly's "Green Book" pandered its way to a Best Picture win, he returns with another semi-serious outing in "The Greatest Beer Run Ever." For those who were less than impressed by Farrelly's migration into more serious topics, "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" is just a collection of similar issues in another well-meaning but wildly uneven miscalculation of a movie.
Farrelly made his name as part of the directing duo the Farrelly Brothers, with his brother Bobby, helming raunchy comedies like "Dumb and Dumber" and "There's Something About Mary." When "Green Book" was announced, it was a surprise to see him working in a more serious key (though the film had its share of forced uncomfortable humor) and without his brother. He returns to the director's chair alone again with his latest outing.
Zac Efron stars as Chickie Donohue, who lives with his family in 1968 New York City, and is constantly being hassled by his father to make something of himself. He spends all night drinking on his friends' tabs and sleeps half the day away, while most of his peers are fighting the war in Vietnam. One night, Chickie proclaims he is going to bring all his friends a beer from New York over to Vietnam. And off he goes.
The issue with Farrelly moving into a filmmaking career that comes with Oscar recognition is he doesn't seem to know how to navigate a film's tone. "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" tackles the Vietnam War, but his screenplay (which he co-wrote with Brian Hayes Currie and Pete Jones) sets up a few different films: A screwball comedy, a fish-out-water farce, and an attempt at earnest drama. His uneven hand as a director makes for a disorienting experience on a scene-to-scene basis.
Much like "Green Book," which tackled race relations, "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" does a great deal of its storytelling through speechifying about serious topics. Chickie and his sister Christine (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) are on complete opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the Vietnam War: Chickie is a staunch supporter of it, while his sister attends anti-war peace rallies. As the movie gets going, they find themselves at odds with each other over their respective stances, spewing speeches that can only be found in a screenplay.
In a bless-his-heart-performance, Efron dons a mustache and an exaggerated New York accent (another issue that plagued "Green Book") and tries to find a purpose in Chickie. Farrelly's screenplays present characters as surface-level and Efron doesn't have the dramatic range to try and create a character out of an archetype. Hollywood has never been sure what to do with Efron, and "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" is no different. Rounding out the cast is Bill Murray, in a thankless role as a bartender, and Russell Crowe as a journalist, who plays a bigger role in the final act, when the movie takes on a much more serious tone.
A final plea to Farrelly: There's nothing wrong with sticking with comedies. Some of them have been quite funny, while others haven't worked, but he knows the genre. Trying to bring those sensibilities to movies about race or war have only shown that Farrelly doesn't have the depth as a writer or director to handle them. "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" proves that again.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever Movie Review By Matthew Passantino
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