Peter Farrelly, one half of the Farrelly Brothers who have given us some comedy classics like Dumb and Dumber and Shallow Hal, went solo behind the camera back in 2018 with the release of the Academy Award Winning film Green Book. It was such a change of pace for the filmmaker and it allowed him to flex some dramatic muscles to amazing results. Green Book was a big win for the filmmaker and it allowed him more creativity and flexibility when pursuing other projects. This brings us to the film which I am talking about today, his follow-up project simply titled The Greatest Beer Run Ever.
This is another true story for the filmmaker to tackle and it explores the real story of John “Chickie” Donohue, a New Yorker who travelled to Vietnam during the height of the war and delivered all of his friends who were serving there a nice canned beer from his local pub. Playing Chickie is none other than Zac Efron, in a role which is also a big departure for the actor. Efron is branching out into other genres and he’s picked an interesting one here in what feels like a comedy, a drama and a biopic all rolled into one. The film also stars Bill Murray in a minor role as the Colonel, the landlord of the Pub he drinks at, and Russell Crowe joins him in Vietnam as a War Photographer.
The bulk of the film is the journey that Chickie takes when he arrives in Vietnam. There are some hilarious and equally dramatic moments that capture and haunt him on the frontlines. Due to his civilian look he gets constantly mistaken as a CGI agent which leads to some awkward and funny encounters with generals and soldiers on the frontline. Chickie is also a man who doesn’t get let anything get to him and he takes his journey into the harsh jungle in his stride. He constantly gets lucky along the way with help from some unexpected people and he also bumps into his old friends a bit too easily. There are some heartbreaking and emotional surprises which brings the tone down, but it never veers off for too long as the comedy swings back around.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a light-hearted effort and for a more seasoned filmmaker and a more seasoned actor the film could have felt more award-worthy and fine tuned. I have to give Farrelly and Efron some credit though, they are great at what they do and are insanely talented but this is new territory for them both. The result is a little dwindling, but the quality is there and the script hasn’t got the scope for the story but it does flex out the comedy components to varying degrees. It’s an interesting and entertaining film that delivers on the interesting aspects but the entertaining aspects needed more work.
★★★☆☆
3/5
Peter Farrelly has delivered us a film that gives us room for thought but not a lot else. Efron is great as the lead character of Chickie, delivering charisma and innocence that only he could pull off, but it could have had more depth with someone else in the lead role. Although the film looks great and has a lot of talent involved in the making of it, it just feels like it is lacking something and the story could have been stretched out a bit more. In the end The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a film that delivers what it sets out to do.
Thanks for reading today’s blog!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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