THE STORY – In 1967, John Donohue was a 26-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran working as a merchant seaman when he was challenged one night in a New York City bar. The men gathered had lost family and friends in the ongoing war in Vietnam. One friend proposed an idea many might deem preposterous: one of them should sneak into Vietnam, track down their buddies in combat, and give each of them messages of support from back home, maybe some laughs, and beer.
THE CAST – Zac Efron, Russell Crowe & Bill Murray
THE TEAM – Peter Farrelly (Director/Writer), Brian Currie & Pete Jones (Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 126 Minutes
John “Chickie” Donohue (Zac Efron) is almost considered a real-life “Forrest Gump”-esque American hero. He makes reckless choices and has no real sense of how his actions impact others outside of wanting to provide good vibes for his friends serving in the Vietnam war. Nevertheless, he finds himself at the center of major battles and turning points during the war. While “Forrest Gump” was fiction, “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” is based on a true story, despite how unbelievable the events may seem. In his follow-up to the Best Picture-winning “Green Book,” director Peter Farrelly aims to find both comedy and drama in the Vietnam War with mixed results. The film is admirably well-intentioned (did you all know war is bad?), but the story and its ultimate message are too uneven and unsubtle.
Chickie and the other boys in the neighborhood of Inwood, New York, keep losing their friends to the Vietnam War. The boys all ship out to fight to do what they feel is their patriotic duty, but protests and losses are all over the news back home. Why wouldn’t America have good reasons for going to war? The negativity, especially from his own hippie protesting sister (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis), ticks Chickie off. One night, after several drinks at his local bar (run by “the Colonel,” who Bill Murray plays in a very minor role), Chickie decides to bring a sack of beer to some of the local boys serving in Vietnam to cheer them up and remind them that there are some at home who haven’t forgotten about them. The idea makes as much sense as it sounds. In order to stand up and make sure dissenters know that war is good, Chickie sets off toward Vietnam on an ammo ship, most of the time under the fake cover of a CIA operative because most soldiers would rather not ask questions and get into it with those individuals. He’s packed with nothing but the air in his head and a bag full of Pabst Blue Ribbon, ready to make his contribution to the war in the only way he knows how.
“The Greatest Beer Run Ever” gets off to a rough start. Farrelly is operating more in “Dumb & Dumber” mode than “Green Book,” lobbing off jokes and goofy dialogue throughout much of the first act, and very little of it works. It’s mostly unfunny and awkwardly staged. Chickie’s mission feels so short-sighted that it’s difficult to emotionally invest in the character and, thus, the story. Chickie is a dolt of a main character, consistently making the dumbest, most aggravating decisions. He puts himself and the people around him in harm’s way for nothing more than a beer. It comes off much more self-centered and oblivious than cute and lovable. Efron, to his credit, gives a wonderfully charismatic performance despite the annoying nature of his character. While the script tries to walk the fine line between the comedy and drama of Chickie’s decisions, Efron finds a better balance in his portrayal. He doesn’t make the bad jokes necessarily funny, but he brings believability to the character as he realizes his situation’s severity the deeper he goes into enemy territory.
As Chickie improbably travels around the war-torn country, he gets mixed up in all sorts of trouble. He pisses off journalists who are trying to tell the truth about the war (particularly an underutilized Russell Crowe, who is captivating in character actor supporting mode here). He nearly gets his friend killed and spends a night in a firefight on the battlefield. He gets mixed up with the CIA and witnesses some things he probably shouldn’t have seen. As he witnesses plenty of wartime action, the filmmaking is a little hit or miss in this department as well. Immersive sound work brings the action to life. Still, the cinematography, editing, and score aren’t anything to write home about, showing how this is a technical step up for Farrelly but still delivered in the most convenient manner possible.
The movie is most effective when it focuses more on the dramatic sides of Chickie’s story. However, Farrelly’s screenplay is aiming at the easiest targets: war is terrible, politicians sometimes lie, journalism is good, and friendship is important. On the one hand, these themes are so basic and overdone that there’s nothing new for “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” to add to the conversation. On the other hand, with straightforward storytelling goals, it’s hard to argue where the movie ends up. As Chickie learns these valuable lessons and life becomes more intensely real, it’s hard to deny how effective these messages are on a modern mainstream audience. It’s undoubtedly emotional manipulation, but the film somehow manages to stick the landing. As surface-level and inconsistent as “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” might be, seeing an idiot learn important truths and grow over the course of the story is the oldest trick in the book that still inevitably works.
