#234. Strange Brew (1983)

DVD Synopsis: What matters most in life, eh? Hockey, donuts and beer? A slab of back bacon? And did we mention beer?  At least, that's what matters most to Doug (Dave Thomas) and Bob McKenzie (Rick Moranis) when they bring the goofy lunacy of SCTV's The Great White North to the great wide movie indoors. (Co-writing and directing as well as starring. Whew!) Strange, it is. And Brew, it is, what with our ski-capped hoser heroes upending the mind-controlling scheme of a diabolical brewmeister (Max von Sydow). Beauty, eh!

We all have our guilty pleasures. 

And when it comes to movies, I have a lot of 'em - dozens and dozens in fact - that I enjoy but simply cannot defend. Yes, they're corny, or sloppy, or just plain bad, but damned if I don't watch them anyway! 

1983's Strange Brew is a perfect example. 

I first saw this movie on cable less than a year after its theatrical run, and I couldn't get enough of it. Now, I'm older, and should know better, but what can I say? The love is still there! 

Based on characters that first appeared on television (in the hugely underrated SCTV), Strange Brew follows the exploits of Bob McKenzie (Rick Moranis) and his brother Doug (Dave Thomas), who love beer almost as much as they love goofing off. 

When a failed movie premiere deprives them of their precious beer money, the brothers scheme to get a free case from Elsinore Breweries, only to wind up as the company's newest employees. 

What the MKcKenzie's don't know is that an evil brewmeister (Max Von Sydow) and his hapless sidekick (Paul Dooley) are working on a drug that turns ordinary people into mindless zombies, easily manipulated to do their bidding. 

The fate of the world hangs in the balance, and it's up to the McKenzie brothers to save the day! 

Okay, if that synopsis doesn't sell you on this film's sophomoric qualities, then there's plenty else to convince you. In order to test their mind drug, the bad guys stage hockey games that pit patients from a nearby psychiatric institution against one another. These patients, who are already on the drug (the brewmeister, it turns out, is also the head of said institution), make their way through a tunnel that connects the institute to the brewery. Once there, they suit up and play on the brewery's skating rink!  There's even a scene where Bob and Doug are the goalies, and get repeatedly pummeled by the zombie-like patients (they never explain how the brothers got into the game, but there you go). 

And yet, in spite the film's cohesive shortcomings, I can watch Strange Brew whenever it's on! 

A bad case of nostalgia might explain my attraction to this film; my brother and I would watch Strange Brew over and over again with our friends. Yet there must be more to it than that.  

Perhaps it comes down to the likability of the film's main characters. Bob and Doug McKenzie - as played by Moranis and Thomas - are genuinely funny, even when placed in the most cinematically ridiculous situations (the entire opening sequence, when the brothers are premiering their new sci-fi film, is pure gold). 

Well, regardless of why I love it, the fact remains that I do. I love Strange Brew, and probably will for many years to come. 

Pity me if you can... judge me if you must... I'm a Strange Brew junkie!