Film Roar

Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew, The (1983)

"Who the fuck wrote this thing!" That single sentence could be heard coming from my mouth over and over as the plot of Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew, The (1983) took one bizarre plot twist after another. Just as SCTV was, through the '80s, a more immature, less funny version of Saturday Night Live, Strange Brew feels like an under-written SNL movie wannabe. Strange Brew is a complete contradiction in its writing and humor. One the one hand, you have constant beer drinking, farting, pissing and burping jokes as the main comedic content of the movie, on the other is an intricate plot that follows the story of Hamlet. On the one hand, you have the McKenzie brothers testing the line of how simply idiotic one can act without being committed to a mental institution, on the other is the superb Max von Sydow playing a brilliant villain with the finesse of one of the best actors the silver screen has ever seen. Strange Brew has some good laughs, and may have proved a better film if the audience was not forced to constantly wonder what drugs (or brews) the writers (Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas and Steve De Jarnatt) were on as they conceived this decidedly warped comedy.