Movie #20: The Greatest Beer Run Ever
The most fun you'll have watching a movie about the Vietnam War
This movie is based on a true story. A guy named John "Chickie" Donohue from Inwood really did pack up a bag full of beers and travel to a hot zone of at the height of the Vietnam war to bring the boys from his neighborhood a cold one. It’s maybe one of the best examples of “you can’t make this stuff up.” Just as surprising is how Peter Farrelly brought this amazing story to life. The guy who gave us Harry and Lloyd, and Ben Stiller’s nuts caught in a zipper, pulled off this heartfelt, Forest Gump meets Platoon, feel good about something that isn’t good film. And with a cast like Zac Effron, Russell Crowe and Bill Murray, he couldn’t lose.
It’s shocking that this movie wasn’t a bigger deal when it was released. It’s fun, funny, moving, has an all star cast, and shows us a new and insightful look at that hellish war from the blue collar American POV. Maybe that’s the nature of our world today with streamer-created movies skipping the theater and landing right in your living room. Maybe it’s just over saturation of content, period. But I have to think a few years ago, this would’ve been a huge hit.
Special shoutout to Zac Effron’s mustache, which definitely kept reminding you that this was comedic war film. That thing definitely looked like he glued it on, even if he did grow it. As out of place on his face as a civilian, non-combatant carrying a bag full of brewskis instead of an m16, running around the killing fields of Vietnam. But again, this is from Peter Farrelly, so you need some comedic edge.
Same goes for the cartoony accents everyone was putting on. The sounded kinda ridiculous, but that was also kinda the point. Bill Murray’s was the hardest to stomach, and I kept wanting him to just break out into his, well, Bill Murray accent, but he for the most part stayed in his character as Colonel, the wise old bartender back in Inwood.
These idiosyncrasies helped Farrelly weave together a film that made this unbelievable story believable, charming and have a tinge of a POV on the war, and become the at-home popcorn film of my late spring/early summer. Even if I’m late to the party, I’m really glad I hit play.