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

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Directors:

Rick Moranis
Dave Thomas

Writers:

Rick Moranis (written by) &
Dave Thomas (written by) ...

Release Date:

26 August 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

The McKenzie brothers beer up under misfortune.

Plot:

Canada's most famous hosers, Bob and Doug McKenzie, get jobs at the Elsinore Brewery, only to learn that something is rotten with the state of it.

Plot Keywords:

Brewery | Hockey | Canada | Studio Logo Segues Into Film | Animal In Cast Credits

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Dave Thomas	...	Doug McKenzie
Rick Moranis	...	Bob McKenzie
Max von Sydow	...	Brewmeister Smith (as Max Von Sydow)
Paul Dooley	...	Claude Elsinore
Lynne Griffin	...	Pam Elsinore
Angus MacInnes	...	Jean LaRose
Tom Harvey	...	The Inspector
Douglas Campbell	...	Henry Green
Brian McConnachie	...	Ted
Len Doncheff	...	Jack Hawkland
Jill Frappier	...	Gertrude
David Beard	...	The Judge
Thick Wilson	...	The Prosecutor
Robert Windsor	...	Bailiff
Sid Lynas	...	Angry Man at Movie

Also Known As:

Strange Brew (USA) (short title)
The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Iceland:L | USA:PG (No. 26857) | Canada:PG (Canadian Home Video rating) | UK:PG | Canada:G (Quebec) | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

At one point, Bob says, "He saw Jedi 17 times, eh!" What isn't obvious two decades later, is that Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) opened in May 1983, while production of "Strange Brew" had wrapped five months earlier, in December 1982. Not only hadn't the McKenzie brothers seen "Jedi" - but they couldn't refer to it by its full title, since the "Revenge"/"Return" issue was still up in the air while they were filming.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Doug McKenzie types in the code to get the floppy from the safe, he hits a vertical row of numbers on the keypad. However, when Ted and Brewmeister Smith views the video, it shows a different video of Doug McKenzie's hand hitting a different sequence of numbers.

Quotes:

Brewmeister Smith: [shadowing Bob and Doug, and waiting outside their house for what seems like hours] What the *stink* are they *doing* in there?

Movie Connections:

Features The Flying Cat (1952)

Soundtrack:

Strange Brew

Before Wayne and Garth, there was Bob and Dog McKenzie.

"Strange Brew" is a spin-off of the Bob and Doug McKenzie shorts on Canada's export "SCTV" (which started in the early '80s on US television and won some awards). This movie is very much low budget and doesn't concern itself with continuity or much of a plot either -- it's a retread of "Hamlet" (that's right!) and one William Shakespeare even gets a co-writing credit.

Anyway, the film is not by any means a masterpiece but it's amusing in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way. (And incidentally this was purposefully bad, and Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas -- who directed and wrote it -- make no effort to conceal this.) The best part is actually the beginning when Bob and Doug reveal their movie about a man who survives the holocaust and wonders the earth in search of beer. I've rarely laughed so hard. "Pss, act!" is one of the funniest lines in cinema history.

After that it goes downhill but remains entertaining... Bob and Doug become embroiled in a plot by mad scientist Mad Von Sydow, who wants to take over the world and all the other stuff mad scientists like to do.

I've never seen such a pieced-together, fragmented movie in all my life. A number of scenes pay nothing to the film whatsoever. One hockey game sequence goes on for about seven minutes and doesn't really have anything to do with... well... anything! On top of that, characters come and go and disappear without mention again -- towards the end of the film, one of the bad guys gets his comeuppance, but the film doesn't even reveal how! Also the woman playing the ex-brewster's daughter is supposed to be about 21 but she's clearly in her mid to late thirties... and at one point her birthdate is revealed in the film, and according to the date of the film, it places her at a much older age... so evidently Moranis and Thomas didn't really care at all about trying to convince audiences of anything with this film.

And it's better that way. This is a really smug and self-knowing comedy, but in a good way. It's light-hearted and doesn't take itself seriously. Even during the end credits, Bob and Doug give their film a review and mention its plot weaknesses, but claim it's just good family fun and worth five bucks, and I agree. On an aside note I will have to say that the film's best sequences are those in which Bob and Doug are actually hosting their show, and sometimes I wonder if that would have made a better 90 minutes than attempting to come up with a half-a$$ed plot. But oh well, it's still pretty funny and amusing as it is.