The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Thin Brew Line

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Given that it's based on a foolhardy real-life act, the dramedy The Greatest Beer Run Ever could have been much funnier; instead, it falls back on wobbly writing and on overly-sincere, one-note sermons about war and service.

It's 1967 in New York City, and Merchant Marine Chickie Donohue (Zac Efron) and his friends are dismayed at how many of their friends from their Inwood neighborhood have been killed in the War in Vietnam. Chickie's sister Christine (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) has been participating in anti-war protests, but Chickie feels that this disrespects the troops. While drinking in his favorite bar, manned by The Colonel (Bill Murray), he concocts a plan to board the next ship bound for Vietnam, and bring all his still-living military buddies a beer. Once there, with dumb luck, persistence, and help from a crusty reporter, Coates (Russell Crowe), Chickie attempts to pull off his crazy idea. But actually being in a war zone opens his eyes, too.

"That's the dumbest thing I ever heard of," one character says of Chickie's plan in The Greatest Beer Run Ever, but, as directed by the comedy veteran Peter Farrelly, it somehow fails to capture that tone. Perhaps it cares too much, returning again and again to the noble reason for Chickie's journey, which is supporting the troops and "buying those boys a beer." If it had been a little more carefree, a little more anarchic, perhaps it might have generated some laughs. (Bill Murray's character in Stripes wouldn't even recognize his character here.)

Perhaps the lead role was a bit much for star Efron, whose acting chops have marginally improved since his early days, and who can now convincingly play a dramatic scene, but who maybe doesn't quite have the comic timing that a number of other actors would have provided. Perhaps Farrelly was afraid of offending, by showing any kind of portrait of the military that could be seen as negative, while still wanting to assert that "war is hell."

Perhaps that's why the movie seems so pleasant, without being really engaging. (On the other hand, Farrelly's previous movie, the Oscar-winning Green Book, did manage to find a combination of being both pleasing and engaging.) Ultimately, while it's hard to hate The Greatest Beer Run Ever, it's just more flat than it is sudsy.