The Wake

In 1983, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas (no, not the Wendy’s guy!) unleashed upon the world one of history’s funniest movies, Strange Brew. This is a Hamlet-based tale of intrigue, love, murder, vengeance from beyond the grave and most importantly Canada, beer, donuts and hockey!

As the film begins, the MGM lion is too plastered to growl and only manages a belch, setting the tone for the film. From here, the brothers Bob (Moranis) and Doug McKenzie (Thomas) screen for the audience their film The Mutants of 2051 AD, a ridiculous post-apocalyptic piece in which Bob must defend the earth from the “fleshy headed mutants.” Shortly into Mutants, however, the film breaks, and Bob and Doug try to save the event with their method of getting free beer (it involves a mouse!) and are heckled by the audience at their local theater. As the brothers flee the angry mob, Bob makes the mistake of giving a refund to two crying children, sacrificing their dad’s beer money. At this point, a wonderfully cheesy, blatantly written in the 1980s theme song plays during the opening credits.

Bob and Doug must find a way to buy their ornery father (voice of Mel Blanc) his beer. They decide that by putting a mouse in a beer bottle they will be able to con the beer store into giving them a free case of beer. Instead, they are laughed out of the store and head for Elsinore Brewery, located surprisingly close to the Royal Canadian Institute for the Mentally Insane. Inside, they manage not only to secure ten cases of free beer, but they also end up with jobs. At this point, Bob and Doug evidence themselves to be based on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the bumbling friends of the heiress to the thrown (or in this case brewery). Pamela Elsinore’s father recently died and her uncle, Claude (Paul Dooley), married her mother.

On their second day on the job, the McKenzie brothers begin to stumble onto the mystery of John Elsinore’s death, when they find Pamela’s (Lynne Griffin) birth date and the date of John’s death on a game of “Intergalactic Border Patrol.” Also, the brothers take part in one of the most bizarre hockey games you may ever see. Canadian mental patients in equipment matching the description of Star Wars stormtroopers, manipulated by the keyboard of a mad scientist bent on world domination, in league with Claude Elsinore, Brewmeister Smith (Max Von Sydow).

From here, our bumbling heroes are almost drowned, framed of kidnapping Pam, are institutionalized, have fun with electro-shock therapy and in the end save the world (with the assistance of former NHL Rookie of the Year Jean LaRose) from Brewmeister Smith and Claude Elsinore’s plan of world domination through Elsinore beer. They, however, would not have been able to do this without the help of their dog Hosehead, who prevents the unleashing of drugged beer being unleashed at Oktoberfest.

Oh, and one can’t forget the hilarious closing credits when Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas speak with the audience while totally wasted.

Of course, there is much more in the plot that I just cannot give away. Strange Brew is an absolute riot, bringing in a tiny bit of culture with its plot loosely based on Hamlet and, most gloriously, makes fun of Canada! It utilizes visual gags absolutely fabulously, pokes fun at popular culture and presents one of the greatest (but lesser known and underrated) comic duos in Moranis and Thomas as the McKenzie brothers. So take off, eh, and pick up Strange Brew (now on DVD!), you knob!