Even before filming began on the final installment of the “High School Musical” franchise in 2008, Zac Efron began the arduous task of battling typecasting and, for the most part, he’s achieved that goal. Wanting to avoid the fate of virtually all other heartthrob/pinup boys who came before him, Efron was determined to be taken as a serious actor.
Efron has proven he has what it takes, but for every “Me and Orson Welles,” “Gold,” “Parkland,” or “The Disaster Artist,” he makes two of “Charlie St. Cloud,” “That Awkward Moment,” “New Year’s Eve,” or “Baywatch.”
Efron Pulls Double Duty
For the first time in his career, Efron gets the chance to do comedy and drama in the same film in “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” (“TGBRE”), which he pulls off with room to spare. It’s the fact-based story of John “Chick” Donohue (Efron), an Inwood (Long Island), New York native who executed one of most dangerous, ill-advised, yet unselfish and inspirational stunts of all time.Despite serving as a merchant mariner in the Marines during the Vietnam War from 1958 to 1964, Chick was stationed far from the fray in Japan and the Philippines. Upon returning, he moved back home with his parents and siblings, soon becoming a directionless, mostly unemployed heavy drinker.
Chick often clashes with his sister Christine (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, daughter of Andy Serkis); she’s a vehement antiwar protester who, like many at the time, thought nothing of chastising returning soldiers. As with most Vietnam movies, “TGBRE” underscores the abhorrent treatment that U.S. citizens levied against the men who fought.
Murray as a Bartender
Chick is a regular at Doc Fiddler’s, a bar run by “The Colonel” Lynch (Bill Murray), a slightly cantankerous yet affable man who loves his country and proudly wears his patriotism on his sleeve. In an avuncular manner, The Colonel points out to Chick and his buddies that eight neighborhood boys have already died overseas and maybe they should do something to support four others still in country.Critics Versus Audiences
Known mostly for a string of “gross-out” comedies from the late 1990s (“Dumb and Dumber,” “Kingpin,” “There’s Something About Mary”) that he co-wrote and co-directed with his brother Bobby, Peter Farrelly defied the odds and enraged the entire left-leaning film critic community by winning the 2018 Best Picture Oscar for “Green Book.”
It should come as no surprise to anyone that many of these same critics are lambasting “TGBRE” (currently 39 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), labeling it “old-fashioned,” “flat,” “corny,” and “hackneyed.” Audiences, on the other hand, give an 85 percent approval rating to the movie on the same site.
Is “TGBRE” a great movie? No, it’s not. In the pantheon of Vietnam movies (most of which are excellent), it probably wouldn’t make my own Top 20, but that doesn’t mean it’s a waste of time. If Farrelly and his two co-writers Brian Currie and Pete Jones had settled on the tone, it would have worked better. And the jarring shift from light comedy to often serious drama at the start of the second act doesn’t work as well as it could. At 127 minutes, it’s easily a half hour too long.
“TGBRE” is based on the book (by Chick and Joanna Molloy) of the same name; the 12-minute 2015 short (also titled “TGBRE”) features the real Chick and three of his “beer recipients.” The filmmakers took few artistic liberties; there is, however, no mention of “Arthur Coates,” a Look photographer played by Russell Crowe, in either the book or the short film.
“TGBRE” is exactly what it intends to be: a feel-good, inspirational, fact-based, and patriotic movie that will warm your heart and put a smile on your face.
