Beer run leaves a flat taste

The Greatest Beer Run Ever (16, 126 mins)

Directed by Peter Farrelly Reviewed by James Croot ★★ 1⁄2

Peter Farrelly’s foray back into film-making since his 2018 awards-seasonconquering Green Book is another 1960s-set, true-life tale.

However, this one’s sensibility has far more in common with his back catalogue of cringe comedies like Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin and Me, Myself and Irene than it does with the more sober and measured look at AfricanAmerican pianist Don Shirley and Italian-American bouncer and later actor Frank ‘‘Tony Lip’’ Vallelonga.

This, at times, tries to evoke the sensibilities of The Quiet American or Rescue Dawn with its depiction of a chaotic war and one man’s odyssey within it.

But it feels more like Good Morning, Vietnam or Forrest Gump with its tonal mix of the knockabout and the reflective.

Recently debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival and based on the 2017 book of the same name by Joanna Molloy and John ‘‘Chickie’’ Donohue, it details the amazing adventure Donohue went on in 1967 after the notoriously feckless US Marine Corps veteran and merchant seaman somewhat crazily accepted a challenge.

Increasingly dispirited by the toll this seemingly pointless war was having on their friends and family as more of their boys had their return journeys permanently cancelled, those buddies left behind wanted to ensure the young men fighting knew their efforts were appreciated. And what better way, they thought, than to show up with a few brewskis?

But now that he’s somewhat reticently committed to the project,

Chickie (a luxuriously moustached Zac Efron) will have to use all his charm, connections and chutzpah to make his way across the country with his sports bag – and his life – intact.

Essentially a series of set pieces, The Greatest Beer Run Ever certainly is not without its crowdpleasing moments (an ongoing con revolving around Chickie working for the CIA certainly raises smiles).

However, tonal shifts in the script by Brian Hayes Currie (Green Book) and Pete Jones (Hall Pass) jar rather than gel.

The lamentations and lessons about the reality and futility of war, especially those handed out by Russell Crowe’s photographer Arthur Coates to the younger man, are undermined by Chickie’s unfailing optimism that he can fulfil his ‘‘mission’’. Worse still is the seemingly endless supply of alcohol Chickie has in his magic duffel – a bag that doesn’t seem to change weight, regardless of where we are in the story. (In fact, the only nod to reality here is that the beer is noted as being less than cold on his arrival at one destination.)

Greatest Beer Run was originally mooted to be shot on either side of the Tasman, before the producers eventually decided on Thailand and New Jersey.

Despite a fizzy Efron and appearances from Crowe and Bill Murray (that really amount to little more than extended cameos), this film’s desire to be earnest and endearingly jocular has a resulted in a delivery that feels – and tastes – decidedly flat.