Reimagined Shakespeare Marathon Movie 10: Strange Brew (1983)

How Canadian can a movie get?  Donuts, beer, the word “eh” used excessively, hockey being a major plotpoint, Canadian highway directions, and Oktoberfest?  The final movie in the Reimagined Shakespeare Marathon is able to check all of these boxes off in the How Canadian Is Your Movie checklist. 

Strange Brew, also known by the longer name of The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew, is a 1983 comedy based on two sources.  The first source is the obvious source of The Great White North, a sketch from the television show SCTV.  The other source is the one that puts the movie into this marathon.  Strange Brew is also based upon the Shakespeare play Hamlet.  The plot of the movie then becomes this.  Bob and Doug get involved in a Hamlet like plot in which the owner of a brewery is killed by his brother, and his spirit aids his daughter in overthrowing the brother who is now in charge.  There’s also a mind controlling beer, but that’s tougher to explain.

The shining spot of the movie is the actors that play Bob and Doug Mackenzie, two Canadian hoser brothers.  Rick Moranis is funny as he always was when he was acting.  Dave Thomas is also very good, getting the mannerisms to be some of the funniest mannerisms I’ve seen for a character in a long time.  Probably since I first saw Strange Brew.  But Rick Moranis is the best part of the movie helping give the majority of the laughs by playing perfectly off of everyone around him.  This might sound like a bunch of jumbled gook coming out of my fingers but would make sense to you if you watched the movie.

Max Von Sydow is in this movie.  There’s not much more to say about that.  He’s not great.  This is no Virgin Spring performance from him.  He’s still menacing and threatening.  That’s all I have to say about that.

For those that don’t know the story of Hamlet, this movie might not seem too much like Hamlet.  But it really is a modern retelling of Hamlet.  The castle of Elsinore has become the brewery.  The spirit of the original owner is the king, and is now in the electronics of the brewery.  Hamlet has become the owner’s daughter.  The minor characters have also been transported.  I don’t know too much about Hamlet, but I can tell from the not-always-reliable Wikipedia that what I’ve stated above is about right.

Also, how great is it that this movie is Canadian?

The weaknesses of this movie, I’d say, are due to when it was made.  It doesn’t have the largest budget because it’s Canadian, but the problem with watching it now is how everything looks to be from the early eighties.  The movie itself looks to be from the early eighties, which it is.  If the movie was slightly more polished, I wouldn’t have this problem because it would look visually better.  But for what it is, this movie is great.

All in all, Strange Brew is a good watch, if only for the two title characters.  The actors hold the movie together with the touches that they bring to it as the characters.  I always like to watch this movie.  You should watch it too, eh, you hoser.