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The Greatest Beer Run Ever has a bizarre premise, but it’s even more bizarre that it’s based on a true story.
Starting in Inwood, Northern Manhattan, New York City, in 1967, the Vietnam war has recently begun, and young men are dying in larger numbers than anyone would want.
Enter John ‘Chickie’ Donohue (Zac Efron – Dirty Grandpa), who we first see on a Sunday, sneaking into church at the back, just as congregation is finishing, pretending to everyone that he’s been there the whole time. Then a quick trip to the pub, where the owner, known as The Colonel (Bill Murray – Ghostbusters: Afterlife) says how he’d like to buy the troops a beer, thus giving Chickie the rather daft idea to sneak beer onto a ship and take a load over to Vietnam.
As for getting about town, so to speak, he has to figure out a way to do this, which may just involve the help of the press, where he bumps into a number of them in a bar including Arthur Coates (Russell Crowe – Thor: Love and Thunder). Upon declaring that he thinks the President is doing a good job, Coates and his colleagues soon put him straight on the situation, which is one that Chickie slowly comes to terms worth.
In order to get from A to B, he gets mistaken from being someone rather important which helps his plan to visit a number of friends out in the field, but as one of their colleagues, Busker, exclaims in confusion, “Are you telling me you’re HERE, and you don’t HAVE to be here?!”
It’s a mad premise – how on Earth would someone do this, given that they have no food with them, only beer? As such, this makes The Greatest Beer Run Ever the weirdest road movie ever!
Along the way there’s some elements which are surprises to both us AND Chickie! Plus, events take a turn for him which lead to photographer Coates taking a liking to this man on a mission.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever also has some humour, such as when he claims his parents did the business before they were married, saying they got married in January, and his brother, Gerard was born in June. His Mum tries to ‘explain’, “It was a leap year(!)”. These daft asides – despite jarring with the tragic subject matter – also compliment the occasional tough moments, such as there’s a soldier who states he feels way more at home being in Vietnam, than returning to his ACTUAL home.
Plus, there’s also a moment at the end of the credits regarding one of Chickie’s friends who went out to Vietnam.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever is on Apple TV+ from Friday September 30th, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 126 minutes
Release date: September 30th 2022
Studio: Apple TV+
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1
Rating: 8/10
Director: Peter Farrelly
Producers: David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Andrew Muscato, Jake Myers
Screenplay: Peter Farrelly, Brian Hayes Currie, Pete Jones
Music: Dave Palmer
Cast:
Chickie Donohue: Zac Efron
Coates: Russell Crowe
The Colonel: Bill Murray
Bobby Pappas: Kyle Allen
Rick Duggan: Jake Picking
Kevin McLoone: Will Ropp
Tom Collins: Archie Renaux
Noodle: Christopher Reed Brown
Red: Joe Adler
Brendan: MacGregor Arney
Leary: Hal Cumpston
Mrs. Minogue: Kristin Carey
Mr. Donohue: Paul Adelstein
Mrs. Donohue: Shirleyann Kaladjian
Hieu ‘Oklahoma’: Kevin K Tran
Mr. Minogue: Dennis W Hall
Tommy Minogue: Will Hochman
Christine: Ruby Ashbourne Serkis
Erickson: Omari K Chancellor
Lt. Habershaw: Matt Cook
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.