movie review the greatest beer run ever

The Greatest Beer Run Ever

Peter Farrelly ’s glib and superficial “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” has the nerve to give several of its characters speeches about how war is nothing like what we see on television or in movies, embedded in a movie that’s about as a realistic about combat, trauma, and death as a high school play. It’s not just a bad movie—those are common enough to be dismissible—but a movie that I found grossly condescending and manipulative, a dramedy that’s so deeply unconcerned with its actual true story other than how it can be crafted to emotionally impact an audience. A lot of critics came down hard on “ Green Book ,” an admittedly inferior Best Picture winner, and I started to wonder if this film wasn’t made just so people would be nicer to Farrelly’s last movie by comparison.

Based on the book by Joanna Molloy and John “Chickie” Donohue, “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” tells the latter’s true story of a misguided delivery to an active international conflict, where he learned, “Yes, Vietnam was bad.” We meet Chickie (a miscast Zac Efron ) in New York City in 1967, aimless enough that his dad gives him a hard time for sleeping in and lacking motivation. He spends most of his time at the bar with his buddies, even as they watch friends go off to Vietnam and never come home again. When one of his closest allies goes M.I.A., Chickie has a crazy idea one drunken evening—what if he brought all of his buddies a beer? Just to show them that NYC still loves them? Egged on by fellow barmates, including a proprietor played by a speechifying Bill Murray , Chickie decides to get on a cargo ship headed to ‘Nam to find the guys. All he has to do is spend two months on a ship, find people he knows in a large country in the middle of a war, give them some encouraging suds, and find his way home again. No problem, right?

Chickie fights with his sister ( Ruby Ashbourne Serkis ) over the at-home response to the war, arguing that protests diminish the sacrifice of the men on the ground. And he says directly to press members he meets in Vietnam, including one played by Russell Crowe named Arthur Coates, that they’re only reporting on the bad stuff from the war. He’s there to bring some light to a dark situation, and to remind the boys that they’re supported. Of course, anyone who’s seen a movie or read a book understands that Chickie is going to learn a harsh lesson about the truth of actual war while he’s on his beer run, and here’s where Farrelly’s limited range as a filmmaker becomes a significant problem.

Someone says about Chickie, “Every once in a while, you run into a guy who’s too dumb to get killed.” It’s meant to be a humorous line, but it reveals the foundational flaw of “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” in that Chickie is written and played poorly. He needs to be almost a Hal Ashby character, someone pushed through the world in a way that reflects the kind of ignorance that often keeps people alive, but he’s sketched instead as a working-class hero, a heartfelt guy who’s more courageous than stupid. That’s a tough sell. There’s a vastly superior version of this film that’s more comfortable mocking Chickie’s naïveté instead of using it for heartfelt speeches about dying friends.

The script here by Farrelly, Brian Currie, and Pete Jones seems almost afraid to judge Chickie, which gives the movie no redemption arc at all. Sure, it goes through the motions of Chickie discovering that war really is Hell, but it’s all so superficially rendered that it never feels like an actual journey. And one can’t shake how Chickie is kind of an entitled jerk. The film wants to present him as a wide-eyed optimist who discovers the truth, but he’s constantly putting people in harm’s way in a manner that makes one want to punch him in the face instead of root for him. He’s just a wildly misjudged character on every level. And don’t get me started on how the film uses a Vietnamese local who befriends Chickie only to be dispatched in a way to push the audience’s buttons. The actual country and people who lived, fought, and died there are only interesting in how they shape the growth of a dumb kid from NYC. Ugh.

The only one who gets out of this cinematic conflict unscathed is Crowe, who feels like he walked in from the set of a much more interesting movie about journalism. He conveys a believable curiosity in Chickie, someone who he tries to teach and protect, but Farrelly’s film doesn’t give him nearly enough screen time to drag the movie into something more believable. He’s too content with half-assed jokes and war drama, never finding nearly enough of either to justify the interminable 126-minute runtime of this film, one that legitimately felt longer than anything I’ve seen this year. They should have called it “The Longest Beer Run Ever,” but that would require something this movie is offensively uninterested in delivering: honesty.

On Apple TV+ today.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Zac Efron as John 'Chickie' Donohue
Kyle Allen as Bobby Pappas
Russell Crowe as Arthur Coates
Bill Murray as The Colonel
Jake Picking as Rick Duggan
Will Ropp as Kevin McLoone
Archie Renaux as Tom Collins
Ruby Ashbourne Serkis as Christine
Will Hochman as Tommy Minogue
Christopher Reed Brown as Noodle
Kevin Tran as Hieu 'Oklahoma'
Brian Hayes Currie
Peter Farrelly
Dave Palmer
Patrick J. Don Vito

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‘The Greatest Beer Run Ever’ Review: Vietnam on the Rocks

Zac Efron plays a man trying to deliver brewskis to his Vietnam War buddies in Peter Farrelly’s film.

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By Amy Nicholson

In the early winter of 1968, the 26-year-old civilian Chickie Donohue arrived in Vietnam with a duffel bag of brewskis and an errand that could be reasonably called idiotic, patronizing, suicidal — and, even, as this shaggily appealing comedy insists, “The Greatest Beer Run Ever.” Donohue (Zac Efron) has been double dog dared by his drinking buddies back home in Inwood, then a working-class Irish neighborhood in Manhattan, to hand-deliver a beer to four of their buddies serving in the war. “A sudsy thank you card!” Donohue exclaims, delighted by his own moxie. His farcical mission is mostly true and just the sort of crowd-pleaser about lunkhead enlightenment that intoxicates the director Peter Farrelly in the wake of his Oscar for “Green Book.”

Farrelly and his co-writers, Brian Currie and Pete Jones, see the national id reflected in Donohue’s patriotic, ill-reasoned rationale for his quest, which is clearly a few cans short of a, you know. To this layabout slacker, his blustering pals and their jingoistic barkeep, the Colonel (Bill Murray, near-invisible under a gruff flattop), a pull-tab of domestic ale supports the troops by reminding the fighters abroad that America reigns supreme. For a while, Farrelly feigns to agree; the film starts like a Super Bowl commercial and ends like a hangover.

When Donohue sets sail for Saigon, public opinion supports the conflict, an innocence Efron embodies by hitchhiking toward the front with a schmucky grin affixed like a shield. (Grunts one soldier, “Every once in a while, you run into a guy who’s too dumb to get killed.”) But by the time Donohue returns home, the Tet offensive — which he witnesses — will have turned the majority of Americans against the war, including him. After all, if a dingbat like him is able to bluff his way past officers to get to the battlefield, things are not under control.

The script is grounded in Donohue’s memoir of the same name (written with J.T. Molloy) and captures his bravado. (“I was a four-star general when it came to slinging BS,” he writes.) While the film makes his onscreen portrayal more oblivious, it backs his claim to have seen a United States tank blow a hole in the wall of its own embassy, only to later blame the blast on the Viet Cong.

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The Greatest Beer Run Ever Reviews

In The Greatest Beer Run Ever, [war] sort of is made for television. The filmmakers try to have their PBR-flavored cake and eat it too—and that just doesn’t fly in a movie about the lies and deception of mass murder that was Vietnam.

Full Review | Jul 16, 2024

Like the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer that it shills, The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a watered-down, unwelcome assault on the senses, unfit for consumption by anyone with working taste buds.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 3, 2024

In its two-hour runtime, the drama makes you chuckle and cry in equal measure, and all credits go to the writers for the characterisation of the protagonist, and to Zac Efron and Russell Crowe’s performances.

Full Review | Nov 20, 2023

Never mind that the Pabst Blue Ribbon Chickie carries throughout The Greatest Beer Run Ever has got to be the warmest in history. It symbolizes the character’s resolve and pride in what he believes is a nice gesture of goodwill.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Farrelly's screenplays present characters as surface-level and Efron doesn't have the dramatic range to try and create a character out of an archetype.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 16, 2023

Further proof that Farrelly did better, more charming work when he ballasted his soft side with raunch.

Full Review | May 2, 2023

It’ll get you acquainted with a guy who didn’t think impossible was a thing. It’s a detached joy to watch a movie where a character does something you would never dare do, and later find out that it really happened.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 9, 2023

The Greatest Beer Run Ever gets so close to being a good movie but is held back by weak dialogue and never quite just saying what it means to be saying about war, masculinity, politics, or otherwise.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Jan 4, 2023

…has a jarring mix of tones to play with as it fuses comic macho braggadocio with the fog of war, but Peter Farrelly’s the right man for the job and just about pulls it off…

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2023

Ultimately, The Greatest Beer Run Ever leaves a bit of a bad taste in your mouth. It doesn’t have anything meaningful to say about the war and offers a surface-level exploration of the character of Chickie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 19, 2022

What an unbelievable story, but truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction. Efron displays such an earnest quality that makes the character’s inherent foolishness endearing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 3, 2022

Farrelly seems to have thought Beer Run would float along on its frothy premise, punctuated by the occasional explosion of wartime violence. Instead, the film stumbles tipsily along, from lamp post to lamp post, uncertain of its way home.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 26, 2022

[It's] is fueled equally by its far-fetched silliness and its growing sense of sadness -- if not outrage -- over the war’s toll. Toss in a couple of fine supporting performances... and you’ve got a film that will stand up under repeated viewings.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Oct 20, 2022

Imagine watching Born on the Fourth of July without the drama and Good Morning, Vietnam with the comedy and that roughly sums up this poorly calculated tale.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 16, 2022

It's sort of meandering and well-meaning, but the tone never quite settled on what it's supposed to be.

Full Review | Oct 14, 2022

Tonally shifty, overlong, repetitive and as history simplistic, but well-made and an interesting effort to reach across the aisle from the socially liberal to the socially conservative.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 13, 2022

Every potential moment of clarity is interrupted by a knee-jerk swerve to the inane, as if Farrelly is uncomfortable with anything resembling discomfort or ambiguity. It’s all very well-intentioned and good-natured, but to what end?

Full Review | Oct 13, 2022

Efron is very good in this movie that is undecided as to whether or not it is a comedy or a drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Oct 11, 2022

In view of the absurd setting and the talent gathered, one expected more.

Full Review | Oct 11, 2022

While Murray and Crowe are fine in their respective roles, it's Efron who truly carries The Greatest Beer Run Ever. His transition from happy-go-lucky beer delivery boy to a man who has witnessed the horrors of war is masterfully handled.

Full Review | Oct 7, 2022

Entertainment
<i>The Greatest Beer Run Ever</i> Tells the True Story of One Truly Clueless Guy

The Greatest Beer Run Ever Tells the True Story of One Truly Clueless Guy

F ormer Disney Channel heartthrob and song-and-dance man extraordinaire Zac Efron should be a much bigger star than he is, though maybe it’s better this way: those of us who love him can be happy whenever he shows up, without having to worry about Efron overkill. In Peter Farrelly’s Greatest Beer Run Ever, Efron plays Chickie Donohue, a young Merchant Mariner from the Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood who, circa 1967, treks to Saigon and beyond to deliver cans of American beer to his neighborhood buddies fighting in the Vietnam War. The ludicrousness of the journey is the whole point: Chickie, along with his pals at home, thinks his soldier friends are fighting for a noble cause. That has sparked some friction with his anti-war-protester sister (played by Ruby Ashbourne Serkis); like plenty of people at the time, Chickie hasn’t grasped that being anti-war doesn’t necessarily mean you’re anti-soldier, and he feels the need to step up and show his support for his buddies in a big way. So the local bartender known as the Colonel (Bill Murray) loads up a duffel bag with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Chickie signs up for a merchant ship headed for Vietnam, talking his way through war zones with guileless charm.

It all sounds just crazy enough to be a true story, and basically, it is. There was a real-life John “Chickie” Donohue who made such a run, and four of the buddies to whom he delivered warm brewskis survived the war—reportedly, the guys still get together regularly for dinner. But just because a movie is based on a true story doesn’t mean you have to fully buy it: The Greatest Beer Run Ever , now on Apple TV+, isn’t terrible, and it’s hardly great. But the worst thing you can say about it is that it’s almost as dreamily clueless as its hapless hero is. On the one hand, Chickie is so well-intentioned that it’s hard not to feel warmly toward him. On the other, in stupidly planning one of his surprise visits, he nearly gets one of his buddies killed. You begin to think this guy is really sort of a jerk.

But then, it’s Zac Efron we’re talking about. The Greatest Beer Run might have been a total disaster with any other star, but Efron—sporting a Tom Selleck-style mustache and looking perfectly affable in his dorky plaid shirts—manages to keep the movie on track with sheer laid-back charisma. One of the movie’s recurring jokes is Chickie’s ability to slip into heavily restricted war zones because the Army higher-ups think he’s CIA. (It must be those dorky plaid shirts.) It’s a joke until it’s not—at one point he runs afoul of a real CIA agent who’s just done something nefarious, and that endangers Chickie’s life. But of course, he escapes, and manages to keep delivering those beers. His dauntless bonhomie also wins over a crusty war correspondent, Russell Crowe’s Coates. And eventually, he becomes hip to the grim reality of this particular war and its ruthlessness. “This ain’t a war no more,” he tells Coates, wide-eyed as a lemur. “It’s mass murder.” Coates replies solemnly, “That’s what war is, Chickie. It’s one giant crime scene.”

Cornpone like that abounds in The Greatest Beer Run. (The script is by Farrelly, Pete Jones, and Brian Hayes Currie.) Still, to hold this movie up as any kind of mortal sin against filmmaking is both silly and unfair. Farrelly made his name directing open-hearted, if crude, comedies with his brother, Bobby Farrelly, pictures like Dumb & Dumber and There’s Something About Mary. In 2018, he attracted a great deal of ire with Green Book, another movie based on a true story, that of a trip taken by jazz pianist and intellectual Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali ) with his white bodyguard Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) through the Jim Crow-era South. The movie won three Oscars—Best Original Screenplay, Best Picture and, for Ali’s performance, Best Supporting Actor—though by the time the awards were given, the film had already angered many viewers over what they saw as its racist overtones. One claim was that Farrelly had failed to consult with Shirley’s surviving relatives and had basically highjacked a Black man’s story for his own cheerful aims, with the goal of making white folks feel good about themselves.

There’s some validity to the idea that Green Book ’s casual feel-goodism could be read as nostalgia for the good old days of rigid Black-and-white divisions. But that doesn’t track with Farrelly’s past work: the movies he made with his brother used crass humor to locate the best qualities in human beings. If his approach in Green Book was misguided , it’s harder to make the case that it was an act of racist calculation. The Greatest Beer Run Ever betrays a similar naivete. Farrelly’s great sin here is that he just wants to tell a nice story about a guy who did a crazy thing and learned some valuable lessons in the process. It doesn’t fully work, but it’s not a crime against humanity. And Efron carries the whole thing ably on his shoulders. His Chickie is a goofball loser at the beginning and a believably conscientious citizen by the end—the earnestness in Efron’s eyes guarantees it. “Less drinkin’, more thinkin’,” is his new ambition, as he tells his sister. It’s all totally absurd. But plenty of real-life people have done stupider things and lived to tell the tale.

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Review: In the brewmance ‘The Greatest Beer Run Ever,’ Zac Efron brings the boys a cold one

A young man offers beers to two military policemen.

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For his follow-up feature to the Oscar-winning 2018 film “Green Book,” director Peter Farrelly has turned to a genial true story from the Vietnam War. “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” isn’t your typical Vietnam film. Based on a wild, wildly improbable tale, it hews closer to comedy than gritty war drama — it’s Nam-com, if you will. But over the course of the film, it evolves from lark to dark as the protagonist learns the brutal reality of war during his harrowing journey delivering cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon to his pals.

Farrelly (known mostly for his comic collaborations with his brother Bobby), along with Pete Jones and Brian Hayes Currie, adapted the book “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” by John “Chick” Donohue and J.T. Molloy. Zac Efron stars as Chickie Donohue, an unmotivated good-time guy from Inwood, Manhattan, who just can’t stand that his buddies from the neighborhood keep getting killed in the war. Yet he’s also mad at the news media for showing only the negative and doesn’t understand why his sister keeps attending war protests. Efron’s version of Chickie is an easily swayed naif, which is how one thing leads to another.

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When his ardently patriotic local bartender, the Colonel (Bill Murray), expresses his desire to bring the boys a beer, Chickie announces he’s going to do it, despite everyone’s belief that he’ll blow it off like he does everything. But things seem strangely aligned to go Chickie’s way. He’s a merchant marine, and it just so happens that a ship full of ammo bound for Saigon is short a crew member. So he boards with a duffel full of PBR and a head full of … well, absolutely nothing. Chickie has no plan, but then again, things are lining up to make sure that he achieves his harebrained mission.

Through a combination of dumb luck, charm, naivete, street smarts and good old American friendliness — and the fact that everyone thinks he’s CIA — Chickie manages to scam his way onto military planes and choppers. Incredibly, he makes his way around the country to deliver beer to four of the boys from the ’hood and gets caught in the Tet Offensive while he’s at it. Although it may seem he’s having a Forrest Gump adventure, when it comes to these facts, at least, there’s no creative license taken. Some stories are just stranger than fiction.

The first half is stilted and smirky, with Farrelly’s filmmaking serviceable at best, some of the motivation very rushed. But as Chickie finds his footing, so does the film, falling in step with the young man as he realizes that this trip is much more than a dare. What starts out light and a bit silly takes on a growing poignance with each PBR cracked, each “see ya back in the neighborhood.” So too does Farrelly’s aesthetic evolve, moving from a brightly lighted, almost artificial-looking style, to a darker, grittier and more fluid approach as things prove to be more serious. Russell Crowe offers some gravitas as a war correspondent who takes Chickie under his wing for a bit.

The beer run turns into a transformative experience as Chickie takes in the chaos, violence and loss of war, but more important, as he sees the reality of government lies and propaganda firsthand. Though the messaging is a bit flat-footed, it’s nonetheless effective and clearly deeply felt, and it brings a sense of significance to this otherwise wacky real-life story, one that really does have to be seen to be believed.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'The Greatest Beer Run Ever'

Rated: R, for language and some war violence Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes Playing: Starts Sept. 30 in general release; also streaming on Apple TV+

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Cast & crew
User reviews

The Greatest Beer Run Ever

A man's story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. A man's story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. A man's story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam.

Peter Farrelly
Brian Hayes Currie
Russell Crowe
Jake Picking
145 User reviews
66 Critic reviews
39 Metascore
1 nomination

Top cast 84

Chickie Donohue

Arthur Coates

Rick Duggan

Bobby Pappas

Tom Collins

Kevin McLoone

Tommy Minogue

Lt. Habershaw

Hieu 'Oklahoma'

Christine Donohue

The Colonel

Mrs. Minogue

Mr. Donohue

Mrs. Donohue

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Trivia Based on the book of the same name. A memoir written by John "Chick" Donohue and J.T. Molloy about Donohue's eight weeks in Vietnam delivering beer to his friends and other soldiers in combat.
Goofs "Coates is seen wearing a kaffiyeh (a traditional Arab head scarf) around his neck. The kaffiyeh did not become a fashion accessory among westerners until the 1980s." Coatses is a war correspondent, so he would have traveled all over the world, and could have well reported from the Middle East, where he could have easily acquired a kaffiyeh.

Chickie Donohue : Don't be dumb, Arthur. This ain't a war no more. It's mass murder.

Coates : That's what war is, Chick. It's one giant crime scene.

Crazy credits SPOILER: at the end of the movie, we find out what happened to Tommy Minogue. The info reads as follows: "Tommy Minogue willingly sacrificed his life to save the lives of his commanding officer and the soldiers in his company. There is a grass roots effort to award him the medal of honor."
Connections Featured in Amanda the Jedi Show: This Movie was Shockingly Terrible - Best and Worst of TIFF 2022 (2022)
Soundtracks Soul Finger Written by Jimmy King , Ben Cauley , James Alexander , Ronnie Caldwell , Carl Cunningham , Phalon R. Jones Jr. Performed by The Bar-Kays Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp. By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User reviews 145

That_Movie_Watcher
Sep 25, 2022
How long is The Greatest Beer Run Ever? Powered by Alexa
September 30, 2022 (United States)
United States
Operación cerveza
Bangkok, Thailand
Living Films
Skydance Media
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$40,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 6 minutes
Dolby Digital

More to explore

The Greatest Beer Run Ever Wastes a Very Good Zac Efron

It’s hard to tell if The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a comedy that wants to be a drama or a drama that wants to be a comedy. Of course, a film can be both. This one, alas, is neither. The tale of John “Chickie” Donohue, an Inwood, New York, resident who, in late 1967, decided to take a duffel bag full of beer to his buddies serving in Vietnam, Peter Farrelly’s film is based on a wild true story — this is both the most fascinating thing about the picture and its biggest problem. The filmmakers seem so impressed with the fact that all this really happened that they haven’t done the work necessary onscreen to convince us that something like this could really happen.

We see Chickie (Zac Efron) in the film’s early scenes hanging out at his local Irish bar where the war in Vietnam occasionally shows up as an upsetting news item. “Bringing dead soldiers, guys with no arms or legs, into our living rooms is not helping no one,” says the bar’s gruff owner, a veteran called the Colonel (Bill Murray actually playing someone other than himself this time). “If they had showed the Battle of the Bulge on TV, we’d have quit after three days.” Even though several of Chickie’s friends are serving abroad, his understanding of the war is basic and unquestioning; at one point, he gets into a fight with a group of protesters (among them, his sister) not because of any firmly held beliefs but because he’s just learned that a good friend has been declared missing in action and doesn’t want to believe his friend may have died in vain.

Chickie has all the surface qualities of a potentially interesting and relatable character, but the script, by Farrelly, Brian Currie, and Pete Jones, keeps everything strictly at the level of dialogue. “There’s a lot of things you say you’ll do but you never get around to doing,” one of Chickie’s pals tells him. But aside from one scene where he wakes up late for church, we never really get a sense of Chickie as a layabout or an unreliable dullard. Why does this matter? Because the film presents Chickie as having taken on this absurd challenge partly to show everybody that he isn’t useless and that he can, in fact, follow through on a promise. If the movie doesn’t care about its own protagonist’s motivations, what hope does the audience have? What are we even doing here, guy?

All that painfully expository dialogue probably looked great on the page to the agency readers and studio execs who skimmed through the script on its way to production, but at some point, somebody should probably have considered turning it into an actual movie. It’s not just the haphazard writing but the fact that Farrelly can’t seem to decide how to play any of it. A merchant mariner, Chickie shows up at the seafarers union office one afternoon and casually asks if any ships are departing for Vietnam, convinced that none will be. Sure enough, one is set to leave that evening. “But I doubt they need an oiler this late in the game,” he mutters, clearly hoping to be spared an actual trip to war-torn Southeast Asia. “Hey, you’re in luck!” Once in Saigon, Chickie realizes that “tourist” is an informal code among the military for “CIA,” so he rides that con for a while. This is the stuff of high-concept comedy — so easy, so nonchalant. Did it really happen this way? Who the hell knows? What matters is that it rings false onscreen, like an elaborate joke without a punch line.

As The Greatest Beer Run Ever proceeds, an idea does come into view, albeit foggily. One suspects that Farrelly wanted the film to start in one register and then move into another — a simplistic comic-surreal quest that slowly turns into a grim, complicated journey of disillusionment and self-discovery — so that the movie itself might, in a way, grow with Chickie. He will be transformed by what he sees in Vietnam, and the naïveté of the early scenes will be demolished as our hero inadvertently eases his way into hell. That is an intriguing structural concept, but the film loses the thread so early that it’s hard to appreciate the idea on any level beyond the theoretical. Because at some point someone has to commit to what’s happening onscreen to give the audience something to grasp onto, something to care about — an emotional engine, if you will.

Efron does come close, however. Chickie is a good part for him, and coming on the heels of this past May’s abysmal Firestarter , which the actor essentially walked through, The Greatest Beer Run Ever is welcome proof that he can run with the right material. Efron’s great power is his soulful imperturbability: That placid face of his can speak to ignorance and haziness, as well as bewilderment, while sometimes hinting at an inner vulnerability. So he does bring some dimension to the character, even as the picture fails to live up to his performance. And when nobody’s talking, The Greatest Beer Run Ever manages to muster some power. Late in the film, Chickie finds himself on a desolate road, wordlessly trying to befriend a young Vietnamese girl who looks at him in terror and pain. It’s a quietly eloquent moment of recognition and disappointment — the kind that reminds you of what much of the rest of the movie so sorely lacks.

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The Greatest Beer Run Ever Review: Unexpectedly Good

Apple TV+ is really kicking things up a notch with their original film lineup. Their latest, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, is a simple yet engaging adventure movie. Based on a true story, the Zac Efron starring film has a very outrageous premise, told through a simplistic lens. Sometimes to the detriment of the messages, it’s trying to convey. But it’s very immersive as you totally buy into the protagonist’s motivations. Keep reading for this non-spoiler The Greatest Beer Run review.

What Is The Greatest Beer Run Ever, About?

The movie intercuts this simple idea with larger discussions of the war in Vietnam. Many characters throughout the movie discuss the ethics, morality, and motivations behind this war. And it’s all done from the perspective of Chickie, as he goes on this mission, without fully understanding the weight of his plans. Chickie starts off very supportive of the war effort, getting into fights with people who contradict or question it.

Confronting the realities of war, politics, and the plight of his friends is his journey through the story. Screenwriters Brian Hayes Currie, Pete Jones, and director Peter Farrelly do a great job of infusing the story with a lot of humor and heart. While Chickie’s childish perception of war is laughable, there are moments when his realizations are genuinely heartfelt and heartbreaking. Chickie is so clueless in his understanding, that even when faced with reality, he still struggles to completely grasp what’s happening around him. Even when he’s running for his life through a barrage of bullets in No Man’s Land.

Farrelly’s direction also keeps the focus of the story on Chickie and shows this war from his perspective. A lesser director might take the opportunity to show more of the cinematic action of the war. But Farrelly prioritizes the audience’s experience of this war through Chickie’s eyes, which has more impact. And allows him to tell a more effective story.

One of my complaints about The Greatest Beer Run Ever is its overall theme of war. Especially, the Vietnam war. There are times when the movie gets kind of heavy-handed with its anti-war message. There are long and drawn-out discussions that basically just equate to war = wrong. Even the character played by Russell Crowe has a bit of an on-the-nose dialogue at the end about how all war is mass murder. But at the same time, the very real-world issues behind the Vietnam War feels glossed over. The movie is almost like a PSA where the audience is meant to ‘learn’ from the mistakes of America during that time. Through Chickie’s eyes.

But one can almost excuse this obviousness due to how Chickie is. Given his naivety about the whole situation, it’s like he has to have everything spoon-fed to him. The complexities of imperialism and a nation’s politics is something he struggles with, so it has to be spelled out for him. Based on that, I can kind of forgive these more, clunky elements of the screenplay.

Movie Review Conclusion

The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a surprisingly well-done movie about the best of intentions. About how supporting ones you care about means looking at the larger picture. Efron is wonderfully vulnerable and sweet, without becoming a Forrest Gump-like caricature. The supporting cast (that includes Bill Murray, for some reason) is excellent in moving the story forward and motivating Chickie’s actions that much more. While it’s not too deep or meaningful, The Greatest Beer Run Ever is still a great one-time watch.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Acting - 7/10 7/10
Cinematography/Visual Effects - 8/10 8/10
Plot/Screenplay - 6/10 6/10
Setting/Theme - 7/10 7/10
Watchability - 8/10 8/10
Rewatchability - 6/10 6/10

User Review

The Greatest Beer Run Ever review discusses how it’s a one-time watch that over simplifies the Vietnam War from the eyes of a man-child.

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The Greatest Beer Run Ever Review

30 Sep 2022

The Greatest Beer Run Ever

“Dumbest thing I ever heard,” is how one character describes the big plan behind The Greatest Beer Run Ever . It seems appropriate that the filmmaker behind it all is something of an expert in the dumb field: Peter Farrelly , the co-director of Dumb And Dumber , among other goofy, gross-out ’90s comedies. But this is late-period Farrelly. Like his Oscar-winning 2018 dramedy Green Book , we find the filmmaker retaining some level of humour, but trousering the dick jokes in favour of a real-life tale and more serious subject matter.

It’s certainly a peach of a true story. Merchant sailor Chickie ( Zac Efron ) is not quite as dumb as Jim Carrey’s Lloyd or Jeff Daniels’ Harry, but he’s not far off: a hothead who starts fights at peace rallies, with a heart in the right place but a head largely full of mush. It doesn’t seem out of character, then, that he might embark on a deeply ill-advised mission — spurred on by Bill Murray ’s thick-accented barman — to hitch a ride on an ammo ship and deliver some cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon to his buddies serving in the military.

The responses to this straightforwardly stupid idea range from incredulity to amazement to a polite explanation that beer is actually already widely available in Vietnam. But Efron sells it nicely, well-cast as a likeable lughead and skilled at summoning an assortment of gormless expressions. Driven only by a black-and-white view of the world and a (frat)boyish optimism, he is, as one character describes him, “too dumb to get killed”.

Enjoyable company for a couple of hours, warmly presented and confidently shot.

This is a war film in which the protagonist is a hapless observer rather than active participant, so it takes on a strange tone — like Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit , constantly in danger of trivialising something deadly serious. Chickie has a thoughtless approach to the war, a stance that softens when he sees the ugly truths, but his limited perspective somewhat limits the scope of the filmmaking. “This isn’t a war — it’s a massacre!” is Chickie’s biggest — and most unoriginal — revelation.

Despite some hard truths served up by Russell Crowe ’s photojournalist, the film offers few fresh ideas that a thousand ’Nam movies haven’t already provided. The script, co-written by Farrelly, Brian Currie and Pete Jones, seems to share the character’s lack of curiosity about the causes or complexities of the war, except to make the blunt point that there are no good guys or bad guys. And like many American films set during this war, it relegates the Vietnamese point of view to tiny supporting roles.

If the film struggles to thread the needle between the battling tones or rise above surface-level scrutiny, it is at least enjoyable company for a couple of hours, warmly presented and confidently shot (when the Tet Offensive explodes into Saigon, you feel the danger). It’s a little like its protagonist: slightly misguided, but ultimately hard to resent.

‘The Greatest Beer Run Ever’: Zac Efron takes Pabst to Vietnam, brings home heavy-handed messages

Wartime story, while well-intentioned, just feels forced..

Chickie (Zac Efron) travels from Manhattan to Vietnam in 1967 to deliver Pabst Blue Ribbon to his buddies in “The Greatest Beer Run Ever.”

When you see Zac Efron’s name connected to a movie called “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” you might well think this is going to be another Bro Comedy in the vein of the “Neighbors” films or “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,” but this is actually a Vietnam movie based on a strange and true story. And while the movie-star-handsome Efron again proves to be a reliable actor capable of handling comedy and drama within the same role, this plays out like a greatest-hits collection of scenes from better Vietnam movies, including “Casualties of War,” “Good Morning, Vietnam” and “The Deer Hunter.”

The intentions and performances are irrefutably sincere and noble. The execution almost always feels a little bit forced and a little bit false.

Director Peter Farrelly’s first film since the Academy Award-winning “Green Book” has a number of surface similarities to that picture, in that it’s a period-piece story inspired by true events, focusing on a conservative, working-class New York lunk who embarks on a journey into new territory and has his eyes opened to social injustice. Zac Efron’s Chickie Donahue is a Merchant Marine who lives in the blue-collar Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood in 1967, spending his nights pounding drinks at Doc Fiddler’s, the local pub run by the Colonel (Bill Murray), who still sports a flat-top from his fighting days in World War II and somberly intones that every one of the local lads fighting in Vietnam is a damn hero, and the media should stop showing the horrors of war on the TV every night.

Chickie’s sister Christine (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) has joined up with the local protesters gathering the park and chanting, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today!” but Chickie’s views align with the Colonel’s: This is a just war worth fighting, and his buddies from the neighborhood are risking their lives in a noble effort to stop the spread of Communism. Fueled by a few too many drinks one night, Chickie pledges to take a duffel bag filled with cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and deliver beers to a bunch of the guys in Vietnam, as a way of showing support.

Wait, what? It’s just about the dumbest idea anyone’s ever heard of — a point that’s made throughout the movie — but the real-life Chickie actually did undertake this seemingly suicidal mission (though “The Greatest Beer Run” condenses a four-month odyssey into less than a week). With director Farrelly working in needle drops to pop/rock tunes such as the Jefferson Airplane’s “Today,” the Hombres’ “Let It All Hang Out” and The Association’s “Cherish” (which is to this movie what “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” was to “The Deer Hunter”), Chickie hitches a ride on a cargo ship, arrives in Saigon and starts asking around for his buddies, who are stationed in various locales miles apart. That’s about the extent of Chickie’s plan, but he keeps on stumbling into dumb luck, in large part because he’s mistaken for a CIA operative, and his denials only make it seem more likely he’s a spook.

One of the problems with “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” is Chickie’s buddies are virtually indistinguishable. They’re all good guys (who seem to speak with Boston accents, even though they’re from New York) who are initially shocked and more than a little ticked off that Chickie has just shown up unannounced, putting himself and them at risk — but they eventually enjoy a beer or two with their old pal, give him a hug and tell him to say hello to everyone back home. (Chickie’s duffel bag holds a seemingly endless supply of beers. Not since Jesus fed the multitudes with only a few loaves and fishes …)

Russell Crowe is magnificent as a war correspondent sharing wisdom with Chickie.

“Beer Run” introduces a number of stock characters, including a friendly local police officer (Kevin K. Tran) Chickie dubs “Oklahoma” because that’s the officer’s favorite movie; a clueless military bureaucrat (Matt Cook) who keeps helping out Chickie in the hopes Chickie will put in a good word for him with the CIA, and a grizzled war correspondent (Russell Crowe), who takes a liking to Chickie and doles out valuable lessons, e.g., war is hell, and the most important battle of all is on the public relations front. (Crowe is magnificent in a too-small role.) By the time Chickie is ready to hand out the last, what must be very warm beer, he’s not so sure this war is a good idea after all. Surprise! To no one.

“The Greatest Beer Run” has some impressively staged battle sequences, fine performances from Efron and the supporting cast, a handful of darkly funny moments and a few decent dramatic punches. Time and again, though, the messages are pounded home in heavy-handed fashion — never more so than when Chickie returns home, out of beer but filled with new wisdom.

Raquell Bussell (who did not want her face shown), mother of Phillip Mitchell, holds a photo of Mitchell when he was one year old as she poses for a photographer in her living room in the Garfield Park neighborhood, Thursday, June 12, 2024. Mitchell, 15, was shot and killed in the 7100 block of South King Drive in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood Wednesday afternoon when two people approached him, according to a police report. Bussell said her son loved to rap and was a member of a Double Dutch club. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Parents' guide to, the greatest beer run ever.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever Movie: Poster

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 4 Reviews
Kids Say 2 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Drinking, violence, few laughs in fact-based Vietnam story.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 15+?

Guns and shooting on battlefields. Characters are shot at. Explosions. Person sh

Frequent use of "f--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "dumbs--t," "bats--t," "p---y," "t-t

Pabst Blue Ribbon is the beer of choice: It's shown throughout the movie, labels

Alcohol and drinking are part of the story; characters regularly hang out in bar

Brief sexual reference.

Any Positive Content?

Very earnestly supports the troops and those who serve while also asserting that

Chickie's plan isn't the most brilliant or memorable -- or even useful -- thing

Revolves almost entirely around White men. Some characters of color appear in sm

Violence & Scariness

Guns and shooting on battlefields. Characters are shot at. Explosions. Person shoved out of helicopter falls to their death. Characters' arm blown off in explosion. Bloody wounds. Death is discussed in a real-world way. Brief punching, fighting. Parent slaps child. Arguing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent use of "f--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "dumbs--t," "bats--t," "p---y," "t-ts," "twat," "a--hole," "son of a bitch," "goddamn," "ass," "bastard," "hell," "for God's sake," "Christ's sake," "scumbags," "balls." "Jesus" and "Christ" used as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Pabst Blue Ribbon is the beer of choice: It's shown throughout the movie, labels clearly visible. It's also prominently seen in the advertising materials.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Alcohol and drinking are part of the story; characters regularly hang out in bars and drink. Drinking is portrayed as fun, with no consequences. Characters drink mostly beer, but also some whiskey. Occasional cigarette smoking. Character smokes pot in background.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Very earnestly supports the troops and those who serve while also asserting that war is bad. Occasionally raises questions about how war should be depicted in the media -- i.e., not at all, sugarcoated, or brutal and real. Raises questions about reasons for war, whether to trust authority figures.

Positive Role Models

Chickie's plan isn't the most brilliant or memorable -- or even useful -- thing that ever happened, but he certainly accomplishes what he sets out to do, and it's ultimately a selfless act that's designed to lift the spirits of others.

Diverse Representations

Revolves almost entirely around White men. Some characters of color appear in small or background roles. The main character's sister is a passionate woman with agency. The few other female characters are mainly traditional mothers.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a dramedy based on the true story of Merchant Marine Chickie Donohue ( Zac Efron ), who, in 1967, traveled to Vietnam to bring beer to his military buddies. It means well, but it's a bit heavy-handed. Expect to see war violence, with guns and shooting, explosions, bloody wounds, a severed arm, a man thrown to his death from a helicopter, punching, fighting, slapping, etc. Death is discussed. Language is strong and frequent, with uses of "f--k," "s--t," "p---y," "bitch," and more, and there's brief sex-related dialogue. Alcohol and drinking are prevalent; drinking is shown to be fun and relaxing, with no consequences shown or discussed. Pabst Blue Ribbon is the beer of choice, and its label and logo are seen throughout. Characters also smoke cigarettes and, briefly, pot. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (4)
Kids say (2)

Based on 4 parent reviews

They are not forgotten!

What's the story.

In THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER, it's 1967 in New York City, and Merchant Marine Chickie Donohue ( Zac Efron ) and his friends are dismayed at how many of their friends have been killed in Vietnam. Chickie's sister, Christine ( Ruby Ashbourne Serkis ), has been participating in anti-war protests, but Chickie feels that this disrespects the troops. While drinking in his favorite bar, which is manned by The Colonel ( Bill Murray ), Chickie concocts a plan to board the next ship bound for Vietnam and bring all of his still-living military buddies a beer. Once there, with dumb luck, persistence, and help from a crusty reporter named Coates ( Russell Crowe ), Chickie tries to pull off his wild idea. But actually being in a war zone opens his eyes, too.

Is It Any Good?

This dramedy could have been much funnier, but it falls back on wobbly writing and on overly sincere, one-note sermons about war and service. "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard of," one character says of Chickie's plan in The Greatest Beer Run Ever , but, as directed by comedy veteran Peter Farrelly , the movie somehow fails to capture that tone. Perhaps it cares too much, since it returns again and again to the noble reason for Chickie's journey, which is supporting the troops and "buying those boys a beer." If the movie had been a little more carefree, a little more anarchic, perhaps it might have generated some laughs. ( Bill Murray 's character in Stripes wouldn't even recognize his character here.)

Perhaps the lead role was a bit much for Efron. His acting chops have marginally improved since his early days, and he can now convincingly play a dramatic scene, but he maybe doesn't quite have the comic timing that a number of other actors would have provided. Or perhaps Farrelly was afraid of offending people by showing any kind of portrayal of the military that could be seen as negative, while still wanting to assert that "war is hell." That could be why the movie seems so pleasant, without being really engaging. Ultimately, while it's hard to hate The Greatest Beer Run Ever , it's just more flat than it is sudsy.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Greatest Beer Run Ever 's violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

How are alcohol and drinking depicted? Are they glamorized? Are there consequences? Why is that important?

Is it important for the media to show the truth of war, or should people be protected from it?

Do you consider Chickie a role model ? Is this a selfless act? What does he ultimately achieve?

Movie Details

In theaters : September 23, 2022
On DVD or streaming : September 30, 2022
Cast : Zac Efron , Russell Crowe , Bill Murray
Director : Peter Farrelly
Studio : Apple TV+
Genre : Drama
Run time : 127 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : language and some war violence
Last updated : February 17, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Good Morning, Vietnam

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The Unbelievable True Story Of The Greatest Beer Run In History

By James Clark

Updated on Mar 29, 2021 1:48 PM EDT

Drunk ideas, while entertaining, rarely end well. But there are exceptions. Like that time in New York in the late 1960s when a conversation about anti-war protesters led one veteran to set off on the greatest beer run in history.

It was November 1967, and a 26-year-old former Marine named John “Chick” Donohue was hanging out at Doc Fiddler’s — one of the many bars and pubs that dotted the neighborhood of Inwood, then an Irish-American enclave near Manhattan’s northern tip. The bartender, George Lynch, began complaining about the anti-war movement that had taken flight across the country.

For a lot of vets like Donohue, the marches and picket signs must have felt like a snub. So when Lynch suggested that someone go out there — to Vietnam — and bring those boys some beers to let them know they’re not forgotten, Donohue volunteered to go. And he went.

Chick Donohue, right, in Vietnam, delivering beer to a friend from back home.Photo courtesy of Chick Donohue

What followed was an 8,000 mile, four-month odyssey. Donohue trekked across a war-torn country, talked his way onto transport trucks and military aircraft, all so he could meet up with local guys from his neighborhood and bring them a cold — okay, lukewarm — brew.

“A lot of my friends were serving in Vietnam, and I just wanted to go over there and buy them a beer,” he candidly explained in a 2015 video short , in which Donohue met up with three of the servicemen he’d provided with beer in Vietnam: Bobby Pappas, Tom Collins, and Ricky Duggan.

Something of a local neighborhood legend, the story has often been met with eager but disbelieving nods of approval. To set the record straight earlier this month, Donohue, now 73, self-published “The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A True Story of Friendship Stronger Than War,” a book about his beer-hocking trek across Vietnam. Here’s how he got from a bar in New York to a warzone with beers in hand.

Donohue took a job on the next ship headed to the war, the Drake Victory , a merchant vessel transporting ammo to the ’nam from New York. He got the names and units of a half-dozen guys in the neighborhood, grabbed a seabag, stuffed it full of PBR, threw on a pair of light blue jeans, a plaid shirt, and headed out. Two months later, in early 1968, he arrived in Vietnam — just in time for the start of the Tet Offensive against U.S. and South Vietnamese troops.

Related: The Greatest ‘Hold My Beer’ Moment In American History Is Thanks To This Drunk Marine Veteran »

Donohue ran through his beer supply in transit, but stocked up when they hit port in Qui Nhon harbor. “It took two months to get there, so I drank all the beer,” he told the New York Times.

Shortly after pulling in, Donohue noticed the unit insignia on a group of military police officers who were inspecting the Drake Victory . They were from the 127th Military Police Company, the same unit as one of the names on his list: Tom Collins. Donohue, known as a smooth and quick talker, pulled one of the MPs aside and spun a sob story about looking for his brother-in-law, gave the man Collins’ name, and then waited. Not long after that, Collins arrived.

“I said, ‘Chickie Donohue, what the hell are you doing here?’” Collins told the Times. “He said, ‘I came to bring you a beer.”

After sharing a few drinks with Collins, Donohue set off to find the other names on his list. Donohue went from Qui Nhon, to Khe Sahn, then to Saigon, striking off names and handing out beers, then restocking.

Chick Donohue delivering beer to soldiers in Vietnam.Photo courtesy of Chick Donohue

Donohue talked his way onto convoys, military mail planes, and transport helicopters. He even got caught in the Tet Offensive and was briefly stranded when his ship left port without him. So he hung around, caught up with his buddies on the front lines for a bit longer, and by March 1968, made his way back to Inwood where his beer run quickly became a local legend.

The beer was hardly the point, though. For guys like Pappas who had been having a tough deployment, after learning several old friends had died in combat, seeing Donohue, brews in hand, “gave me a lot of encouragement that I was going to make it back,” he told the Times.

“For half a century, I’ve been told I was full of it, to the point where I stopped even telling this story,” Donohue told the Times.

But even skeptics of Donohue’s story were happy to reward him for the deeper truth it contained. Back home in Inwood, he said, “I didn’t have to buy a beer for a long time.”

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‘The Greatest Beer Run Ever’ Review: Zac Efron Goes to Vietnam to Give His Grunt Buddies a Beer in Peter Farrelly’s Disappointing Follow-Up to ‘Green Book’

Instead of two compelling characters, this true story gives us one lunkhead on a quixotic crusade.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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That’s because this time the movie doesn’t deliver. It’s directed with the same brand of buoyant mainstream craftsmanship, as well as expert lensing (by Sean Porter), that made “Green Book” go down easy. But that movie was powered by a pair of world-class performances, and whatever your opinion of its politics, it had a witty and deftly structured buddy-road-movie script. It all added up.

“The Greatest Beer Run Ever” lumbers and meanders, and not just because the structure isn’t there. What we’re seeing, on a human level, is only half-interesting and rather slipshod. Like “Green Book,” “Greatest Beer Run” is based on a true story, but what Peter Farrelly responded to in that story translates, this time, into a token “relevant” boomer nostalgia that hasn’t been fully thought through.

There’s a culture war going on, tearing families — and maybe the country – apart. Farrelly wants us to hear an echo of today’s culture war, but it doesn’t take long for that parallel to fade out of the movie. Because “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” has something more on its mind. Something momentous. Something morally and spiritually cleansing. Are you sitting down?

Chickie wants to bring a bunch of beers to his grunt buddies in Vietnam.

This does not strike us as a good idea. Unless, of course, “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” was a comedy made in the ’80s starring Chevy Chase, in which case it would be a very good idea. But the story the movie tells did actually happen: In 1967, Chickie Donahue really did head over to Vietnam in a Merchant Marine ship, landing in Saigon, and attempt to go in country with a bag full of beer. But that doesn’t mean what happened to him is compelling. “Greatest Beer Run” tells what is basically the story of a quixotic whim laced with a fair amount of stupidity. And the film, weirdly enough, even understands this.

It doesn’t take long for Chickie to get to ‘Nam (the Merchant Marine cruise lasts two months, but only a moment of screen time), and early on, after having hitchhiked north, there’s a scene in which he lands at the base camp of his buddy Rick Duggan (Jake Picking), a soldier who must scurry through a combat zone just to meet him. Rick walks in, and Chickie flashes him a big grin and holds up a couple of beers, with the expectation that Rick is going to be thrilled to see him. Instead, Rick is pissed off. He just came running through a hail of bullets, and he wants to know: What the hell is Chickie doing? He doesn’t belong there. Rick doesn’t need a beer, and the whole thing sounds a little insane. We listen to this rant and think, “Okay, we weren’t nuts for feeling like this was a dumb idea.” But Chickie is obstinate in his cockeyed optimism, even when he’s being shot at in a foxhole with no weapon. He wants to see his friends! Including, hopefully, Tommy (Will Hochman), who has gone missing in action, but who Chickie is all but certain is going to show up. Doesn’t he want a beer?

Since Farrelly is too good a filmmaker to want to cut corners, much of “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” — are you picking up on the irony of the title? — is devoted to the logistics of how Chickie gets around Vietnam. Part of it is a running joke that sounds like it belongs in that Chevy Chase movie: Since Chickie has no military credentials, an officer assumes he’s with the CIA, and Chickie’s denial of that just plays as a conformation. And he keeps hitting that note. He gets whisked through ‘Nam — in planes, on choppers, in jeeps — based on the perception that he’s a powerful operative who has to be catered to.

Zac Efron is an actor I’ve come to admire, but in this movie he’s forced to play a guy we have to work to root for. It’s not that Efron is less than likable, but he plays Chickie with an easygoing myopic mindlessness that’s not the sort of thing that should be holding down the center of a movie. And since the film is episodic in a galumphing way, we have more than enough time to notice several howlers that are baked into it. Why, for instance, do the characters, who are all from New York, speak in Boston accents? I’m not kidding. The whole art of accent specificity has been so lost that to prepare for their roles, it sounds like the entire cast just went and studied a bunch of Ben Affleck movies.

Howler number two: Chickie keeps giving away the cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon he has brought along in his bag. He gives them out in bunks, he hands them out on the road, he’s like the Santa Claus of brewskie. But after a while, all I could think was: How many beers does he have in that goddamn duffel bag? Did he borrow the bag from Mary Poppins? Beyond that, the film makes an egregious mistake in tone when Chickie is riding in a chopper, watching a Viet Cong soldier get interrogated (by an actual CIA operative), and the soldier gets tossed out of the chopper, plunging to his death…and before we can even react, the movie is playing “Cherish,” by the Association, on the soundtrack. Is this supposed to be ironic? Because it feels like the definition of tone-deaf.

If Chickie the beer whisperer isn’t really connecting with his friends in ‘Nam, then what is “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” about? I have bad news on that score: It’s about Chickie, who was gung-ho on the war, learning that Vietnam is the mess the protesters said it was, that LBJ and Gen. Westermoreland (who we see on TV) are lying, and that the whole system is lying. At a bar in Saigon, Chickie meets a handful of American journalists, notably a Look magazine correspondent played by Russell Crowe in a voice of deepest deep. They all cue him to “the public relations war,” and to how the U.S. government is using it to hide the truth about Vietnam. But Chickie has to see it for himself. And out in the combat zones, he does. As he puts it late in the film, he learns that unlike the chaos and slaughter of WWII, this is bad chaos and slaughter. So now he’s an expert! Unfortunately, that means “The Greatest Been Run Ever is really a lesson — in America’s lost innocence, and in why the war in Vietnam was a moral catastrophe — that none of us needs to learn.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 13, 2022. MPA rating: R. Running time: 126 MIN.

Production: An Apple TV+ release of an Apple Original Films, Skydance Media, Living Films production. Producers: David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Andrew Muscato, Jake Myers.
Crew: Director: Peter Farrelly. Screenplay: Peter Farrelly, Brian Currie, Pete Jones. Camera: Sean Porter. Editor: Patrick J, Don Vito. Music: Dave Palmer.
With: Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, Bill Murray, Kyle Allen, Jake Picking, Will Ropp, Archie Renaux, Christopher Reed Brown, Joe Adler, Kristin Carey, Paul Adelstein.

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The Greatest Beer Run Ever | Review

Peter Farrelly, of Green Book fame, delivers a true adaptation of a Vietnam War story written with a different perspective to mixed results.

Adapted from the memoir written by John “Chick” Donohue and J.T. Molloy, The Greatest Beer Run Ever tells the story of Chickie Donahue. Played by Zac Efron , Donahue is a young part-time merchant marine known by his family and friends as a bit of a slacker. Unable to finish anything he starts, and someone who drinks all night with his buddies and sleeps half the day away when not on duty.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever Directed By: Peter Farrelly Written By: Peter Farrelly, Brian Currie, Pete Jones Starring: Zac Efron, Jake Picking, Russell Crowe, Kyle Allen, Bill Murray Release Date: September 30, 2022 only on Apple TV+

Although he remains a staunch Patriot who would argue until he is blue in the face over his love for his country, he becomes disheartened by the amount of friends killed in action serving in the Vietnam War. One night during a drunken conversation with friends at the favorite local neighborhood bar, the bar owner nicknamed The Colonel ( Bill Murray ) floats a daydream of going overseas to visit with their friends, show love and support, and offer them a beer.

A lightbulb seems to go off in Chickie’s eyes and, in spite of everyone not believing he would see it through, he finds the next ship set for Vietnam. Packing a large travel bag full of American beer, Donahue sets sail for the wildest beer run ever.

Let’s talk plot and dialogue. When I first heard the name The Greatest Beer Run Ever , my first thoughts were to strap in for some zany comdy that does not require much thought when watching such as The Hangover or Peter Farrelly’s Dumb and Dumber . However, it proved to be so much more in that it was a true story that took a look at the complexities and issues surrounding the Vietnam War. Not only for those fighting, but for those at home with some comedic undertones sprinkled in mostly during the first half of the film. The plotline truly gives the term “greatest” and ironic meaning considering the beer run destination.

Furthermore, it’s interesting how Farrelly delivers a unique perspective of the Vietnam War not normally utilized, through a crafty civilian working his way through a war zone. The more I thought about it, however, this is not new to the writer/director. Afterall, when you take a look at the highly popular, award winning Green Book , it is a story tackling the issue of racism utilizing a road trip for a musical tour with the leading character being an average bouncer turned driver to accomplish more awareness on the subject.

The director uses a similar coming-of-age element with a different spin in The Greatest Beer Run Ever when he takes an immature screw up like Chickie Donahue, throws him in a country experiencing one of the most controversial wars in history, and allows him to witness some things that would forever change his life. In fact, there are several scenes of the patriotic Chickie stopping someone in their tracks for saying anything negative about the United States or the president, himself, including when he meets with war correspondent Coates ( Russell Crowe ) who begins to pull the rose colored glasses off him as a brief teacher of what’s really going on as they work their way to safety.

Don’t shout me down, but I have to say Zac Efron has come a long way since his High School Musical days. With every role he seems to show more depth than the last while still keeping that spark of boyish charm from those teen heart throb puff pieces that gave him his start. However, there is also a haunting energy that radiates through his eyes due to experience and age which gives him the ability to take a crack at more serious roles. This seems to lend well to his role as Chickie Donahue, a grown man seemingly immature for his age, naive and one-sided in his convictions. He’s in need of something to shock him into growing up; facing the facts that war is gruesome, cover-ups happen, and gentlemanly “rules of engagement” aren’t always in effect.

I had a love-hate relationship with the utilization of Bill Murray and Russell Crowe. Don’t get me wrong, they both were wonderful in their respective roles, but when I became aware of their involvement in the cast there was a certain expectation; especially for Crowe who was featured in a key promo shot. Both men were hired to play supporting characters, but it just felt like more could be added for supportive purposes and to create more depth and understanding of The Colonel and Coats.

In fact, more screen time by these characters could have added more depth to the film as a whole. There was just enough to understand that these two represent two polar opposite sides of a very delicate situation: The Colonel (Murray) being the retired veteran and patriotic to the core, and Coates (Crowe) the reporter always in search of the truth lending him a jaded political view whose sole plot purpose is to deliver a crash course that everything isn’t always what it seems when it comes to war and government.

Tonally, The Greatest Beer Run Ever seemed to be all over the place. There were moments of drunken outlandishly crazy conversations with friends, followed by sleeping until three in the afternoon providing a few chuckles at the beginning. There were several instances of intense war-time violence for dramatic effect, and segments caught somewhere in-between that did not seem to have a direct path. For instance, during two scenes involving an attack on the city and a prisoner of war it felt like the scene was meant for intensity but the reactions and dialogue made it hard to deliver the drama on-screen.

Most of the time the film settings were simplistic and had the atmosphere and feel of movies from the same era such as a local dive bar, a street corner or local hotel bar in Vietnam. However, at times, more attention to detail could have been placed at setting the scene. Chickie’s sister was very much against the war, and began to join the protests which did not sit well with her brother. Between the clash with the protesters and the scene where Chickie shows up in what is described as one of the most dangerous military post areas the setting just felt awkward and thrown together. I hate to say it, but the latter of the two seemed like it could have been thrown together in someone’s backyard.

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THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER

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Zac Efron has had an enormous career that has spanned two decades. From movie musicals ( Hairspray ) and comedies ( Neighbors ) to biographical crime dramas ( Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile ), Efron shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to showcasing his talent. In his latest, Efron is John “Chickie” Donohue, a young man who travels to Vietnam at the height of the war to share laughs, support, and beer with his friends who’ve enlisted. Based on a true story and adapted from John “Chickie” Donohue and Joanna Molloy’s novel of the same name, The Greatest Beer Run Ever uncovers the unfortunate realities of blindly following a country’s messages about war. The film is messy and gets tangled up in its protagonist’s folly, but in the process, Zac Efron delivers a heartfelt and killer performance.

John “Chickie” Donohue (Zac Efron) is a 26-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran who works as a merchant seaman at the height of the Vietnam War. Torn between wanting to support his friends in the war without fighting alongside them, Chickie challenges himself to fulfill a preposterous purpose. To ensure his buddies know that there’s an entire support system cheering them on back in the U.S., Chickie decides to deliver the message himself, along with some American beers. What starts out as a well-intended journey to build morale quickly turns into a dangerous adventure as Chickie confronts this controversial war. Not only will he uncover terrible truths, but Chickie must find a way to survive in the process.

Related: Zac Efron Brings Beer To Vietnam War In Greatest Beer Run Ever Trailer

Russell Crowe and Zac Efron in The Greatest Beer Run Ever

Director Peter Farrelly may have intended for his action comedy/drama to be a heartwarming journey of self-discovery, friendship, and sacrifice, but in execution, it reveals how ignorant Americans are when it comes to the realities of war. Through Chickie Donohue, Farrelly’s script, which was written in partnership with Pete Jones and Brian Currie, plays into the machismo and toxic nature of young men when it comes to understanding war and the reasons for its existence. As a result of this framework, enduring a 126-minute-long feature with Donohue’s character at the helm becomes unbearable even after only 15 minutes into the film.

That’s not to say that a protagonist of a story needs to be likable, but in The Greatest Beer Run Ever, there are inherent problems with his portrayal with respect to the story on screen. For one, Chickie had insanely juvenile takes when it came to the Vietnam War or any protestors of it. Any opinion that differed from his was simply disregarded and frowned upon as disrespectful and unpatriotic. Yet, the audience is supposed to cheer for the success of a man who only entered Vietnam to deliver beers because he couldn’t handle a little mockery and not fight alongside his brethren in a war that he so thoroughly believed in. It’s obnoxious, and it feels like an incredibly lazy way to build in any learning opportunities for the lead — especially when the messages about serving in war become overly preachy.

One could easily blame Efron for his portrayal of Donohue as the leading cause for such obscenely derisory elements in the script. But in reality, Efron’s heartfelt performance is what makes The Greatest Beer Run Ever watchable despite the screenplay. He gives his all when it comes to balancing both the comedy and sentimental components, but these moments shift on and off at lightning speeds. And quite frankly, it’s exhausting. That, in combination with the frustrations brought on by watching a human behave with no remorse for his stupidity and inexperience with war, is what makes the feature unenjoyable. Even after everything Donohue has seen and been through, he only ever snaps into reality seeing the lies unfold (and not the innocent Vietnamese children getting killed) before his very eyes.

As is, The Greatest Beer Run Ever has problems that extend even beyond its script. The three acts don’t feel as cohesive as they should be, the war scenery/set leaves a lot to be desired, and there’s simply no life in what could have been a vivacious feature. But that’s what happens in a film that caters to patriotism and the importance of serving one's country over substance, truth, and saying something profound. It gives the majority of the responsibility to Zac Efron, who was clearly up for the task, without any support to convert this barely watchable war comedy into a meaningful feature that exudes heart and authenticity. It's a sad truth for a script with so much potential.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever releases on Apple TV+ on September 30. The film is 126 minutes long and rated R for language and war violence.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever

The Greatest Beer Run Ever is the strange but true story of John Donohue, portrayed by Zac Efron, and his time after a stint in the Marine Corp back in 1967. One night at a bar with other seafaring merchants, he's challenged to do something unthinkable - sneak into Vietnam and find his friends amid combat to deliver letters, a friendly face, and a ton of beer. John decides to take this challenge head-on and charts a course across enemy lines with help from various people, including Arthur Coates (Russell Crowe), a war journalist who wants John to understand the media's coverage of the war and how flawed it is. John's journey into the heat of battle will reveal the horrors of war and give him a new perspective on life. The Greatest Beer Run Ever airs exclusively on Apple TV+ on September 30 2022.

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Movie Review – The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)

September 24, 2022 by Robert Kojder

The Greatest Beer Run Ever , 2022.

Directed by Peter Farrelly. Starring Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, Kyle Allen, Bill Murray, Jake Picking, Will Ropp, Archie Renaux, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Will Hochman, Christopher Reed Brown, Joe Adler, MacGregor Arney, Hal Cumpston, Kristin Carey, Paul Adelstein, Matt Cook, Shirleyann Kaladjian, Omari K. Chancellor, Brian Jarvis, Kelvin Delgado, James Fahselt, Mike Hatton, and Kevin Tran.

A man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam.

We have all known someone like John “Chickie” Donohue (Zac Efron), the directionless and content twentysomething functioning alcoholic at the center of The Greatest Beer Run Ever (another true story from Oscar-winner Peter Farrelly’s Green Book follow-up, once again co-written with Brian Hayes Currie, this time bringing Pete Jones into the mix). Whenever not working abroad on ships, Chickie stays with his parents while drinking every night with his buddies (most of whom exist for comedic relief), hearing stories from the pro-war, America-first bartender dubbed The Colonel for his time serving in World War II (played by Bill Murray) justifying the conflict in Vietnam.

Growing up in a jingoistic New York neighborhood, America-first and the notion that the country can do no wrong is baked into Chickie’s mind. Even in a complicated conflict such as the Vietnam War, that’s far less black-and-white, he’s quick to shut down opposing viewpoints from his protesting sister Christine (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) and dismisses the media’s negative reporting as one-sided and demoralizing for everyone back home. In other words, it’s truthful and hits too close to home, especially for those that can’t handle seeing an uglier side of America.

Chickie is more or less involved with a rowdy and immature group that perceives war as exciting, logical, honorable, and a grand ol’ time (and to be clear, it is honorable to serve one’s country). This amusingly contrasts with the Colonel’s opinion that the horrors of war should be kept off television screens, dismantling that propaganda narrative. Nevertheless, if the TV screens aren’t enough to convince an overly patriotic dope like Chickie that a war zone is a dangerous, psychologically destabilizing place, maybe putting himself in the line of fire will serve as a wake-up call.

That doesn’t mean Chickie is going to enlist (although he has performed some noncombat duties); no, while several beers deep, he comes up with the pointlessly stupid idea to do a beer run for the neighborhood soldiers still in the thick of it, many of which are his friends and some of which have already died. It’s his way of counteracting the negative publicity and raising morale.

The beer run is misguided and dumb but does come from the heart. Loved ones of young soldiers flock to Chickie with encouragement and items to deliver, suggesting that this reckless endangerment goes beyond the alcohol and is a sincere, noble gesture. There’s also word that Chickie’s best friend Tommy (Will Hochman) is MIA. Awkwardly constructed flashbacks (they do nothing to enrich this emotional friendship bond) reveal that Chickie is responsible for Tommy enlisting, so there’s also some guilt settling in, which could be his true purpose for making the trip.

Through some good fortune, Chickie finds a job aboard a vessel headed to Saigon, which comes to serve as his hub nearest the combat where his friends are fighting. While there, he encounters several war correspondents covering the situation, including Russell Crowe’s photographer Coates who tries to break through that publishing the harsh truth is the real way to support the troops. Naturally, the stubbornly narrow-minded Chickie doesn’t want to hear any of that, forging ahead to convince anyone willing to bring him closer to the peril.

Not even civilians, let alone press, are granted access there, but that’s okay since Chickie accidentally lucks his way into coming across as an undercover CIA agent, given clearance to go anywhere. It’s a running joke that, regardless of whether it happened in real life, is presented here with too much of a jokey flair, especially since real CIA agents are torturing Vietnamese civilians.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever is meant to break Chickie’s blind American loyalty down bit by bit, but it’s either too syrupy, emotionally manipulative (there’s a scene involving a Saigon traffic director that is unbelievably corny), or lightweight to tackle any of these conventional themes properly. Even when the film does inevitably take a graphically violent turn, Zac Efron doesn’t exactly excel at convincingly reacting to these horrors. If anything, it proves that Peter Farrelly’s tone is a confused disaster.

There’s also a sensible case to be made that a movie called The Greatest Beer Run Ever deserves a breezy and funny touch (and there is a terrific gag involving elephant dung). But that, too, is called into question, considering most of Chickie’s friends aren’t enthused to see him and certainly don’t want any beers, especially when his every brash decision further endangers them (who the hell can blame them). Then there are subplots such as the CIA looking to capture Chickie that are unceremoniously dropped.

Zac Efron is an underrated actor with the necessary goofball charm and dramatic chops to make the broad strokes of the character’s journey believable, but The Greatest Beer Run Ever is drunk in execution. It’s a series of sequences where Peter Farrelly calls for unity between family members, citizens and press, and ethnicities which are worthwhile but bland and schmaltzy. It’s as satisfying as it probably was to receive a warm, nasty beer from a well-meaning idiot trying to survive the front lines of a war.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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By David Sexton

Amy Liptrot’s memoir, The Outrun – about recovering from the alcoholism that took over her life in London in her twenties by returning to the Orkneys where she had grown up and embracing the natural life of the islands – looks ever more a masterpiece as time goes by. It is exceptionally well written, describing chaotic and painful experiences with remarkable clarity and directness, engaging with the wild life of the islands with an intensity that makes most nature writing seem footling.

When The Outrun was published in 2016, it was immediately admired. It won the Wainwright Prize for nature and travel writing as well as the PEN Ackerley Prize, and sold more than 100,000 copies in the UK. This summer, it was adapted – heaven knows how – for the stage at the Edinburgh Festival, without Liptrot’s involvement. Now the film version is here, scripted by Liptrot with the director Nora Fingscheidt (who has made documentaries and two feature films, System Crasher , about a violently disruptive nine-year-old girl, and The Unforgivable , in which Sandra Bullock plays a woman released from prison after serving 20 years for murder). Saoirse Ronan stars and, with her partner, Jack Lowden, co-produces.

Making a drama from such a specific memoir, one so intent on its own authenticity and so well expressed in its own medium, is a dicey business. Do you stick to every documented detail or do you adapt freely? Fingscheidt named the lead Rona, not Amy, to provide some “creative distance and healthy freedom” for all, but otherwise remained faithful to the book – at the cost of not having much propulsion in the narrative.

Rona’s story is presented in three phases, intercut as memory dictates. There’s her hapless life in London’s Hackney, partying and drinking herself into aggression and oblivion, repulsing her reliable boyfriend ( I May Destroy You ’s Paapa Essiedu). There’s her newly sober life in Orkney, time spent with both her separated parents: her bipolar farmer father (Stephen Dillane) and her evangelical mother (Saskia Reeves, who is particularly good). But there is also much time on her own – on the cliffs, by the shore and in the sea. As a navigation aid through these chopping and changing eras, her hair changes colour, dyed an electric blue in London, growing out as she perseveres in abstinence, ultimately becoming an orange flame of assertion. There are also flashbacks to her childhood and the family troubles that remain with her.

The filming is almost documentary in style, close-up and reeling in the London scenes, calmly taking in the landscape in the Orkneys, the editing changing pace to fit Rona’s mood. A great part of the film’s appeal, as of the book itself, is how vividly it transports you to these remote, windswept, sea-pounded places, all filmed in situ. We see wonderful seals. A terrific surging score by John Gürtler and Jan Miserre picks up the sounds of the storms and the waves, to make a rhapsody, startlingly distinct from the drum and bass Rona loves.

The Saturday Read

Morning call.

The dialogue is humdrum, perhaps improvised – “I can’t do this any more,” says the boyfriend inevitably, breaking up with her – and there’s a lot of voiceover directly from the book, too, some of it fanciful: “High on fresh air and freedom on the hill, I study my personal geology. My body is a continent… when I orgasm, there’s an earthquake.”

Ronan – whose astonishing face at times resembles a carved, gothic Madonna – is excellent throughout, always edgy, never making herself easily likeable, always isolated. “Watching the film, I feel that she makes a better version of me than I do,” Liptrot has humbly said.

She is oddly not sexual, though – there’s an absence. “A lot of nature writing is quite chaste, so I wanted to put the sex in nature writing,” Liptrot has said. In The Outrun she emphasises that her love of nude wild swimming is cathartic, offering transformation and escape, like intoxication: “I am so thirsty and full of desire.” Rona favours a one-piece. Likewise, Liptrot recounts taking off all her clothes and running round the Ring of Brodgar stone circle one midsummer dawn: here, it’s just an affectionate night-time hug from Rona.

Having somehow to wind up, the film ends with a mightily orchestrated climax, Rona alone, enraptured, conducting the wind and the waves, entirely at one with natural ferocity, an over-the-top scene that failed to enrapture me. The Outrun almost makes a great success of an improbable adaptation. In future, the book will no doubt bear Saoirse Ronan’s features on the cover, but still show us Amy Liptrot’s true face inside.

“The Outrun” is in cinemas now

[See also: Francis Ford Coppola’s new film may be his greatest delusion ]

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The Greatest Beer Run Ever movie review (2022)
September 30, 2022. 5 min read. Peter Farrelly 's glib and superficial "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" has the nerve to give several of its characters speeches about how war is nothing like what we see on television or in movies, embedded in a movie that's about as a realistic about combat, trauma, and death as a high school play.
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Jul 16, 2024 Full Review Joonatan Itkonen Toisto.net Like the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer that it shills, The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a watered-down, unwelcome assault on the senses, unfit for ...
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Sept. 22, 2022. The Greatest Beer Run Ever. Directed by Peter Farrelly. Adventure, Comedy, Drama, War. R. 2h 6m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through ...
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A Geek Community. The Greatest Beer Run Ever gets so close to being a good movie but is held back by weak dialogue and never quite just saying what it means to be saying about war, masculinity ...
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Sep 15, 2022. Like "Green Book," The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a broad historical outing based on real people and real events, condensed down into an essence that can only be billed as "crowd-pleasing.". The trick this time: Farrelly seems far more aware of how he's playing fast and loose with history to offer a zippy feature to a ...
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September 30, 2022 9:45 PM EDT. F ormer Disney Channel heartthrob and song-and-dance man extraordinaire Zac Efron should be a much bigger star than he is, though maybe it's better this way ...
'The Greatest Beer Run Ever' review: Zac Efron brings the boys a cold
"The Greatest Beer Run Ever" isn't your typical Vietnam film. Based on a wild, wildly improbable tale, it hews closer to comedy than gritty war drama — it's Nam-com, if you will.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever Review: Zac Efron Takes on Vietnam
Peter Farrelly's "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" is his first film since he won Best Picture for "Green Book," a film embraced by audiences and maligned by critics. This one hits many of ...
'The Greatest Beer Run Ever' review: A war ...
Based on the book "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" by John "Chick" Donohue and J.T. Molloy, the script has been adapted by Farrelly, Pete Jones and Brian Hayes Currie.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)
The Greatest Beer Run Ever: Directed by Peter Farrelly. With Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, Jake Picking, Kyle Allen. A man's story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam.
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Movie Review: In 'The Greatest Beer Run Ever,' now on Apple TV+, Zac Efron plays John "Chickie" Donohue, a New York man who, in 1967 and 1968, traveled to Vietnam to bring beer to his ...
The Greatest Beer Run Ever Review
By Rafael Motamayor. Posted: Sep 15, 2022 2:30 pm. This is an advanced review out of the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Greatest Beer Run Ever made its world premiere. It will ...
The Greatest Beer Run Ever
The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a 2022 American biographical war comedy drama film co-written and directed by Peter Farrelly, based on the book of the same name by John "Chickie" Donohue and Joanna Molloy.The film stars Zac Efron and Russell Crowe, and follows the true story of Donohue, who as a young veteran sneaks into the Vietnam War to deliver some beer to his friends while they serve their ...
'The Greatest Beer Run Ever' Review: Brews for the Boys
In the movies, the greatest beer run ever was in "Smokey and the Bandit."Reynolds v. Gleason. No argument. In real life—according to "The Greatest Beer Run Ever"—the event involved one ...
The Greatest Beer Run Ever Review: Unexpectedly Good
Apple TV+ is really kicking things up a notch with their original film lineup. Their latest, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, is a simple yet engaging adventure movie. Based on a true story, the Zac Efron starring film has a very outrageous premise, told through a simplistic lens. Sometimes to the detriment of the messages, it's trying to convey.
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Russell Crowe. Bill Murray. Peter Farrelly. New York, 1967. While drinking at a bar, John 'Chickie' Donohue (Zac Efron) hatches a hare-brained plan: travel to the frontline of the Vietnam War ...
'The Greatest Beer Run Ever' review: Zac Efron takes Pabst to Vietnam
When you see Zac Efron's name connected to a movie called "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," you might well think this is going to be another Bro Comedy in the vein of the "Neighbors" films ...
The Greatest Beer Run Ever
Summary. Zac Efron and Russell Crowe star in this drama based on the true story of John "Chickie" Donohue, who in 1968 left New York to track down and share a few beers with his childhood buddies ...
The Greatest Beer Run Ever Movie Review
Our review: Parents say(4 ): Kids say(2 ): This dramedy could have been much funnier, but it falls back on wobbly writing and on overly sincere, one-note sermons about war and service. "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard of," one character says of Chickie's plan in The Greatest Beer Run Ever, but, as directed by comedy veteran Peter Farrelly ...
The Unbelievable True Story Of The Greatest Beer Run In History
The 'Greatest Beer Run Ever' is getting a war movie made about it The 'Greatest Beer Run Ever' is getting a war movie made about it By David Roza / Apr 2 2021
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The Greatest Beer Run Ever
The Greatest Beer Run Ever Directed By: Peter Farrelly Written By: Peter Farrelly, Brian Currie, Pete Jones Starring: Zac Efron, Jake Picking, Russell Crowe, Kyle Allen, Bill Murray Release Date: September 30, 2022 only on Apple TV+. Although he remains a staunch Patriot who would argue until he is blue in the face over his love for his country, he becomes disheartened by the amount of friends ...
The Greatest Beer Run Ever Review: Farrelly's War Comedy Lacks Substance
The Greatest Beer Run Ever is the strange but true story of John Donohue, portrayed by Zac Efron, and his time after a stint in the Marine Corp back in 1967. One night at a bar with other seafaring merchants, he's challenged to do something unthinkable - sneak into Vietnam and find his friends amid combat to deliver letters, a friendly face ...
Movie Review
The Greatest Beer Run Ever, 2022. Directed by Peter Farrelly. Starring Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, Kyle Allen, Bill Murray, Jake Picking, Will Ropp, Archie Renaux, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Will ...
The Outrun review: Saoirse Ronan plays to all her greatest ...
The Outrun review: Saoirse Ronan plays to all her greatest strengths in this stark addiction drama - 4/5 The Oscar nominee plays a woman who returns to her hometown of Orkney to get clean ...
The Outrun review: A nearly-successful adaptation of Amy Liptrot's
Amy Liptrot's memoir, The Outrun - about recovering from the alcoholism that took over her life in London in her twenties by returning to the Orkneys where she had grown up and embracing the natural life of the islands - looks ever more a masterpiece as time goes by. It is exceptionally well written, describing chaotic and painful experiences with remarkable clarity and directness ...

The Greatest Beer Run Ever

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