For his follow-up feature to his Oscar-winning 2018 film “Green Book,” director Peter Farrelly (known mostly for his comic collaborations with his brother Bobby) 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 real-life 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 central protagonist learns the brutal reality of war during his harrowing journey delivering cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon to his pals.
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. 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 only showing 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.
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. A merchant marine, it just so happens there’s a ship full of ammo bound for Saigon short a crew member. So he boards with a duffle 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.
