Beer League
Artie Lange, Ralph Macchio, Cara Buono
Laurie Metcalf, Jim Breuer
2 DVDs
87 minutes
145 minutes of extras
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment 2007
I doubt anyone expects a comedy classic with a movie like Beer League starring Artie Lange (of Howard Stern fame). If you want your basic dumb jock comedy DVD however, Beer League really works. After all, it has all the ingredients: broads, beer, dumb and foul-mouthed jocks, babes, a villain that is easy to hate, and a heavy jiggle factor. This is the softball guys in their thirties equivalent to the Bad News Bears. Sometimes you feel like a comedy where you can put your brain on hold for a while and Beer League delivers easy laughs and, oh yeah, broads.
The very loose plot of Beer League is Artie DeVanzo (Artie Lange) plays on a beer league softball team. He can’t get along with the captain of another team, Dennis Manganelli. The two teams decide whoever outplays the other will have to quit the league, Artie’s team, representing Ed’s Bar & Swill, being the definite underdogs. Things start to turn around when Artie falls in love with the very lovely Linda (Cara Buono), gets a job, and starts turning his life around until things hit a snag. The also loose subplot involves Ralph Macchio getting married and having a bachelor party as an excuse for female nudity galore.
Beer League is definitely an episodic comedy and it does sag a bit in the middle but this baseball comedy works because it doesn’t try to be anything else than a dumb middle-class jock movie with a long bachelor party involving lots of T & A. It doesn’t work if you are going to be difficult and expect something intelligent though it does have a few surprise plot twists here and there to keep you interested. To its credit, however, it certainly has more than its share of really good one-liners.
Beer League Collector’s Edition is a 2 DVD set. DVD 2 features more than 2 hours of extras. Extras include the trailer, of course, a behind the scenes or two, many interviews with just about every cast member, and a funny beer goggles fake commercial. These are strictly for fans of Artie Lange and the Howard Stern Show.
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