Strange Brew assembled an odd but impressive cast for the McKenzie brothers' first exploits on the big screen, including screen legend Max von Sydow and acclaimed actor Paul Dooley. The two stars, Moranis and Thomas, were still new to the movies and SCTV wasn't anywhere as popular as Saturday Night Live, meaning the whole thing was a gamble for the American market. It didn't make much but, as it turns out, it didn't cost much either so, in the end, it doubled its budget in box office. Canadian efficiency at work. Take that, Hollywood.
The plot of Strange Brew is about what you would expect from a movie about two brothers whose overwhelming passion in life is drinking beer. Attempted blackmail, murder, abduction, and an evil villain's attempt at world domination. Okay, so maybe it's not what you'd expect. Its entry into that story is, however. When Bob and Doug McKenzie go through all the old man's money (that would be their dad, never seen, but voiced by the great Mel Blanc) they devise a plan to get free beer from Elsinore Brewery: take an empty bottle of Elsinore beer, put a mouse inside it, and claim that the mouse was there when they bought it. If you guessed that the plan fails spectacularly, congratulations, you're way ahead of Bob and Doug. Of course, they're laughed out of the brewery's retail outlet only to take their pathetic plan to the main brewery itself. Once there, they discover the head of the brewery has been killed (a video game tells them) and quickly, their own lives are in jeopardy.
As silly a movie as Strange Brew is, it has a loose connection to Shakespeare's Hamlet, and not just the name Elsinore. Much of the setup is a clever retelling of the murder of King Hamlet, father of Prince Hamlet, who reveals his own murder in ghost form near the start of the play. In Strange Brew, a video machine subs for the ghost of the king and Bob and Doug McKenzie become the alter egos of Prince Hamlet, sniffing out the murderer.
The movie was written by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas with help from Steve De Jarnatt. It was their first movie and the two lead writers and actors also took the helm as co-directors. Maybe that's why they were able to bring the movie in at only a little over four million: most of the work was being done by just two people. Of course, they were two very talented people and Hollywood took notice. Rick Moranis quickly made a splash when he got the role of nerdy accountant Louis Tully in the 1984 hit, Ghostbusters. It was a role that would define him for most of the rest of his career: the nebbish lovable loser and the butt of the jokes. Mel Brooks used the character to his advantage in Spaceballs where Moranis plays Dark Helmet, the imposing Darth Vaderesque character who stops being imposing the second he removes his helmet and becomes Rick Moranis again.
Dave Thomas didn't become as famous but was just as successful. His acting career took off after Strange Brew and for over thirty years since he has appeared in well over ninety television and movie productions. His biggest success came in voice acting but he still appears before the camera and some of his roles, such as Charlize Theron's Uncle Trevor in Arrested Development, have become favorites. He and Moranis brought Bob and Doug McKenzie back for a special in 2007 and a year later, Thomas voiced Doug in an animated show based on the characters.
Strange Brew didn't make much impact in the theaters (although, as expressed earlier, it earned double its budget back in box office) but its afterlife on cable and videocassette brought the movie fame and cult status. Phrases like "take off" and "hoser" became famous, acquainting more people with the Canadian terms than anything else Canada has ever done. And it laid the groundwork for more skit-based movies in the future. The Blues Brothers, based on the Saturday Night Live skit had cost a fortune. After the lesson of Strange Brew, most movies based on tv skits were produced on the cheap and, as a result, made their money back easily. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas didn't set the world on fire with their first movie, but they proved a couple of hosers who run out of beer can save the world, even if they can't get free beer from the brewery.
By Greg Ferrara
