Happy Hour

It is disheartening to see how many bad movies have been produced over the years and it is a trend that never runs out because there will always be someone watching them. If only out of curiosity.

An awfully silly little comedy with only half-baked satirical elements, the film is however energetically acted, especially by Jamie Farr and Rich Little, and what those two actors alone can do makes the film worth checking out. The director, John De Bello, is best known for 'Attacking of the Killer Tomatoes', and while this film did not gain the same cult status, it possibly is better. The music soundtrack is great, and some of the satirical aspects do work: the secret ingredient is sort of like Coca Cola's secret ingredient, and the market competition does reflect the consumer orientated society of today - but if only it were not full of silly gags and characters that do the film no good. Richard Gilliland is also not the most convincing choice for his leading part, but Farr and Little do spice up the acting side.

This is quite good comedy. First of all it has to do with beer! It has weird & stupid humour, but not even once does the pace slow down for a bit. It goes all the way, almost fresh even during the ending sequence, which must as tradition to be silly in american films. This one has some nice jokes - not the best, but surely enough for those who are looking for a nice old-school comedy.

Fast pace & hillarious characters (not mentioning the general beer-frenzy depicted in the film) are the two factors that make this an OK film.

Marshall Industries of Denver makes the country's no. 1 beer. In fact, in this movie, beer is VERY popular. Most people seem to be drunk a lot of the time, and even 6-year-olds can drink. But Blake, despite being a Marshall employee, wants nothing to do with the beer outside the workplace. He doesn't want his children drinking either.

One day a mystery man shows up at Marshall looking for work. He is willing to do anything. I'm not exactly sure what he was trying to accomplish. He has one scene with Blake where he claims to be a Mormon. Later he has gotten access to the Marshall brewery by claiming to be Cary Grant. As far as I can tell, this is the one time Rich Little uses the skill for which he is best known. Other than that, his abilities weren't used to their potential. He is an okay actor, though.

As a M*A*S*H fan, I liked Jamie Farr the best. He too had a secret agenda of some kind which involved sneaking into the brewery of Marshall's leading competitor. Along the way, he had numerous mishaps. Farr's performance wasn't quite on the level of Corporal Klinger, but he didn't seem to have that much to work with. The other actors had the goofier lines and Farr seemed to play more straight when he spoke, instead ending up a victim of physical comedy.

I do know that there was some secret ingredient that everyone wanted their hands on. Supposedly, this ingredient would make the other beer number one.

I'm not sure what to think of this movie overall. At times it was a hilarious satire. But bad acting in a conventional movie doesn't look too different from good acting in a spoof. I'll give the people who made the movie the benefit of the doubt and say they made a good, but not great, satire. The situations were so silly that this movie was still entertaining, even if I didn't know exactly what was going on. Adding a lot to the movie: the physical comedy and elaborate plans for getting into ... wherever.

The ending was enjoyable in a goofy way. It was one of those cases where the characters knew they were in a movie.

This was an example of some of the worst mugging and all-around bad acting since Plan 9 from Outer Space! The leads actually maintain a straight face throughout to their credit, but the supporting cast (every last one of 'em), are all horrendous! It could have been funny if it had been played a bit more realistically. Then the outrageous behavior shown by the characters' reaction to the "Marshall Beer secret ingredient" would have been hilarious. Oh well... it WAS filmed in 1987 after all.