Parents' Guide to

Strange Brew

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Classic '80s send-up of Canada; lots of beer drinking.

Movie PG 1983 90 minutes
Strange Brew Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 2+

Based on 1 parent review

Johnson B. R.
Johnson B. R. Parent of 2, 3, 4, 16, 17 and 18-year-old
January 31, 2023
age 2+

Family friendly fun

Beautiful masterpiece of a movie. I played this for my children including a 6 month old and now they drink Elsinore beer and speak fluent Canadian. Good clean fun for the whole family, and the McKenzie brothers are good role models for adolescents. Must watch, especially if Canadian. Save the Hosers!

This title has:

Educational value
Great messages
Great role models
1 person found this helpful.
See all 1 parent review

What's the Story?

In STRANGE BREW, Bob and Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) have just given away the money their father (voiced by Mel Blanc) gave them to buy beer to refund one of the tickets purchased by an irate attendee of their dystopian science fiction no-budget B movie Mutants of 2051 A.D. With no job and no money, they decide to scam a local brewery by sticking a mouse inside an empty beer bottle and claiming that they found the mouse inside the bottle after purchasing the beer and are therefore entitled to a replacement case of beer. This leads Bob and Doug to Elsinore Brewery, where the owner of the brewery has recently died under mysterious circumstances, and the late brewer's wife married the brewer's brother immediately after the funeral. While the brewer's daughter, Pam, still retains 51% ownership of the brewery, the wicked brewmaster (Max von Sydow) has come up with a plan to not only take control of the brewery, but also conquer the world. He attempts to frame the bumbling McKenzie Brothers for murder, and they must find a way to prove their innocence, save Pam from getting a lobotomy, and foil the brewmaster's scheme.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1):
Kids say (1):

There's a deceptive brilliance to this goofy movie. Sure, there's plenty of slapstick humor, memorable catchphrases such as "Take off, hoser!" and "Beauty, eh?" and jokes involving flatulence and urination, but it's also loosely based on Hamlet. And the bad guy in the midst of all this silliness is Max von Sydow -- best known for playing extremely solemn characters in Ingmar Bergman films. The lead characters themselves, Bob and Doug McKenzie, were created as a deliberate mockery of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's demand for more "Canadian content" on SCTV (a must-watch for all students of comedy, sketch comedy writers, and improv enthusiasts). Because of this sense of obvious parody and satire, to say nothing of the undeniable fact that Bob and Doug are also endearingly lovable losers, it's an extremely rare instance of stereotyping that's actually funny.

For many children of the 1980s, the jokes and one-liners in Strange Brew are as memorable as anything in Caddyshack and This is Spinal Tap. Strange Brew might not be for everybody in much the same way The Three Stooges aren't for everybody, but these toque-wearing beer-obsessed "hosers" definitely still have a place among other bumbling comedy duos of the 20th century.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about stereotyping. These characters were deliberately created to be over-the-top parodies of Canadian culture in response to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's demand for more "Canadian content" in SCTV. How is Strange Brew satire, as opposed to the typical stereotyping in movies and TV that's used to get cheap laughs at the expense of various ethnic groups and minorities?

  • The storyline to Strange Brew loosely follows Hamlet. In fact, Bob and Doug McKenzie are modeled on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet. There have been numerous movies based on Shakespeare plays and placed in modern settings. Why do you think filmmakers look to Shakespeare as a guide to telling their stories?

  • Plenty of movies center on characters who first appeared on comedy shows -- SNL alone has dozens of such movies by now. What do you think the challenges would be in taking characters successful on sketch comedy shows and making feature-length films about them?

Movie Details

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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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