Troubled
comedian Artie Lange’s lowbrow, politically incorrect yet amusing gonzo Beer League, newly re-released on blu-ray
by MVD, represents a snapshot in time of a slowly fading bygone era of booze-heavy
sex, drugs and rock & roll comedies about the middle-aged loser
lifestyle. Seen at the height of the
subgenre’s renaissance run in the mid-2000s it doesn’t make a huge impression
but looking back at the film’s somewhat difficult production due its
increasingly problematic lead comic star now makes it something of a fascinating
chapter in Artie Lange’s checkered career.
Not unlike, say, Neighbors with
John Belushi, the comedian’s personal demons nearly derailed the production
itself, making one wonder if in the end it was worth all the trouble.
To
be fair, Beer League inhabits a kind
of Happy Madison arena of
productions, made on the fly mostly with a sketch-comedy premise of improvised
gags and off-color jokes thrown together vaguely resembling a feature length “movie”. Aside from overqualified cast member Ralph
Macchio as a soon-to-be newlywed if his friend Artie’s drug-and-sex drenched bachelor
party doesn’t undo the wedding engagement, Beer
League is mostly about Artie Lange’s personal mantra of boozing, drugging
it up and enjoying life. Not unlike the
character being played, more-or-less an extension of himself, Beer League was beset by the lead actor’s
shenanigans.
Lange
was still busy touring while pre-production began on the film, the stress of
which coupled with personal training to meet the demands of the role drove the
comedian to intensify his drinking and intake of twenty painkillers a day. Worse still, the comic also picked up a
heroin addiction which resulted in his absence from pre-production meetings and
casting auditions. The film’s co-writer
and director-for-hire, Frank Sebastiano, issued an ultimatum: shape up or the
film is shut down. Lange heeded the
warning and soon finished shooting sober and on time.
Sadly,
however, the end results didn’t pay off.
The film opened in limited release before being condemned by the critics
and relegated to straight-to-video obscurity, making Beer League yet another failure in a string of personal failings
for the comedian. In the years since the
film has attained something of a cult following though with all the trouble
Artie Lange has had over the years, having recently resurfaced in the news due
to finishing up rehab, the film seen now is something of a time capsule.
Comedies
of this sort, deliberately vulgar and stupid as well as endorsing the loser lifestyle, are rarely made anymore even though in the mid-2000s they were
coming out like no tomorrow with Lange’s entry into the subgenre something of a
late bloomer. It will maybe garner a
couple chuckles or two from you if nothing else. Lowbrow, basic and somewhat dated, Beer League is idiotic yet mildly
intoxicating raunchy fun. You could do
worse with two hours.
--Andrew Kotwicki
