Strange Brew

Two Canadian brothers, Bob and Doug McKenzie, put a mouse in a bottle to get free beer and take their complaint to the Elsinore brewery. They are given jobs there and find something nobody has noticed: the head brewmeister is trying to control people through the beer. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas brought the characters over from SCTV, wrote the screenplay and directed it together. The skeleton is taken openly from Hamlet, with the brewery's owner dead, his daughter suspicious and his brother in charge. Max von Sydow plays the villain in complete seriousness, and that choice is what makes the comedy work. Jokes built on Canadianness set the film's language. Who it is for: viewers who like eighties absurdist comedy and SCTV humour. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a story that is not formulaic.