Strange Brew

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Strange Brew is a movie based off of The Great White North sketches. In it, half-wit brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) plan to obtain free beer by working at the Elsinore Brewery, where Pamela Elsinore (Lynne Griffin), the heiress, is troubled over the death of her father, John Elsinore, the owner of the brewery. Unbeknownst to Bob and Doug, but beknownst to Pamela, Brewmeister Smith (Max Von Sydow) wants to unleash a hostile takeover to release a hypnosis-laced beer to the world.

Tropes used in Strange Brew include:
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: This movie is shot in 3-B!
    • Also referred to as "Hoser-ama".
  • Anticlimax: Played for laughs when Rosie and Doug go to free Pam and Bob from the beer vat.

Rosie: "Look out, this is really gonna blow!"
Doug: "It didn't blow."

  • Balloon Belly: Happens to Bob when he and Pamela were trapped in a tank by Brewmeister Smith. Bob simply drinks all the beer being poured in the tank (off-screen, though) and his belly swells to about 10 to 20 times his size, saving them both, but he needs to pee badly afterwards.
  • Black Comedy Rape: See Getting Crap Past the Radar.
  • Butt Monkey: Claude Elsinore is bossed around in hilariously abusive ways by Brewmeister Smith.
  • Canada, Eh?: EVERYWHERE in the movie. Our heroes use it almost like punctuation.
  • Comedic Heroes/Idiot Heroes
  • Comically Small Bribe: Bob and Doug bribe an Elsinore receptionist for information with a donut... it works... twice.
    • Please note that it was a JELLY donut.
  • Genius Ditz: Smith considers Bob and Doug to each be one when he learns that Doug obtained the one disc that would incriminate him, even though it was all the doing of Pam's dad's ghost.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Doug joking about Bob being raped when they get arrested.

Doug: Those big cons are gonna love you, eh?
Bob: What do you mean?
Doug: You're a cute little guy. They're gonna be lovin' you from dawn until dusk.
Bob: Where are you gonna be?
Doug: I'll be in the cafeteria, selling smokes.

  • Groin Attack: Happens to Doug when he and Bob were playing hockey.

Doug: Ow, my left nut!

  • Heroic Dog: Hosehead near the end of the movie.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Mel Blanc provided the voice of Doug and Bob's dad, using exactly the same voice he did for Mr. Spacely.
  • Hilarity Ensues: Being based off of the Great White North sketches, this is bound to happen. Despite references to Hamlet, there are very little serious scenes. Very little, as there were only 7, involving only Pamela.
  • It Runs in The Family: Everybody in the McKenzie family drinks. Including their dog. Apparently, they all have cast-iron livers.
  • Kangaroo Court: The whole trial scene appears to be one considering the Bob and Doug's so called defence attorney is on the payroll of the Magnificent Bastard, that and the degree of ineptitude and how easily obviously faked evidence is admitted, though the trial is never seen through to it's conclusion (the court adjourns and sends Bob and Doug to the mental institution, but a final verdict is never handed out, nor a sentence).
  • Meat-O-Vision: When Bob and Doug forget to feed Hosehead, the dog sees the duo as giant steaks.
  • Mood Whiplash: Bob and Doug driving into the water at the pier, and subsequent scenes until it turns out that they, and the hockey player/LoveInterest that saved Pamela's life, are still alive.
  • The Nameless: Pam's mother is never named by name in the movie, but anyone familiar with the story wouldn't be surprised if it's Gertrude.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Smith's plan would have eventually failed anyway as the repeated consumption of the drugged beer made La Rose (and would eventually make everyone else) immune to it.
  • No Fourth Wall: Done with the ghost of Pam's father when he reveals where the drugged beer is being sent by magically writing his message on the wall.
    • "Oktoberfest! Stop them! Nice effects, eh?"
  • Pietà Plagiarism: Pamela holding Bob after he faints when Brewmeister Smith threatens to kill them.
  • Police Are Useless: If any of them had any type of observational ability, they would have arrested Claude and Smith right away.
    • To elaborate, when Smith shoots Pam with a tranq dart that scrambles her brain for a while, their car and faces are in plain sight and they speed away very conspicuously.
  • Recycled in Space: this is Hamlet, IN A BREWERY!
  • Saw Star Wars 27 Times: Bob says that Doug saw Jedi 17 times.
  • Spinning Paper: Happens after Bob and Doug are arrested after being framed by Brewmeister Smith over the kidnapping of Pamela. When the paper stopped spinning, it shows an advertisement for ladies' undergarments, and then a hand flips the paper over to show Bob and Doug's faces.
  • Stoner Flick: Sort of. As Kevin Smith put it, it's basically like Jay and Silent Bob, only with beer instead of weed.
  • Stylistic Suck: Bob and Doug's Movie Within A Movie, Mutants of 2051 AD.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: When Doug leads the asylum inmates to attack Claude.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Beer, of course. Also, donuts, especially jelly.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer shows how Pam and Bob survive being trapped in a vat slowly filling with beer.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Two examples: The Elsinore brewery receptionist disappears without a trace halfway through the film and Henry Green plays no substantial role whatsoever after the Mood Whiplash scene above.
    • Three: Ted the Assistant. He gets body checked into an office by Rosie and a few minutes later Brewmaster Smith just shrugs off is disappearance as "I think Ted is dead." That's it. No follow up or anything.
  • What Were We Doing Again: Bob and Doug quickly forget about looking for their horked clothes and end up looking for beer instead.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: A very loose adaptation of Hamlet, with Bob and Doug more-or-less Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.