Strange Brew
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- This article is about the 1983 film. For the Cream compilation album, please see Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream.
Strange Brew is a 1983 film starring the popular SCTV characters Bob & Doug McKenzie, played by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, who also directed. Max von Sydow co-stars. The story is loosely based on the Shakespearean play Hamlet, with the McKenzie Brothers taking the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Story
Two adult brothers, Bob and Doug McKenzie, are in a bind when they run out of beer and have already given away the beer money given to them by their father. The brothers place a mouse in a beer bottle in an attempt to get free beer. The brothers try to get their beer at a local liquor store but are told to take it up with the brewery. After presenting the evidence to management at Elsinore brewery, the brothers are given jobs on the line to inspect the bottles for issues such as mice.
What they are unaware of is a plot by Brewmeister Smith (von Sydow) to take over the world by placing chemicals in the beer which, while otherwise rendering the consumer docile, causes him or her to attack others when the appropriate music is played. (Thus the title "Strange Brew"). Smith tests this beer on patients of the conveniently-located Royal Canadian Instutute for the Mentally Insane.
Meanwhile, a second plot is in action which is inspired by and somewhat resembles the plot of Hamlet. The former brewery owner dies and his daughter (Lynne Griffin) turns 21, giving her full control of the brewery. Her uncle (Paul Dooley) married the widowed wife and is reluctant to give up his recently-gained control (although he is really just a pawn to Brewmeister Smith). Bob and Doug are caught in the middle of these plots and maintain a close relationship with the daughter, stumbling upon the revelation of her father's murder, a onetime hockey great (Angus MacInnes) now under Smith's control, and the Brewmeister's plot for world domination. Plenty of comedy ensues, including a skunk-painted dog and a tongue-in-cheek ghost.
A loose framework story style is employed in the movie; the opening shows the McKenzies on the "Great White North" set, which they return to at the close of the main story.