Strange Brew = Hamlet

[Dano]

Flangeport wrote (in an earlier thread):  Yeah. Elsinor Brewery? Dead dad? Evil Unc? But, does that Make Bob and Doug Hamlet and Horatio....or Rozencrantz and Guildenstern? Like that movie. Nice laid back attitude.

*****  Seriously, think about this:

1.  Pam (the brewery heiress) comes home from college to find her dad dead and her mom now married to her uncle who secretly murdered him -- exactly like Hamlet coming home from Heidelberg University.  Her dad's ghost reveals this to her on the arcade game screen, just like Hamlet's dad's ghost revealed it to him.  Pamela - Hamlet... kind of sound alike, eh?

2.  Rosie the crazy Hocky player is Ophelia - Hamlet's crazy girlfriend (sexes are reversed here obviously).  How does Ophelia die?  She drowned.  Remember the scene where Rosie drowns?  Okay, so Strange Brew had a happier ending.

3.  Bob and Doug are Rosencranz and Gildenstern.  They halp Pam when they arrive at the castle (she's trapped by an electric fence), like R&G helped Hamlet (my memory is fuzzy, but I know they saved him).  Also, the scene where Brewmeister Smith sends them on an errand with their brakes cut is reminiscent of the scene where R&G get sent with a message to kill the messengers.

4.  Yes, as you point out, there is a Castle Elsinore in both Hamlet and Strange Brew.

5.  Okay, finding a parallel in Hamlet to the scene where they send the dog who looks like a skunk flying to Oktoberfest to save the world is gonna take some serious research, but one of these days I am gonna sit down with Hamlet and come up with a blow by blow comparison.  I think there's also a similar scene in Hamlet as when Bob and Doug bribe the secretary with a jelly donut to get her to tell them the dirt on Elsinore brewery.  Dang, I wish I'd read Hamlet more recently.

[Cullen]

Excellent thoughts, but here's a problem for you: Rosencranz and Gildenstern weren't on Hamlet's side.  (Also, I don't think they saved his life at any point, or, at least, they never intended to.)

Still, interesting corollaries there.
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Cullen, who read Hamlet a long time ago, eh?

[J.R.]

Strange Brew came ot on DVD today. Bare bones, I'm afraid. It would be sweet if Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas did a commentary in-character, like the guys on the Spinal Tap disc. There was to be a sequel, but the funding fell through.

[AndyC]

One of my favourite movies. Back when I used to brew beer at home, I used to pop this in the VCR and string a cable out to the kitchen when I was cooking up a new batch.

Dano mentioned one of my favourite scenes. The part where they send Hosehead, the dog, to Oktoberfest always makes me laugh, because I live around there, and the directions are familiar to me. They do make a mistake though. When you take the 401 from Toronto to Kitchener, you don't take highway 6 north, or you'll wind up in Guelph. Highway 8 north takes you to Kitchener and Oktoberfest, which is coming up very soon. Just thought I'd share that useless bit of information.

[Flangepart]

Ya booked 'em, Dano.
....If i ever see a video of the play "A night in Elsinor", where Hamlet is treated as a Marx brothers movie, this would make a great double feature. BTW,Flew Air Canada to and from old Blighty. Misplaced on of my bags. rewrote the Canadian Nat. Anthem.
....(Singing?) Air, Can-ada....oh please don't loose my bags. I'm-gonna- need my shorts, when i get off this plane.....
....Other then lost underwere, i like Canada....
....(Singing? Agine?) Oh, Can-ada. You realy make good beer. America-owes you- so much,you sent John Candy there!......
....When will the jet lagg ever end!?

[J.R.]

Beer is like a way of life up in Canada. If you can't get drunk and do something hockey-related you just get drunk. That seemed to be it as far as recreation for the short time I spent in Ontario.

[raj]

To beer or not to beer, that is the question.  
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the suds and bubbles of outrageous p**s water, or to take in arms a sea of Guiness, and by belching, oppose them.  
To down, to sip, perchance to toast. . .


Gawd I hate working late.

[Dano]

If I lived somewhere where it was dark at 3:30 pm (Canada in the winter), I'd drink to distract myself from depression.

If I lived somewhere where the sun was up until 2:00 am, I'd be out drinking with friends and enjoying the sunlight all the time.

My God, what are those poor Canadians supposed to do BUT drink??

Only been once, but had a great time.  Weird driving from New York and seeing signs in French... Comparable to driving from London and seeing signs in Welsh this past summer.

[Flangepart]

Alas, Poor Doug.
....I knew him, Bob. I fellow of infinate gas. Who was apt to set the table aflame with his noxious vapors, whilst unstopping his bunghole.
....Here are those lips, that i have punched i know not how often, when he did slip off with Ophelia, for nookie with my beloved.
....How kind he was, Bob, to pay for my beer, when i was broken of heart and moneybag. Did i not laugh at his gamboling across the kings table, makeing faces at the Princess, and asking her to "Pull his finger"?
....How i laughed, when the Queen said "Off with his head!", and the look on poor Doug's face, as the ax decended, the last words spoken on Earth being "On the whole, i'd rather be in Finland."
....Alas, Poor Doug. And alas poor me....for it was i stuck with his last bar tab.

[John]

Now, do all you fans of Strange Brew have the Bob & Doug action figures? :)