Strange Brew

Take off to the Great White North in a video time machine to see "Strange Brew."

Based on the early 1980s SCTV sketch starring dim, toque-wearing brothers Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug McKenzie (Dave Thomas) - as well as loosely on "Hamlet" - the film doesn't hold up all that well, but reminds me of my Canadian high school boyfriend and our fondness for calling everyone hosers (the McKenzie family dog - also a skunk superhero - is named Hosehead), talking about checking hockey players into the boards as well as eating donuts (years before Homer Simpson), back bacon and quaffing cases of Molson and Labatt's beer.

The brewery at the heart of the movie is the spooky, appropriately castle-esque Elsinore, run by malevolent beer baron Brewmaster Smith (Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominee Max von Sydow) who also helms the nearby mental institution, helped by hapless Claude (skinny, beetle-browed Paul Dooley, playing the Claudius-based usurper).

The asylum inmates are fed drugged beer, dressed in black and white hockey gear, then are controlled by arena organ music (which eventually becomes Bob and Doug's theme and musical cry: "Koo loo koo koo!), in a plan to take over the world, starting at the local Oktoberfest.

Former player and current patient Jean "Rosie" LaRose (Angus MacInnes), throwing hips and elbows when necessary, takes a shine to heir apparent Pam Elsinore (Lynne Griffin) as the brothers stumble their way into foiling the evil plot.

The two Blu-ray features are a clip from the TV show, and a runner in the movie: "How to Stuff a Mouse Into a Beer Bottle;" and a trailer from a 2002 show, "The Animated Adventures of Bob and Doug McKenzie" (where they note "we only have three fingers. And a thumb."

Not much depth, but still beauty, eh?

"Strange Brew"
Blu-ray
$12.97
http://www.warnerbros.com/strange-brew