Three years after Saturday Night Live's the Blues Brothers made their film debut, SCTV's McKenzie brothers got a film of their own. Only, this wasn't an incredibly popular act pushing itself further into the mainstream while towing its influences along. Strange Brew feels more like an act of trickery, in which the Dave Thomas-Rick Moranis duo was funded by a studio but allowed to remain in their own basement making an oddball - and hilarious - feature. Jake and Elwood were on a mission from God, bringing their deadpan cool to epic proceedings. Doug and Bob instead blindly stumble into a motion picture, getting laughs from their foolish misunderstanding of the situation.
As with all sketch character-based movies, the question is: are the people who we've chuckled at for 5 minutes worth spending 90 more minutes with? Bob and Doug answer that with a resounding "yes," likely followed by accusations that we the audience are hosers for asking in the first place. Moranis and Thomas have developed these characters - from their slang to their look to their reactions to others - exceedingly well, allowing them to carry a thin, silly premise. They're essentially live-action cartoon characters, gleefully spouting non sequiturs, smashing the fourth wall, and making us laugh at their outrageous stupidity.