Not quite sure what I was expecting from this one, total unknown besides the title and the fact it had a giant can of PBR on the poster. So, + ½ beer in ratings at least there. But despite the admittedly silly poster, it gets into some serious side of things. Well, seriouser, at least. Depending on how you view War. Some think it’s rather silly. Some consider it a bit mundane but necessary. Ozzy? He knows what those War Pigs were all about. Fuck’em.
Based on a true story. New York, 1967. Chickie (Zac Efron), not the most ambitious of guys, even his friends know it. But while out drinking, again, he kinda commits to something. To bring all his buddies serving in ‘Nam a beer, let them know the neighborhood is thinking about em. What starts off as a drunken promise ends up turning into something a lot more serious. And with not really knowing what’s exactly goin on over there? He finds out. It takes a bit. Not the fullest beer in the 6-pack, that Chickie. Street-mart, though. Even if he isn’t C.I.A.
At this point now Vietnam is a pretty distant past. I’ve seen and read a bit on it to know, yeah, it wasn’t exactly the best situation. What war is? But, well, this one has a particularly nasty stank to it. This is not as harsh as Full Metal Jacket or Platoon, but an interesting narrative from the total normie perspective of Chickie, being a slacker in the Merchant Marines, really just not knowing what’s going on over there besides what he’s told on the The Glass Teat. Zac Efron does a good job with his pre-70s porno stache and pool shirt and naivete. Bill Murray does a respectable little role. This overall is a decent drama and a look at some stuff a lot of people don’t really look at much. The C.I.A. thing is both perilous and a bit lighter in humor to stage it throughout so things, while serious, aren’t quite THAT serious.
