The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)

This tells the true story of Chickie Donohue (Zac Efron) who decided that he was fed up hearing the continuing reports of bad news from the Vietnam war, and so decided to travel to the war zone - as a civilian - and take the serving friends from his neighbourhood some beer! Using a combination of guile and brass neck, he is soon in situ, where he encounters the cynical journalist Arthur Coates (Russell Crowe) before embarking on his trek to deliver his beer. If it were not fact, it would really beggar belief this - the hand that serendipity plays in ensuring not just his safety, but the manner in which he blags his way around this tortured land, is sometimes just a little too difficult to believe. Efron is never going to be a good versatile actor, but to give him his due he delivers well enough here with a decent script and once we enter the final phase that involves more of a contribution from Crowe, the film picks up giving us some indication of just how perilous life was for those facing the Viet Cong's stealthy advance. It's not without it's humour and it illustrates amusingly just how afraid everyone was of falling foul of the CIA - a confusion which he was able to take advantage of on a regular basis! It's a tale of camaraderie in it's truest form, and though not really a cinema film, is at the better end of the Apple productions we have seen so far. It is half an hour too long - it takes way too long to get going, but once we are in Asia, it's a watchable enough drama.