Even the most raving pro-American would have to concede it's a bit of an unfair match.

A good ole' US drinking team (weak, fizzy lager-type belly wash) engaging in a clash of the tankards with German adversaries (potent old ale adhering to ancient purity laws).

This is the basic comedy premise of the latest offering from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe. The surprise is that they've raised their game as well as their glasses.

The Wolfhouse brothers (Stolhanske and Soter) are obliged to put together a crack team of beer monsters to defend their family honour in the Bavarian beerfest competition.

First recruit is "one-man chugging" machine Landfill (Heffernan), followed by booze chemist Fink (Lemme) and finally ace gamer (and mature rent boy) Badrinath (Chandrasekhar).

This unlikely gang of competition guzzlers have got a year to get out of shape... and meet the challenge of the Wolfhouse bros' German cousins - a constantly-oiled imbibing machine who look like a camp Kraftwerk on steroids.

No Teutonic national stereotype or racial cliche is left undisturbed...but such is the brio brought to this non-PC mirth-fest that you have to laugh. Even if you know you shouldn't.

Broken Lizard were a student revue team from America's Colgate University...so you know exactly what type of humour to expect. It's not subtle, it's not pretty but it does what's expected.

There's also in-jokes about Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot (co-star Jurgen Prochnow played the U-Boat captain) amd even some wry observations on comedy convention.

Supporting the team are a roll-call of Page Three type totty, only too willing to take their tops off at the drop of a barrel...even if impartial observers may think they should be scraping it.

By last orders, Beerfest fizzes rather than falls flat...even if time should have been called just a little earlier.

Tim Evans