Review of Artie Lange's Beer League Self-Written Comedy

Any regular listener of the Howard Stern Show is familiar with co-host Artie Lange's grounded Jersey humor, which mainly consists of stories about alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and, well, weight abuse. Something about Artie's personable, rough nature makes him accessible to Stern's big audience, and his fan base has been growing. As a result, he's gotten bit parts in HBO's Entourage as well as other shows and movies, leading up to Beer League, his first significant lead role in a self-written comedy.

The premise is pretty easy to pull from the title. Lange and his friends have a team in a softball beer league, and as the worst team in the league, they're perpetually ridiculed by the best team in the league, led by Artie's high school rival, Dennis Mangenelli (overplayed by Anthony DeSando). After a fight breaks out between the two, the town police issue an ultimatum--whoever has the worst record at the end of the season has to find another league to play in. In the meantime, Artie meets a girl who urges him to give up his self-consuming obsession with Mangenelli.

The movie's strength is its realism and unashamed use of obscenity and simplicity. That may make it sound like it's nothing but ribald silliness, but, well, that's exactly what it is, and there's nothing wrong with that. Lange and company speak with Jersey phrases and Jersey mouths, and nothing is really overdone but every thing's appropriately extreme. People curse, do drugs, and generally act like people in Jersey--and Lange in particular, considering his Stern show stories and the fact that he was kicked off of MadTV for being addicted to cocaine--tend to act.

Now, that should give you a good idea if this is the type of movie you want to see. Just to enforce that point: anyone with a tender mind or heart probably shouldn't see this movie--it's sexist, crude, and condones every vice imaginable. But hey, loosen up if you can--it's a comedy.