Documentaries have always tended to be a little bit on the boring side. Remember those dreaded movies that teachers made us watch back in high school? Well those were the old days, and documentaries are making a comeback. One has slowly been making its way on the radar but still lacks distribution among everyday college students. American Beer is the child of five friends from New York who got the idea to travel the country in their van for 40 days. The crew went on a quest, hitting up 38 breweries, searching for the perfect American micro-brewed beer. Their mission was to meet the people behind the beer, see how the beer is made, get the in-
side scoop and drink a few with the creators.

The documentary starts out with the guys seeing the breweries that New York City has to offer. After that, they venture across the country. Each night, the guys travel to a different city and hang out with the owner of the bar or the microbrewery.

In the film, while the guys stop off and hang out with some unknown brew-meisters, they manage to find time in those 40 days to hang out with the big leaguers of the beer world. Stops include such popular breweries as Pennsylvania's own Yueng-ling, as well as the brewery that created the ever so popular, yet expensive, Magic Hat.

Not even a third of the way through filming, most of the guys get accustomed to driving for hours on end, while nursing hangovers, and they even make it a point to ask people at each brewery what their personal hangover cure is. But by the end of the film, the only cure these guys can find is more drinking.

Now, for most adults, watching five men drink beer every night, get drunk and be hungover the next day might not be entertaining.

However, for college students, this sometimes is just the average week. What isn't so average is the weight these guys pack on in the 40 days of shooting. One guy even manages to gain 15 pounds by week three -- which gives new meaning to the term beer belly.

While American Beer is a fun documentary that makes you want to sample the microbrews while watching, there is a point buried somewhere deep in the drunkenness, hangovers and late night munchies.

What concerns these guys the most is the fact that the "big guys" such as Anheuser Busch are dominating the
beer industry, and the little breweries,
as popular as they are, can't make it.

So do yourself a favor, rent American Beer, hit up the six-pack shop and get a sampler pack of micro-brewed beers, and educate yourself on the wonder that is beer.