12 Best Movies Like The Greatest Beer Run Ever You Should Watch

True friendship and loyalty know no boundaries — not state lines, national borders, or even war. A group of friends in 1967 discovered this for themselves when an ordinary dock worker in Manhattan traveled halfway around the world and went into an active combat zone with one simple goal: Bring some soldier buddies some beer and let them know that everyone back home was pulling for them.

An unbelievable true story, the real-life friends reunited in 2015 for the first time since that fateful day and shared a few drinks, reminiscing about the wild story of Chickie Donohue's 7000-mile trip from New York to Vietnam. But little did they know that in 2022 their story would become a feature film starring Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, and Bill Murray. A dark comedy about one man's simple quest to deliver beer into a war zone, it's an inspiring journey that sees Donuhue facing real dangers he never imagined, while trying to bring hope to old friends.

"The Greatest Beer Run Ever" is funny, endearing, action-packed, and emotional, but it's certainly not the only film of its kind. So put on your flak jacket and crack open a cold one, because we're going on a run of our own: To find 12 great movies like "The Greatest Beer Run Ever."

While "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" focuses on a journey to Vietnam to reconnect with friends in the war, our first film takes a slightly different tack. In the 1977 drama "Heroes," former "Happy Days" star Henry Winkler puts away the leather jacket and lets his greased hair down to play a beleaguered Vietnam veteran who is looking to locate the men he served with in Southeast Asia years earlier. In doing so, he learns to heal from the difficult experiences he endured in the war.

It begins with Jack Dunne (Winkler) recovering from combat-related PTSD. He has trouble with his memory, and a stay in a psychiatric hospital has been of little help. But with dreams of becoming a worm farmer out west, Dunne decides to take a cross-country road trip to California, with a plan to seek out his former soldier friends from Vietnam and get their help in starting his business. While on his travels, Dunne meets Carol Bell (Sally Field), a young woman who is facing her own crossroads, and the two soon fall in love.

An emotional, heartwarming story, "Heroes" may be a difficult watch for some, but its empowering message of faith and healing will resonate with audiences who enjoyed the more sentimental moments of "The Greatest Beer Run Ever."

Based on a true story that mixes emotional drama and light-hearted comedy, "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" is a tale of enduring loyalty drawn from remarkable real-life experiences of a group of close friends. Similarly, the 2018 comedy "Tag" was also based on a true story of a decades-long friendship that was lived out through a hilariously endless game of tag. The story went viral after it was published in the Wall Street Journal in January 2013, and it wasn't long before Hollywood came calling.

With an all-star cast including Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Hannibal Burress, Jeremy Renner, and Jake Johnson, the film sees the Wall Street Journal's reporter Rebecca Crosby (Isla Fisher) approach the group for an interview after hearing about their 23-year-long game of tag. When she arrives, Jerry is all set to be married and has announced his impending retirement from the game. But as the only member of the group who's never been tagged, it becomes a race against time to see who can lay down the hand that finally gets him ... and wild antics ensue.

Of the film, Variety said that "Tag" would leave viewers "inspired, having delivered all that outrageousness ... in service of what ultimately amounts to a sincere celebration of lasting human connections." An uproariously funny and unexpectedly poignant story, "Tag" should scratch your itch for real-life camaraderie played out on the big screen.

If you want a film that captures some of the more action-packed and dramatic wartime elements of "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," and you don't mind something that eschews the humor, check out the war drama "Da 5 Bloods." The final film to star actor Chadwick Boseman during his lifetime, it was released just two months before his untimely death in 2020. Directed by Academy Award-winner Spike Lee, the rest of the film's cast is rounded out by Jonathan Majors, Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Beginning at the height of the Vietnam War, an all-black squad of U.S. soldiers is sent on a mission to recover a crashed plane that houses a massive shipment of gold bars. Their attempt to steal the gold for themselves backfires, though, when they come under attack from the Viet Cong, and their treasure is lost ... or so they think. 30 years later, new information sends the surviving soldiers on a mission back to Vietnam to find their lost gold. While making their way through the jungle, they are confronted with ghosts of the past.

A darker, more sobering tale than "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," "Da 5 Bloods" remains a powerful film that became all the more moving after Boseman's passing, whose character's early death in the story haunts them along their journey.

If you're looking for an emotional story set during the Vietnam War, with a touch of light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek humor like "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," you can't do much better than the Robin Williams classic, "Good Morning, Vietnam." The film mixes wartime drama with sarcasm, wit, and sagacity, which, alongside Williams' manic mannerisms, provides a unique contrast to the seriousness of the battles raging around him.

The year is 1965, and the Vietnam War isn't going well, with morale among U.S. troops sinking by the day. To combat the crisis, goofball airman Adrian Cronauer (Williams) is assigned as a disc jockey for the radio station serving the armed forces. Bringing a good-natured, often off-color attitude to his job, he delights the troops but riles his superiors with his freewheeling ways. But his breezy demeanor is shattered when he falls in love with a young Vietnamese woman (Chintara Sukapatana) who exposes him to the darker side of the conflict.

An irreverent comedy set in the midst of a troubling time in history, it doesn't shy away from its controversial subject matter. But with an iconic performance from master comedian Williams — who infuses the film with an uncharacteristically tender touch that his fans might not have expected at the time — "Good Morning, Vietnam!" has become an enduring classic.

Though few can match the irreverent laughs and moving war story of "Good Morning Vietnam," one potential contender is "M*A*S*H," the movie that gave birth to the television classic. Like "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," it blends a powerful war story with the wild antics of American G.I.s overseas. This time, the setting is the war in Korea, though the film — and its television spin-off — were clear allegories for the conflict in Vietnam, both serving as anti-war messaging to a nation weary of the violence seen on the nightly news.

Released in 1970, just as America was embroiled in the Vietnam War, "M*A*S*H" followed the misadventures of a military medical unit in Korea in the 1950s. We meet Trapper John (Elliot Gould), a clownish prankster, and his buddy Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland), who are always off carousing and getting into some kind of trouble or another. If you want a clever comedy about a gang of local idiots in wartime, there's none better than "M*A*S*H.," which was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture.

As the 1970s ended, the world may have seen the Vietnam War drawing to a close, but Hollywood wasn't quite done telling wacky war stories. The 1981 film "Stripes" sees "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" star Bill Murray team with director Ivan Reitman and comic star Harold Ramis, marking the second time — after the 1979 comedy "Meatballs" — that the trio would work together on a film before their iconic 1986 effort "Ghostbusters." As with "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," the film centers on an otherwise ordinary man who decides to go adventuring with the U.S. Army.

But this time it's Bill Murray, as taxi cab driver John Winger, who loses his job and decides he has nothing better to do than to enlist in the military. Not wanting to go alone, he coaxes his longtime buddy Russell Ziskey (Ramis) into coming along for the ride. At boot camp, Winger's oddball attitude draws the ire of his commanders, but he nevertheless becomes the unofficial leader of a group of army outcasts. But when an operation goes wrong, Winger's wacky ways unwittingly threaten to derail the fragile Cold War peace.

A story of an average Joe caught up in the high-stakes world of war, "Stripes" should delight those who want more of the silly side of "The Greatest Beer Run Ever."

Audiences who loved "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" and its look at the camaraderie between good friends and soldiers will also enjoy what might be its closest spiritual cousin, the 2017 comedy-drama "Last Flag Flying." In the same vein as "Da 5 Bloods," it sees a group of Vietnam vets reassembling, but this time with a little bit more humor, though their impetus for getting back together is a sobering one. Helmed by Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater, and featuring a strong cast led by Laurence Fishburne, Steve Carrell, and Bryan Cranston, the movie is brimming with talent.

In this story about the deep scars of war, Doc Shepard (Carell), Richard Mueller (Fishburne), and Sal Nealon (Cranston) are brought back together following a family tragedy. After his son is killed while serving in the war in Iraq, Doc seeks out his old friends for help in recovering his son's body and carrying out the funeral. While Doc struggles with his loss, Mueller serves as religious counsel, having become a preacher since their army days, while Nealon is a hard-drinking louse who is unafraid to be the bearer of harsh truths.

Though it may sound dark, the film never gets too grim, allowing the emotional impact to be carried and broken up by some well-timed levity. If you like the deft mix of comedy and wartime tragedy in "The Greatest Beer Run Every," "Last Flags Flying" is the perfect match.

Just as in "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," the 2002 British war comedy "Two Men Went to War" is based on a real story that's almost too ridiculous to be true — but true it is. We're introduced to an unusual military unit out of Britain during World War II, as Private Leslie Cuthbertson (Leo Bill) and Sgt. Peter King (Kenneth Cranham) serve in the Royal Army Dental Corps. A specialist branch that provides dental care to the army's fighting soldiers, they're not on the front lines, but that's exactly where King and Cuthbertson would like to be. Throwing caution to the wind, the pair of intrepid exodontists leave their unit and go into German-Occupied France in an attempt to help the cause.

A series of misunderstandings and pratfalls later, the two men have inadvertently helped the Allies — just not in the way they imagined. An under-appreciated British film that lacks major stars, "Two Men Went to War" is nevertheless a solid war story with humor and heart, and its underdog true story will evoke "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," even if it can't match the 2022 film's star power.

In "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" it's Chickie Donohue (Zac Efron) who heads into a combat zone and finds himself way over his head. Similarly based on a true story, the 2016 comedy "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" stars Tina Fey ("30 Rock") as Kim Baker, and though she too heads overseas into a war zone, a cable news reporter sent to cover the war in Afghanistan. But despite her mission being officially sanctioned, she realizes she's unprepared for the realities of combat.

Frustrated with covering fluff pieces and unimportant local news, the ambitious Baker decides to take an assignment covering the war in the Middle East. Once there, she befriends BBC news reporter Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie) and becomes romantically linked to Scottish photographer Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman). Though at first overwhelmed, Baker quickly learns the ins and outs of covering the war, including the many dangers she faces. But when Iain is kidnapped by local warlords, she takes it upon herself to see to his rescue.

A fast and loose black comedy, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" is a story of courage. Pairing well with "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," its silliness and cynicism help offset its forthright look at the horrors of war.

In "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," Chickie Donahue does a good deed for his friends by traveling into Vietnam to deliver some brewskis. But what happens when a pair of friends sent to a dangerous, battle-scarred region have far fewer scruples? You'll find out in "Special Correspondents," a film about a wartime reporter who winds up becoming a scam artist, haphazardly crafting an imagined, sensationalistic story.

With the help of his friend and sound engineer Ian Finch (Ricky Gervais), radio reporter Frank Bonneville (Eric Bana) strong-arms his bosses into sending him to Ecuador to report on a violent political shakeup. But when they lose their passports and fear they'll lose their jobs as a result, Frank and Ian decide to fake the reports from home, providing riveting moment-by-moment blows of the chaos in the foreign capital from a spare bedroom. But as the war situation spirals out of control, so does their own, and in a desperate bid to avoid being discovered, they fake their own kidnapping, which quickly becomes national news.

Similar in spirit to "The Greatest Beer Run," the film's raucously zany series of escalating hijinks makes "Special Correspondents" a good choice if you're looking for a wild ride about an out-of-control everyman.

A dark comedy of the highest caliber, the 1999 David O. Russell film "Three Kings" mixes elements from many of the films on this list, including "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," with its underdog heroes on a mission. A razor-sharp military satire, its sterling cast includes George Clooney, Ice Cube, and Mark Wahlberg.

The film takes us back to 1991 when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait, and the United States executes Operation Desert Storm to stop him. As the war is coming to a close, and American forces are due to withdraw, three men scheme to steal a stash of Hussein's gold bullion that he'd himself stolen from neighboring Kuwait. But things get out of hand when one of them is taken prisoner by a group of Iraqi dissidents who need their help defending against Hussein's reprisals. 

Full of fast-paced army action, Variety lauded the film in their review, praising it for "discharging black humor, startling action, genre subversion, anarchic attitude and barbed political commentary on its way to making very cogent points about the cynically expedient nature of war."

A clear pastiche of "Saving Private Ryan," the 2011 Mexican action comedy "Saving Private Pérez" is a mix of gritty Western and grindhouse action, swirled with some darkly comical violence. Just as we see in "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," the film involves a quest to a foreign battlefield to find a friend, but this is no unprepared everyman. Instead, it's a Mexican mob boss who heads to Iraq on a mission to locate his brother, a U.S. Marine soldier.

The action opens when Juan Pérez (Juan Carlos Flores), a U.S. Army Private serving in Iraq, goes missing. His mother back in Mexico begs Juan's older brother Julián (Miguel Rodarte) to find him, but while Julián is no soldier, he's more than capable of holding his own in a war, because he also happens to be a ruthless drug lord. Recruiting an eclectic, rag-tag team that includes a psychopathic killer (Rodrigo Oviedo) and a tomato farmer (Carmelo Benavides), Julián faces an uphill battle to fight his way through insurgent forces to find his brother and get out alive.

Though the film was no critical darling, the audience reaction was strong, with viewers agreeing that "Saving Private Pérez" was a fast, fun, and exuberantly violent action comedy.