AllMovie

While The Outdoorsmen succeeds at shocking its audience due to the asinine nature of its subject, the documentary misses its mark by presenting things in a televised-sports style rather than giving unique insight into this brand of man-love insanity. Many groups of friends have their own yearly ritual reunions, but none come close to this backwoods iron-man competition that's one part field day and another part beer-chugging extravaganza. The viewer learns early on that not everything in the picture will be fun and sun, as each member of the rowdy bunch takes his guzzling tasks as seriously as the events he's desperately trying to win. The idea of the men becoming sloppier and funnier as the day progresses actually never pays off, as each opponent just gets more wide-eyed intense in his belligerent race for the coveted 16-year-old trophy. In addition, director Scott Allen Perry fails at creating an interesting character study through the use of any intercut tales of Outdoorsmen competitions gone by, opting instead to cut each idiotic game back to back -- thereby undercutting the hint of personal dramatics shared early on in the film. With no backstory to fall back on, the program merely resigns itself to a fly-on-the-wall curiosity that wears itself out faster than it ever should have.