'Beer for My Horses' is flat

"Beer for My Horses" may find an audience among Toby Keith's and Rodney Carrington's family members and fans, especially the ones who are on their Christmas-card lists.

The movie, which the pair co-wrote and in which they co-star, probably won't appeal much beyond that circle, but it does prove two things:

1) Boys of all ages love flatulence jokes.

2) Keith and Carrington are better actors than Larry the Cable Guy.

That last observation isn't saying much, but anyone who's been forced to sit through a Larry the Cable Guy movie will breathe easier knowing that watching "Beer for My Horses" will not rob them of what's left of their soul. It will, however, try their patience and make them wish for a PBS sorbet.

Country singer Keith and racy redneck comedian Carrington cook up a bizarre concoction of small-town law enforcement, big-time drug dealing, second-chance romances and circus freaks. The framework is action, but the emphasis is on comedy -- lame, dog-eared comedy.

Keith plays Rack, a strapping Oklahoma deputy sheriff, and Carrington plays Lonnie, his bumbling best friend and colleague. Sheriff Landry (Tom Skerritt) assigns them to a Saturday-night stakeout at a liquid-fertilizer facility, and, along with silent, reservation-raised co-worker Skunk (Ted Nugent), they wind up catching four guys trying to steal fertilizer to make crystal meth.

Meanwhile, Rack's girlfriend, Cammie (Gina Gershon), has left him, but his old flame, Annie (Claire Forlani), has come back to town and seems willing to rekindle their relationship. That doesn't please Annie's jerk of a stepfather, Buck (Barry Corbin).

Also unhappy is Mexican drug lord Manuel Garza (Carlos Sanz), whose little brother, Tito (Greg Serano), gets caught up in Rack's heroics.

Keith isn't a terrible actor, but he has the dubious ability to make more polished thespians such as Corbin, Skerritt and Forlani look bad. They just don't seem to fit in the same neighborhood. Surprisingly, Keith and Carrington don't have much chemistry either.

Willie Nelson makes what seems like an obligatory cameo for uninspired director Michael Salomon. "Beer for My Horses" is more indulgence than art. It exists primarily so that Keith can make a modern Western and Carrington can expand his concert gimmick of having women bare their breasts for him.

Rated PG-13 for some violence, sexual humor and dialogue, language, drug content and brief nudity.

2 stars (out of five)

(Contact Knoxville News Sentinel film critic Betsy Pickle at pickle(at)knews.com.)