Witless Protection

Larry the Cable Guy isn’t subtle, but he’s onto something -- Forbes estimated his annual earnings at $20 million last year. That’s a lot of Polish sausage.

What should be the worst movie of the year, if not all time, is instead a reasonably passable vehicle for Larry the Cable Guy. No kidding.

It's clear now that the main problem with Larry the Cable Guy in his movies is that the star straddles the line between his standup persona and a film character, never fully committing to either.

It's a slapstick B-programmer aimed not at pointy-headed big-city movie critics but at folks who like their comedy proudly unsophisticated -- the audiences who've followed the star from his roots in the redneck comedy circuit.

If you've seen one big-screen movie starring Nebraska's own Larry the Cable Guy, you've more or less seen them all. Witless Protection, his third, fits Larry's popular mold like a sleeveless plaid shirt.

The unfortunate supporting cast includes Jenny McCarthy as Larry's shotgun-toting girlfriend, Eric Roberts as the head of Grimsley's personal security firm and Joe Mantegna as a mincing medico Rondog "Doc" Savage.

Witless Protection is quite possibly the worst film of 2008 -- and when you consider we've already seen In The Name of the King, Meet the Spartans, and Fool's Gold, that's saying a lot.

For Witless Protection, the rubber gloves are off for a full-cavity-search Larry-the-Cable-Guy comedy that's more lowbrow, raunchier and yet a lot more ambitious than his first two "films," Health Inspector and Delta Farce.

Larry The Cable Guy is a cancerous boil on the ass of comedy, but it's still sort of shocking how little effort he puts into his movies.

You have what might very well be the worst movie of 2008. And 2009. And probably 2010, too.

Making Delta Farce seem like Restoration comedy, Witless Protection brings back Larry the Cable Guy for what one can only hope is a last hurrah.