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Witless Protection (2008)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 2.1/10
Reviews Counted: 29
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 28

Larry the Cable Guy continues his critical losing streak with this insipid, tasteless caper comedy.

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 4

Larry the Cable Guy continues his critical losing streak with this insipid, tasteless caper comedy.

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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 11,022

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Movie Info

When a small-town sheriff (Larry the Cable Guy) witnesses what he believes to be an attempted kidnapping, his effort to save the beautiful damsel in distress sets him down a wild path of comic mishap. Eric Roberts, Yaphet Kotto, Peter Stormare, and Joe Mantegna co-star in a comedy from Red Water and Christmas Rush director Charles Robert Carner. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

PG-13, 1 hr. 37 min.

Comedy

Directed By: Charles Robert Carner

Written By: Charles Robert Carner

In Theaters: Feb 22, 2008 Wide

On DVD: Jun 10, 2008

Box Office:$4.1M

Lions Gate Films

The otherwise genial Witless Protection scrapes bottom whenever a black person or an Asian or an Arab is wheeled on for just-kiddin' laughs.

February 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Boston Globe

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Ty Burr

Boston Globe

Top Critic

In Witless Protection, Larry the Cable Guy plays a small-town deputy, fantasizing about becoming an F.B.I. agent. Sitcom wackiness ensues.

February 25, 2008 Comment

Matt Zoller Seitz

New York Times

Top Critic

Makes his previous effort, Delta Farce, seem a classic by comparison.

February 25, 2008 Comment

Frank Scheck

Hollywood Reporter

Top Critic

One can only hope that Witless Protection is targeted at a vanishing species of American Neanderthal. In the meantime, perhaps Larry and his accomplices at Lionsgate could take some sensitivity traning.

February 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety

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John Anderson

Variety

Top Critic

It's sad to watch Yaphet Kotto, as the shady fed, clothesline the stereotypical Muslim motel owner who's already been threatened by Larry with a trip to Gitmo.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix

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Betsy Sherman

Boston Phoenix

Witless, lowbrow fun is the signature of this so-so comedy with Larry the Cable Guy in fine fat form as a country bumpkin deputy sheriff with delusions of grander than smalltown cop

December 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile

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Andrew L. Urban

Urban Cinefile

The movie doesn't even have the common decency to be under 90 minutes. What a bore.

July 22, 2008 Full Review | Comment (1)

Austin Kennedy

Sin Magazine

I've got an idea for Larry the Cable Guy's next dumb movie. Maybe the lowbrow bumbler with the big heart and even bigger beer gut could play, oh I don't know, a cable guy?

March 1, 2008 Comment

Larry Ratliff

San Antonio Express-News Source: San Antonio Express-News

During the last part of this wacky comedy, it loses the amusing push-pull intimacy between its 'odd-couple' protagonists.

March 1, 2008 Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews

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Betty Jo Tucker

ReelTalk Movie Reviews

From this kind of witlessness, the only protection is not to see it.

February 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review

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Jim Lane

Sacramento News & Review

Gratuitous support-our-troops iconography and post-9/11 paranoia permeate a harebrained plot.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Time Out New York

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Stephen Garrett

Time Out New York

Merely an excuse for the viewer to delight in the hilarity generated by Mr. Cable Guy breaking wind, vomiting, producing various gastric noises, etc.

February 27, 2008 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

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Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Ranting about Witless Protection's political incorrectness -- not to mention its general stupidity -- would be a waste of breath. Even so, the movie is breathtakingly offensive at times.

February 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Film Journal International

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Ethan Alter

Film Journal International

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.

February 25, 2008 Full Review Source: AV Club

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Steven Hyden

AV Club

It's the audience that deserves Protection from this Witless Larry the Cable Guy vehicle.

February 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine

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Amy Nicholson

Boxoffice Magazine

You have what might very well be the worst movie of 2008. And 2009. And probably 2010, too. Did we fail to mention the exploding farts?

February 25, 2008 Full Review Source: E! Online

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Tod Goldberg

E! Online

Maybe there are only two kinds of people in this world. Those who think Larry the Cable Guy is funny, and those who do not. I am in the latter camp.

February 24, 2008 Full Review | Comments (2)

Linda Cook

Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

The nastiest and silliest of Larry the Cable Guide big-screen vehicles, Witless Protection, the formulaic road flick, is Witless Comedy par excellence.

February 23, 2008 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

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Audience Reviews for Witless Protection

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This is the first time I've ever agreed with the entire panel of critics on Flixster. Witless is right. I gave this movie the beneifit of the doubt because I love slapstick and Larry is pretty amusing on the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour". Larry did not transition well onto the big screen. When I think of redneck,

June 16, 2011

Stacy Avary

Super Reviewer

This is one of those slight-of-hand smart comedies, which explains why its target audience hated it so much. A lot of the stuff involves dumb gags, silly stereotypes, and the acting is not going to win any awards for comedy or otherwise. But it is all wound up into an enjoyable story and directed well enough that even

September 10, 2008

Steven Vincent Gee

Super Reviewer

Witless Protection Quotes

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1. Deputy Larry Stalder: That was a fear fart.
– Submitted by Dan P (7 months ago)

Character	Quote
	Enter quote here...	Delete

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