‘Delta Farce’ needs a new joke strategy

In “Delta Farce,” Larry the Cable Guy and company spend 89 minutes mocking the Army, U.S. policy in Iraq and Mexicans. But for the closing credits, they dedicate the movie to the “real heroes” in the U.S. armed forces. Yeah. “Jus’ kiddin’, y’all.”

The story: Georgia “weekend warriors” are shipped off to Iraq and somehow, between Georgia and Fallouja, the plane taking them drops them into Mexico.

No, the filmmakers didn’t know how to read a map.

They’re supposed to be, an officer lectures them, “the best and the brightest.” Larry -- real name Dan Whitney -- his less-amusing pal Bill Engvall and their Blue Collar Comedy director C.B. Harding, along with that walking sight gag DJ Qualls, try to wring a few laughs out of incompetent soldiers who accidentally invade rural Mexico and find themselves caught up in “The Magnificent Seven,” drinking Modelo Especial and saving the locals from banditos.

The leader of the terror gang, “Carlos Santana,” aka El Jefe, is played with liberating gusto by veteran bandito Danny Trejo. He sings “I Will Survive” karaoke. He handles his punch lines with flair, especially in response to Larry’s frequent crack “What we got here is a Mexican standoff!”

“Uh, gringo, down here we just call it a ‘standoff.’ ”

Trejo and the sputtering Keith David, as the tough-as-a-tin-roof sergeant trapped in Mexico with “the boys,” are the best things in the movie. There’s a Mexican wrestling riff, a bit with standup comic Jeff Dunham (the “How many Mexicans ...?” jokes come from him) and a shootout or two.

There aren’t many laughs, though.

How’re you going to “git’r done” -- as Larry’s signature phrase puts it -- if these are the “best and the brightest”?

*

“Delta Farce.” MPAA rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes. In general release.