User reviews

I'm a woman, and usually people assume that women don't like dumb guy comedies. But more often than not, I'd rather watch something funny than something heartwarming. I'd rather have a little heartwarming in a lot of comedy than the other way around. And in the case of this silly, cheesy, predictable movie, I got my comedy with a dash of heart-warmth.

I like Toby Keith -- he's kinda hot. And I love to listen to him talk. Rodney Carrington is one of the funniest, most talented people out there. And for both of them to be a in movie together -- I was pleased. I laughed my butt off at some of the gags.

I think my favorite part, however, was Ted Nugent as Skunk. As a fellow reviewer pointed out, it was hilariously ironic at that one of entertainment's most opinionated souls, "Talks when he has something to say," as Rack put it. Genius!

"Beer For My Horses" is a redneck-flavored "buddy cop" comedy starring country music superstar Toby Keith and down-home comedian Rodney Carrington (the pair also co-wrote the script) as small-town Oklahoma sheriff deputies. Toby's the strong silent hero type while Rodney provides the goofball comic relief. When the two stop a gang of crooks from stealing fertilizer from a local farm, one of their prisoners turns out to be the brother of a particularly vicious Mexican drug lord. From there you can pretty much write the script yourself -- the prisoner tells Keith "My brother is going to kill you," Toby laughs it off, then his girlfriend is kidnapped right out of her car on a country road late at night. Of course, the prisoner's brother is responsible, and he arranges an exchange -- "You bring me my brother or I'll kill the girl." Thus, Keith and Carrington sneak their prisoner out of jail and head off to Mexico in Carrington's absurdly over-the-top monster pickup truck, having various misadventures along the way (some of which are far too silly to describe here) before a final showdown South of the Border. Do I really need to tell you how it all turns out? I didn't think so. Toby Keith has suggested that this film is meant to be an homage to the "Cannonball Run" or "Smokey and the Bandit" movies, i.e. not to be taken very seriously. To me, it seemed like they weren't sure whether they were making a straight-up cop movie or a screwball comedy, and never found the proper balance between the two. Toby's a decent enough actor, and Carrington is always good for a few yuks, but I was actually embarrassed for him by the time we got to the scene in a rest-stop men's room where he leads a group of loitering gang-bangers in a sing-along. Willie Nelson is always a welcome presence in movies like these, but he seems wasted in a bit part as the father figure of a traveling circus. I got the most laughs out of the first half hour or so, showcasing Toby's domestic problems and the lack of respect he gets at work from his superior officers. Once they hit the road for Mexico, the movie starts to fall apart. My favorite character in the whole movie is Ted Nugent, who plays a fellow deputy who never speaks (except for two words at the end) -- knowing what a motormouth he is in real life, I imagine it must've been hell for him to keep his trap shut for nearly the entire movie!! In short, "Beer For My Horses" is OK for a few laughs if you happen to catch it on Country Music Television (where it airs on a seemingly weekly basis) but not something you need to seek out unless you're a fan of any of the participants.

I have no earthly idea what "Beer for My Horses" is supposed to be or whom it's supposed to appeal to, but it does have one of the most unusual casts I've seen in ages. Rock and country music stars Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, Mel Tillis, Ted Nugent, Mac Davis and David Allen Coe join up with actual, honest-to-God actors like Tom Skerrit and Claire Forlani in a film derived from Keith's hit country song of the same name.

In fact, Keith co-wrote, directed and plays the lead in this tale of an Oklahoma sheriff whose girlfriend is kidnapped after he and his men arrest the brother of a nefarious Mexican drug lord for stealing fertilizer, apparently a key ingredient in meth production (who knew?). Soon, the law enforcer and his posse are headed south-of-the-border to rescue the girl.

Keith has thrown just about everything he can think of into the mix: small-town buffoonery, race-tinged melodrama, low-keyed romance, a troupe of circus performers, a flatulent bulldog, and more scowling Mexicans than you can shake a sombrero at. Somehow it's all supposed to go together, but even the most accomplished filmmaker would have trouble making it all work. Still, it's so homespun, scruffy and amiable that criticizing it too harshly would be like kicking the family mutt.

My wife and I are huge TK fans. When he was in the 'burgh last week telling the concert goes about the movie, we thought "what the heck, lets check it out." We should have been tipped off by the completely empty theater, but we figured, its 7:00 on a Monday night so maybe they're just really slow. Wrong-o. Toby, you write great songs and your singing is fantastic, but you need to get as far away from Hollywood as you can. I'm not sure if the acting was so bad it destroyed the writing or if the writing was so bad it couldn't be acted, but whatever the reason, this movie was just plain bad. On the sneak preview show on CMT, the stars/writers Toby and Rodney kept referring to it being like Cannonball Run. Having seen the Cannonball movies, I should have seen it coming, but the Cannonball movies would be Oscar material compared to this. I would have given it a 1 but there was one funny scene. Other than that, I say again save your $8.50 and watch it on CMT in 3 months.

I wasn't surprised that the popular 2003 Country single would end up to be a film adaptation five years later. If your familiar with the music video of the song Beer for My Horses, you knew some extension and maybe transformation could lead to a movie. The question was, would they do it? The answer, was yes. As much as I loved the song when I was younger, I wasn't going berserk for the film. I was shocked when discovering it I hadn't seen it until about two years later. The main reason was, I was upset Willie Nelson (co singer in the song) wasn't Toby Keith's sidekick/partner in the film. Thats why I avoided it.

Though as soon I started watching it, I inevitably got hooked. It surpassed the video. It honestly did. The video's plot involved a serial killer who would kill prostitutes, and it was up to Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, and another cop to find out who it was. The movie's plot has a lot more suspense, and effects the protagonist, more than the music video did.

Toby Keith plays lovable deputy Rack who's sidekick is more than meets the eye Lonnie (Rodney Carrington), his bumbling sidekick, and silent and solemn Skunk (Ted Nugent). The three deputies recently arrested a group of Mexicans who tried to steal fertilizer from a shop. The brother of one criminal kidnaps Rack's love interest who he goes back to after his most recent girlfriend dumps him. Rack, Lonnie, Skunk, and the criminal head to Mexico to claim the girl and return the criminal.

Besides some bad jokes, cliché moments, and foreshadowing of help from something useless, this movie proves to be okay. There's just a few problems I have with this. The song Beer for My Horses is heard for fifteen seconds (barely) in the near opening of the film. Thats fine, maybe if the movie wasn't called Beer for My Horses, but why would you name a movie after a song, thats not even in a movie? Its on the soundtrack, and the quote "Whiskey for my man, beer for my horses" is said in the movie.

The last thing I have to complain is the fact that Willie Nelson is the sidekick in the song, but not that movie. Instead he plays a random trucker who fixes the guys' car. Why couldn't all three men (Lonnie, Rack, and Willie) be the lead characters in the film. I don't have a problem with Skunk, but he wasn't even in the video.

This will probably be the closest to the video we will get. Im still hung up on the fact that one of my all-time favorite songs has been made into a movie. Not a bad film, with likable characters and some funny humor. Its not often a good country song gets made into a movie. Though lets hope the next one includes the TITLE SONG.

Starring: Toby Keith, Rodney Carrington, Willie Nelson, and Ted Nugent. Directed by: Michael Salomon.

I read on the message boards the following line: "For the love of god, how did an angel like Claire Forlani end up in hell?" And I think that sums up my thoughts on this film.

So, you give Rodney Carrington and Toby Keith the power to write a movie, named after a Toby Keith song, and directed by a guy who has done some Garth Brooks music videos. Throw in Willie Nelson, an arrow-launching Ted Nugent and David Allan Coe. I just don't know what to think anymore.

The movie is absolutely stupid, and you may enjoy that if you need to turn off your brain or you've already seen every episode of "Bridezilla". I don't know what the political message here is... I'm sure it's convoluted and stupid, though, since that's what happens the second you associate with Nugent (a fine musician, an idiot otherwise).

Looking at the rating, it looks like this is one of the worst movies ever. But fact it's a lot of fun. It is not, as I expected, a movie where the action takes place only to tie together various music videos. I don't know why I expected that.

But I was pleasantly surprised. The main characters are fun, and easy enough to root for. The bad guys are really bad, with hardly any redeeming virtues--at least none that we see in the movie. The conflict is laid out very simply, in the form of a challenge, and the main characters go for it. Hilarity ensues.

Also, always good to have a dog.

OK, the movie pulls in a lot of typical tropes, but it executes them well.

I cannot believe Tom Skerritt is so broke that he performed in this trash. Let alone Gina Gershon or even Willie Nelson. Well Nelson maybe. Absolutely left us ashamed not to have walked out. Everyone else in the theater felt the same way. What a waste of time. How does anyone raise money for a production as bad as this was? How does anyone waste investing money in this? Does anyone care? We saw this film on the Celebrity Constellation on a Baltic Cruise. Even the Cruise Director was embarrassed when confronted by guests. It's selection was a terrible mistake. Perhaps second place prize would be to force someone to sit through it again. There is no way anyone can find anything good about this film.

I only rented this because of Rodney Carrington. His songs on Youtube are hilarious!!!!!! I didn't expect much and just hoped that there would be enough funny parts to pull the movie through. I was shocked at what I saw. Granted the movie is not going to win (or be nominated) for best picture, but it was original, and very entertaining. The story was far better than I expected, and I had some laughs. After watching it my wife asked me to buy her a copy of it for Christmas.

If you see this show expecting a dumb comedy you will be pleasantly surprised. If you see it expecting it to be "picture of the year" you will probably be disappointed.

Hilarious... the movie plot should have been more like the extended video version, where Toby Keith was a cop and Willie Nelson was his father who was a retired cop and they bonded together to hunt down a serial killer. I was disappointed that this plot was not in the movie. I felt if it had been, the movie would have been much better and did better at the box office. This is what had a lot of people who was hooked on the video disappointed, me included. However the comedy was great! I'm one who loves to laugh. Yes it could have been better, but it wasn't the worst movie I've seen. Each character was very unique and have something obnoxious and funny about them. I thought it was pretty cool to have veterans in the movie like Ted Nugent, Tom Skerritt and Gina Gershon. They didn't do it because they needed money as one reviewer assumed! They did it because they thought it would be fun.! This movie has become one of my all-time favorites and I just watch it whenever I just need to de-stress and have a good laugh.

I subtitled this film (I'm a subtitler by profession), so I spent quite a lot of time with this film. I would have given this film 2 out of 10 if it hadn't been so incredibly poorly made. It wasn't until half-way through the film that the actual story started to kick in. The first half was just very silly small anecdotes and leading up to the real story. The script was poor - nothing seemed believable, there were no thrills and no interesting points, and I didn't laugh a single time. The acting was terrible as well. The only people who made decent appearances were Tom Skerritt and Willie Nelson. Although they are not high-profiled actors, they were still way too good for this film. It didn't really surprise me when I read here on IMDb that the two main actors had actually written the screenplay - it really did seem like a home-made film. I was surprised anybody would finance something like this.

Please bear with the prelude because I think this is the only place to tell this story and it has something to do with the movie:

I rent the house I live in. I was hoping to buy it, but it got bought out from under me, so I continue to rent while my youngest finishes high-school. Just before the house changed hands, I took a walk with my wife and met some guy in a cowboy hat and jeans, coat and work-gloves ripping out all the brush that lined the road across from our house (good thing... it was ugly). He told us he had just bought the land and was going to build a house on it. It was some 20 acres. We thought some housing developer was going to put in a new division.

I congratulated him on his purchase and I said I was glad it was a solo owner. You can count the residences in the neighborhood on one hand, so I introduced myself and said "howdy neighbor." He told me his name was Rodney Carrington. I asked "what kind of work do you do, Rodney?" I got a stunned deer look from him as it was obvious my wife and I had never heard of him. After he told me what he did, my wife and I made a little more small-talk and we walked home. On a whim, I looked him up on YouTube. OMG! Then I found out who Rodney was... and later that he bought my house. I'm now his tenant.

Before I get to the review, I will say that I find Rodney very funny, and he's quite the regular guy. He's a hard-working comic in the tradition of Will Rogers (though less g-rated) and he and his family make mighty fine neighbors.

Now, to the movie rating. "Beer for my Horses" isn't a bad movie, nor is it a must-see movie. There are some serious plot failures (no, you can't cross into Mexico the way they did), the bad guys are sadly cartoonish and the story is overall very pedestrian.

However, the acting is competent, the cast of stars was a pleasant surprise, and we're spared the cliché of making "The Man" (Tom Skerritt's role as the sheriff) seem like a jerk or a buffoon. He recognizes his rogue subordinates as at least trying and joins in the toasts when they seem appropriate. Rodney is only really turned loose for the rest-stop scene (and it's actually worth watching the movie just for that scene). Ted Nugent is there to act up with the weapons and his best moments are at the start of the film.

Summary: If you're not sure what to watch and you need a comic moment, grab some shots and beers and watch "Beer for my Horses."

...'Beer for My Horses' (and/or a Nugent, Willie or David Allan Coe fan), then do yourself a favor and don't watch this movie and spoil all of what you've had going on.

It's that bad. Actually, it's much worse than that bad. The writing, directing and acting were all equally terrible. Most of the parts that were supposed to be funny were met with groans instead of laughs. Seriously. The 'best' parts of the movie (and it ought to be a crime to refer to them like that. How about closest to actually being funny parts...?) involved a pit bull farting and an up close look at him licking his male parts. No, I'm not kidding.

We went in a packed car and all agreed afterward that it was the worst movie we ever saw. No exceptions. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck deserved Oscars for Gigli compared to 'Beer for My Horses.'

Watched this with some friends, we knew it wouldn't be great cinema but thought we might have a few laughs. Wrong! This was one of the worst excuses for a comedy I've ever seen,

"Beer for My Horses" doesn't attempt to rise far above it's title. It's amusing comedy made for lovers of big trucks, big guns, and country music stars. Though the plot manages to stay intact, it's really more about who and what you're watching than it is about what you're learning.

Though Keith makes some attempts at affection and dismay, most of the other characters stay in their boxes. Hard-headed sheriff, wise-cracking sidekick, and sneering villain. But what it lacks in innovation it makes up for in silly humor and fairly well-staged action.

Honestly, if you're one of those "won't watch it unless it questions life itself" viewers, you won't like this. Which isn't surprising because you probably don't like much of anything.

On a lazy Friday night with a six pack of beer, you'll probably be just fine laughing at the low-brow humor of this movie.

This movie is OK for passive entertainment but I wouldn't make any special effort to go out & rent it. It was written by Toby Keith and Rodney Carrington, and I guess is pretty good for a first try at movie script writing. However, the comedy is lacking and you can tell that what little there is was written by Rodney. There could have been more laughs.

The acting is not that great. Toby Keith should stick to country music and not trying to act. He did OK some of the time, but others it seemed like he was phoning it in. Rodney did a pretty good job with comic relief, but he's funnier on stage than he is in this movie. Most of the rest of the big-name cast did OK, but the unknowns were about sub-par.

Maybe if I were a fan of country music I'd have rated it higher, but it just doesn't cut it for quality entertainment. But if you want to waste a couple hours, I guess this movie would do all right. However, there are many better movies to choose from. This is a movie I don't care if I ever see again.

One of the comments made by a user claims it's nothing like cannonball run and I don't know what movies you've been watching but maybe since you've had kids you've lost your sense of humor.

This movie is good. Clean fun humor that is made up not only by the film and it's script but by the characters themselves and the individuality each actor puts forth. Can anyone actually believe they put Ted in an an entire movie and that the man who is so opinionated doesn't get a single word in edge wise. This movie adds a classic look at simple humor that still has a family side to it.

I've seen most of the music artists in concert and Carrington's stage acts (which are funny but definitely adult) that have been in this film and in my perspective they add country charm and class.

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion and this one is mine.

and Toby Keith's acting just gets better and better. I won't spoil some of the highlights, but if you go with it, you'll really enjoy.

It's definitely a 'buddy' road trip movie, that also catches the better side of good ol boy humor. Speaking from a very liberal northern perspective, it's the slow-talking set of idioms that sometimes makes us go 'huh?' but is done very well here.

There are some lines that are amateurish and kind of dopey, but not that many. He's doing better and better, and is fun to watch, not just because he's very good looking but he's a natural on the screen.

Go see it.

This was a good movie. I enjoyed it because it featured my favorite country singer Toby Keith. Other people may not have enjoyed it because they don't understand how great it is living in that kind of town. I also loved it when Skunk scared the crap out of that guy by shooting it in the air. It was also funny when Cammie left and she ran over Rak's mower. And he said, "Well i guess Cammie is gonna go get me a new mower" And i loved especially the Show Them to ME scene. The plot of the movie was classic. Man finds woman, woman kidnapped, man saves woman, that plot really is classic and would always deserve a high rating.

Beer for my Horses caught my interest when I heard some old friends of mine were part of the circus scene in this film. Besides that though, this movie is a relaxing film of which you can still enjoy! There are some dull moments here and there, but it doesn't knock off some of the best scenes here. If you are a fan of country music and/or Toby Keith, give it a shot because you'll like it!