Starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Jason Sudeikis, Owen Wilson, Leslie Jones; directed by Jared Hess; 94 minutes; PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, some language and violence.

If there is a single shot in “Masterminds” that represents the intellectually and aesthetically untaxing comic spirit of this blithely lowbrow farce, it is the one that follows an ill-advised visit to a Mexican taco truck by the film’s cartoonish antihero, an inept thief on the lam played by Zach Galifianakis.

Loosely based on an actual 1997 heist of $17 million by an armored-car company employee, the film features the actor hiding beneath a wig that, in combination with his signature beard, makes him look “like Kenny Rogers and Kenny Loggins had a love child, and then Kenny G, he just showed up and started playing a flute and messed this boy up,” as co-star Leslie Jones’ character puts it.

That’s a great line, by the way, in an otherwise so-so script that suggests it might have been improvised.

But back to the telling shot: As Galifianakis’ David Ghantt attempts to recover from a bout of Montezuma’s revenge in a Cozumel swimming pool, a plume of brown liquid erupts from his swimsuit region, signaling the film’s interest in the kind of bathroom slapstick that delights undiscriminating middle-schoolers.

Such is the just-below-the-belt level of the low-hanging fruit that the filmmakers have chosen to harvest, in a comedy that induces cringing as often as laughter.

While the film does have its moments, “Masterminds” never quite works as a feature film, but it does feel like it might have been hilarious on a sketch-comedy show 20 years ago.

Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post