“Zero to Hero” is badly-botched Brazilian “role switch” comedy about a flailing and failing rocker paid to impersonate Brazil’s most famous country music singer for a national tour when the vain, egotistical and alcoholic Sandro Sanderley lapses into a coma.

Titled “Rodeio Rock” in Brazil, and not to be confused with the Hong Kong paralympic athlete bio pic of the same “Zero to Hero” name, this romantic comedy fails via a script that can’t find the easy laughs, much less the smart ones, and lackluster direction that lets the script drift away from much that’s promising. And in casting a lead who is handsome, charismatic and potentially funny — but whose lack of stage presence make him the least convincing music star this side of Randy Newman — “Zero” slips under water and never comes back up for air.

Mauricio de Barros is “Hero,” a long-haired, tattoo-covered metal head whose shredding is limited to covering “Born to be Wild” in demonstation performances at a musical instrument store, with his childhood pal Pancho (Felipe Hintze) backing him on drums.

Hero’s failed to make a mark or make it big. And he’s convinced at least part of the reason is how much he looks like “you know who,” aka “that country music guy.”

That would be Sandro Sanderley, the handsome author of and singer of “insipid” ballads and the like as Brazil’s biggest country music star. Cut and dye Hero’s hair, apply makeup to his full-body tattoos and shave off the most unconvincing fake beard since Ted Turner’s “Gettysburg” and Hero could be a dead ringer for Sandro.

When events conspire to put Sandro into a coma — his latest plastic surgery and alcoholic binge come home to roost — prom cover band rocker Hero is “discovered” by a booking agent (Marcelo Flores) who works with the real Sandro. Hero is blackmailed into playing Sandro.

Sandro’s wily record company president (Felipe Folgosi) and panicked agent (Charles Paraventi) hire our “Hero” who is really a “Zero” to undergo a makeover, learn the songs and “cover” for the real star on tour.

Get the band to play in Hero’s key, not Sandro’s. Cut his hair, shave him and “I look like a Backstreet Boy.” And the “real” Sandro. By all means, don’t forget the cowboy hat and the pants.

“Do they have to be this tight?” he wants to know (in Portugeuse, or dubbed into English).

“Tight pants sell tickets!”

The picture shows us a bit of that first concert, how the “new” Sandro is humble, thanks the band, and can sing the songs (and not “put them over,” that whole “stage presence” problem). Then the story is driven off a cliff as the entourage travels to a remote cattle country city where Sandro is feted by the mayor and rejected by his concert production designer daughter (Carla Diaz), whose heart he broke years before.

“Can the ‘new’ Sandro win her back, and at what cost to his friendship with Pancho?” becomes the focus.

The “fish out of water” leap into stardom is toyed with, but never focused on in ways that win laughs. The real Sandro was fresh off a break up with a famous model, but we never meet her or get a scene or two of Hero faking that romantic history.

The plot contrives to send Sandro and Lulli (Diaz) on a cross-country trip by horseback where he can meet “real” cowboys and rural folk, the biggest fans of country music. There’s no “Ah, NOW I get it” epiphany from this.

The concert scenes, which the production avoids to a large degree, working around the shortcomings of their leads, are tepid affairs that don’t feel like the real thing.

The twists and predicaments are mild-mannered, with all the rough edges worn off.

About the best you can say about “Rodeio Rock” is that it takes us away from Rio and the beaches and into the interior of Brazil, lovely and rustic (if clear cut to make way for farms, etc.) and not the Brazil we typically see on the screen.

Other than that, “Zero to Hero” barely gets past “zero” and never comes close to “hero.”

Rating: TV-MA, alcohol abuse, near nudity, sexual situations

Cast: Mauricio de Barros, Carla Diaz,
Felipe Hintze, Marcelo Flores, Charles Paraventi
Serjão Loroza, Felipe Folgosi and Paula Cohen

Credits: Directed by Marcelo Atunez, scripted by Felipe Folgosi. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:41