Nacho Libre (16 June 2006)
directed by Jared Hess
starring Jack Black, Ana de la Reguera, Héctor Jiménez, Darius Rose, Moises Arias, Eduardo Gómez, Cesar Gonzalez
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MPAA rating: Studio: Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, Black & White Productions Script: Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess, Mike White Music: Danny Elfman Running time: 100 minutes Tags: Comedy; monks; nuns; orphans; priests; wrestling Tactical strength: [5/10]
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for some rough action, and crude humor including dialogue
Ignacio (Jack Black) has lived in an orphanage all his life. As a child he dreamed of becoming Nacho, a Luchador -- the Mexican equivalent of a professional wrestler. Now as an adult, Ignacio works as a cook in the same orphanage where he grew up. Ignacio wears the robes of a monk, but has not yet taken his final vows in the priesthood. Several incidents together propel Ignacio to take up his dream as a Luchador: he gets tired of receiving blame for bad food cooked without any budget for ingredients, he wants to impress the new nun Sister Encarnación, and he sees the popular Luchador Ramses receiving praise in the streets. So Ignacio dons a costume to hid his identity, picks up a street fighter Esqueleto, and enters the next tag-team wrestling competition. They get defeated but still get a piece of the box office revenue. The prize money provides them enough incentive to keep on fighting, and Ignacio uses the money to both buy better food for the orphanage and to upgrade his Luchador outfit. Ignacio wants to impress Sister Encarnación with his "strength," but she has expressed her belief that wrestling is a sin. Ignacio comes to a crisis point when the brotherhood learns of his wrestling and kick him out of the monastery.
The plot of Nacho Libre doesn't provide much comedic room for Jack Black to work. He presents his character very well and pretty much holds this movie together with his comedic skill and presence, but you can only make serving a bowl of refried-beans funny so many times. It seems like Jack Black had a lot more to offer, but the script just couldn't deliver. Some of the funniest and least funny scenes come from the wrestling matches. When Nacho and Esqueleto have to fight two rabid dwarves, you can hardly stop laughing, but I found some of the side bits somewhat offensive. At just about every match an older gentleman with eyes pointing in different directions appears in the audience. Yes, he looks funny, but he probably wouldn't if he didn't live such an impoverished life and had access to regular health care. Yet, in every fight the camera spends some time on this man just for the comedy of his looks. Also, it seems that director and writer Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) runs out of monastic and wrestling jokes, so he stoops to bathroom and fart humor. I don't think the movie would provide fewer laughs with the five minutes of gastric humor removed. Yes, we all fart, but that fact doesn't mean every comedy needs one.
Nacho Libre provides some good laughs and some hilarious moments but doesn't have the continuity provided by most Jack Black movies. Yes, it has some memorable lines, but the plot meanders without much drive or purpose and may go down as one of Black's low points in his career.
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