Nacho Libre

This is a nice piece of fluff of a comedy movie. Nacho Libre stars Jack Black and is directed by Jared Hess, who also directed Napolean Dynamite . This is a movie about having a dream and struggling to make it come true (shades of Jiminy Cricket's “When You Wish Upon a Star”). The plot brings the book Don Quixote to mind. Jack Black plays a cook (and a very bad one at that) in a monastery, trying to achieve the impossible dream of being a professional wrestler.

The film has taken a little heat for its portrayal of Mexican-Americans, but the performances are so over-the-top, that it is hard for me to agree. I think that complaining about that particular aspect of the movie is taking the film way more seriously than is warranted. The film is not really about the plot anyway; this film is about Jack Black hamming it up in front on camera, in a setting that makes him shine. It is very hard to tell where Jack Black ends and the screenwriting begins. When they get around to releasing the DVD of Nacho Libre the outtakes might be well worth taking a look at. Jack Black has that mischievous glint in his eyes that pulls you in and makes you wonder just what the hell he is going to do next. And it works beautifully, if you took Jack Black out of this movie and replaced him with another actor the film would probably not work at all and would be painful to watch. The supporting cast is quite good; you just want to fall into Ana de la Reguera's eyes; she plays the love interest in the film (as well as being a nun). This is not quite the benchmark that Napoleon Dynamite was. The film is still quite entertaining in it's own way, and you could twist my arm to watch it a second time.

There are a couple of songs throughout the movie, and one song not to be missed is the one sang by Jack Black over the end credits. If you leave the theater too quickly you will miss that it is even there. The film has such a dried out look to the photography that you will be glad that you are in air conditioning while watching it. It fits the film well. The only downside I saw to the film is that in the first part of the film they spent way to much time on how items were stolen to make the costumes, and this happens more than once and it was not especially clever the first time. A little editing in this area might have helped. If you are a Jack Black fan definitely go see this movie or if you are in the mood for a quirky comedy. Big Kiss, Little Kiss.

You can write James Harper at movielover77061@yahoo.com