| Film Review | Dana Place |
Nacho
Libre
Jack Black
Ana de la Reguera
Hector Jimenez
Peter Stormare
Directed by: Jared Hess
The first film after Jared Hess’s hit
Napoleon Dynamite sees Jack Black as a cook in a Mexican
orphanage who always wanted to be a Luchador and gets his
chance one evening. He soon realizes that he can hide behind
the wrestler’s mask and use his earnings to help the
children of the orphanage.
Jack Black is meant to carry this film with his quirky loud
humor and any one that is not a fan of his will probably not
enjoy this movie. He bounces from what came across to me as
a strange Mexican Burt Reynolds impression to Jack Black in
any number of his films and back again from scene to scene.
Although normally this would be disorienting if an audience
member were trying to find some kind of rhythm to a film, in
this case it really does not matter. This movie never falls
into any kind of rhythm. To break up scenes the director
chooses random and unexpected hit or miss humor over
actually trying to move the film forward. When the jokes
hits, the laughs are hard and long enough to carry you into
the next inexplicable moment. When it doesn’t, all you can
really do is hope to get the next joke.
Jack Black’s antics notwithstanding, there is a certain
innocence hiding underneath the fart jokes, polyester
clothing, and stretchy pants that gives the film a little
bit of charm. Sister Encarnacion (Reguera) and the children
of the orphanage keep the film grounded and really are the
only part of the movie that actually keeps it moving
forward. But, even in this respect, these characters are
merely background and are only on screen to react to Jack
Black. The characters don’t grow, except in the most
superficial movie sense, and are all but forgotten by the
end of the film.
In case I haven’t already said it, this film is all about
Jack Black. While I will admit that I am a fan and I let out
more that a few belly laughs, they were too few and far
between to carry me through this ninety-minute movie.
