Nacho Libre
Reviewer: Chris Hallam
Issue 85 Christmas 2006
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Once upon a time in Mexico…
The Lowdown: Bored of a life of cooking slop and keen to win the affections of the beautiful Sister Encarnacion, Mexican priest Ignacio teams up with Esqueleto ‘The Skeleton’ to launch a career as a masked lucha libre wrestler, in order to raise funds for the orphanage in which he works as a cook.
Review: It should have been a marriage made in heaven. If nothing else the restoration of the (Jack) Black and (Mike) White acting/screenwriting combo which made School Of Rock such a popular success, should have made this wrestling comedy a sure thing. Throw in Jared Hess, the director of critically divisive cult favourite Napoleon Dynamite and you should have a winning recipe for pure comedic Viagra.
But for whatever reason, Nacho Libre doesn’t quite come off. Maybe it’s the excessive reliance on the – admittedly funny – sight of Jack Black in a leotard for humour. Maybe it’s that director Jared Hess seems far less comfortable here on his first major mainstream project as he did on his debut. Or it could just be that like Napoleon Dynamite, this will turn out to be a grower. Like any halfway decent comedy, Nacho Libre will undoubtedly benefit from repeated viewings.
While the combination of slapstick, comedic Mexican accents and occasional fart gags didn’t entirely work for me, Jack Black’s endless abundance of charm (though less deftly exploited here than in either High Fidelity or School Of Rock), coupled with strong support from the amusing Jimenez (as Nacho’s partner ‘The Skeleton’) and the beautiful Ana De La Reguera as the nun of Nacho’s dreams, ensure that this is far from a complete failure.
The bonus features are something of a mixed bag, however. As with the film itself, the combo of Black, White and Hess proves less comically explosive on the audio commentary than one might expect. The trio seem too absorbed in watching the film, although they do offer a few amusing remarks (screenwriter Mike White is especially ‘Beavis and Butthead’-esque during the opening credits). The featurettes occasionally err on the self indulgent, the most successful taken directly from promotional Nickelodeon and ‘Movietone’ TV shows, while the trailers are worth seeing for the hilarious spoof ‘Nacho Libre action figures’ ad alone.
Overall this is a patchy extras package for an okay comedy that doesn’t quite scale the comedic heights it could have.
FILM: 6 EXTRAS: 6
DVD Info:
Starring: Jack Black, Ana De La Reguera, Hector Jimenez, Peter Stormare, Darius A. Rose, Moises Arias, Diego Eduardo Gomez
Certificate: 12
Director: Jared Hess
Distributor: Paramount
Original Release: 2006
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 88 mins
Price: £19.99
Special Features:
Scene Selection
Audio Commentary With Jack Black, Director Jared Hess and Screenwriter Mike White
‘Detras de la Camara’ Featurette
‘Jack Black Unmasked!’ Featurette
‘Lucha Libre’ Featurette
‘Hecho en Mexico’ Featurette
‘Movietone Unscripted’ Episode With Jack Black and Hector Jimenez
‘Jack Sings ‘Le Cancion De Ramses’ and ‘Le Cancion De Encarncion’’ Featurette
Deleted Scenes
Promo Spots
Photo Gallery
