Nacho Libre
 DJHufford  rates it:    Community rates it: (no ratings yet)
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Let me just state for the record that I am a huge Jack Black fan. I am the only guy in America who actually found the movie "Orange County" humorous. I love all his Tenacious D stuff, and "School Of Rock" and "Hi Fidelity" are two of my all time favs. Having said that, I don't know what the heck he was thinking when he took on this role.

He plays a friar, which is apparently the equivalent of lower management in his unnamed religion. The only job the higher level monks will give him is cooking. And he sucks at it. Nobody respects him and he is the joke of the orphanage. He is leading quite the miserable life down in deep Mexico. He does have dreams however, and his dreams involve becoming a famous professional wrestler.

Enter the girl. A beautiful nun gets transferred to his orphanage. Of course everyone involved has taken vows of celibacy, but that doesn't stop Black from lusting for her and repeatedly asking her to come to his room for "toast". Apparently, this is the only dish Black makes well. Of course nothing ever becomes of this, due to the whole celibacy thing.

One day while shopping for food, Black gets mugged by a lowly street person. For some reason that is completely lost on me, he decide to create a wrestling tag-team with the mugger. Of course Black's bosses think wrestling is satanic, so he keeps it a secret from them. Thus he dons the mask of Nacho Libre.

They enter tournaments and start making lots of money, but the problem is they constantly loose. They are being paid to be stooges, and Black wants to be a great winning wrestler. Black blows all his money on fancy clothes and things, and his downward spiral just continues. Eventually the orphanage catches on to his alter-ego and they through him out. The only way for him to redeem himself is to enter the Mexican equivalent of Wrestlemania, and give all the money to the orphanage.

Now my biggest problem with this movie is Black himself. He has to play a Latino, and he does not pull it off. He comes off as flat and stereotypical. I don't think he in any way meant to do this, but it comes off as almost insulting to the Mexican people. He plays it more as a parody, then a straight role. The funniest scenes in the movie were all given away in the trailers. There's not much gutbusting humor here. I am reviewing the DVD release and not the theatrical version, so I suppose I should mention the special features. Really weak. A few deleted scenes. That's it. Do not attempt to view this movie unless you are really really really really really really really really really really really bored. And even then, go read a book instead.

Added:  Saturday, December 30, 2006
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