“Nacho Libre” (Paramount Pictures)
A Little Jack Black Goes A Long, Long Way
Jack Black is a funny, funny man. Of that there can be no doubt. Still a little Jack Black goes a long way and in “Nacho Libre” he is in just about every scene. That is too much Jack Black for one movie to hold and still be entertaining. “Nacho Libre” sags down under the weight of his personality about half way through but perks back up at the end. So you have a good start and a good finish but all that is in between is overindulgence of the worst kind.
Ignacio (Black) is a friar at an orphanage in Mexico. He works in the kitchen where there is too little food and what they have is bad. He wants to come up with a way to get money to feed the orphans and he finds it by moonlighting as a wrestler known as “Nacho Libre.”
For a sidekick/partner Nacho chooses Esqueleto (Hector Jiminez). They form a tag team to work in the ring and they get paid whether they win or not. They don’t win. This does, however, give Nacho the means to feed the orphans. Still he wants to be a winner and prays that God will lead him to become one.
Nacho also wants to impress a Sister at the orphanage named Sister Encarnacion (Ana de la Reguera). He is afraid to tell her he is a wrestler but instead tries to get her attention by giving her fancy salads.
The movie has a sweet air to it but is just too long and too repetitive. Nothing much happens in the movie other than Nacho having a wrestling career. These bits are funny the first few times but then they get old.
Black has the role of Nacho down completely, and Jiminez is fairly funny as his sidekick. Reguera is quite beautiful as the Sister but has little acting skill required of her.
The movie is rated PG for mild profanity.
“Nacho Libre” is one of those movies where all of the funniest moments have been shown in the trailer for the film. Everything that remains is just run of the mill entertainment. You expect more; you hope for more, but you don’t get it.
I scored “Nacho Libre” a pinned 4 out of 10.
