Nacho Libre

Nacho Libre **1/2

I found "Napoleon Dynamite" to be absolutely excellent, and one of the best comedies in recent years. But, director Jared Hess' second effort "Nacho Libre" had much to be desired. Instead of the laugh-a-minute comedy of "ND", "Nacho Libre" gave me the occasional laugh out loud moment, and much more chuckles and grins. It was entertaining in an odd way, but after a while it just became tiresome. I poked my head in a few times in the middle over the last two weeks, finding scenes every now and then more funnier than seeing the entire film at once, with the scenes in context.

Jack Black is always funny, and he is here, as Ignacio, a frair at a monastery. He is the cook for the orphans, only the head guys don't ever give him any fresh ingredients to cook breakfast with. So, instead of giving them a fresh salad, he gives them mucky stew with day old chips. However, Ignacio does have one passion-to be a lucha libre wrestler, just like one of his heros. So, with the help of Steven, a drifter of the village who tries to steal food from the trash, Ignacio dons stretchy pants, and becomes Nacho. He loses every fight he’s in, and yet he always gets paid for it. He uses the money from the lost fights to buy the orphans fresh food every morning, which impresses the beautiful nun who Ignacio has his eyes on. The only problem is, all of his opponents try to take off his mask, and if the monastery finds out that he is wrestling(a practice that is declared evil) they will kick him out. So, careful not to be found out, Nacho goes off to try and win a fight, and get the children some sort of bus so that they can go on field trips to parks, and places like that.

The laughs are there, and with the comedic talent here, "Nacho Libre" could have been gold-much better than what it turned out to be. Danny Elfman’s musical score does add to comedy, as well as Hess’ flair for direction. He has a way of positioning the camera so that it catches the characters at such an angle that makes it funnier than some of the dialogue. There is a pace that the film has. At times, some of the conversations could be awkward, and not at all realistic to how we actually speak. There are sometimes three second pauses in between lines, and Black’s horrible(yet that’s the point) Mexican accent doesn’t help much. I guess it’s not that I didn’t like "Nacho Libre," I was just. . . disappointed. It’s entertaining, but I don’t think I can recommend it. Maybe a rainy day out on video, but I don’t know about the theatre. I can’t recommend it, but I won’t stop you from seeing it.