CORPORATE LINE: Nacho (Jack Black) is a man without skills. After growing up in a Mexican monastery, he is now a grown man and the monastery’s cook, but doesn’t seem to fit in. Nacho cares deeply for the orphans he feeds, but his food is terrible – mostly, if you ask him, a result of his terrible ingredients. He realizes he must hatch a plan to make money to buy better food for “the young orphans, who have nothing” (…and if in doing so Nacho can impress the lovely Sister Encarnación, which would be a big plus).
When Nacho is struck by the idea to earn money as a Lucha Libre wrestler, he finds that he has a natural, raw talent for wrestling. As he teams with his rail-thin, unconventional partner, Esqueleto (the Skeleton), Nacho feels for the first time in his life that he has something to fight for and a place where he belongs.
As Lucha is strictly forbidden by the church elders at the monastery, Nacho is forced to lead a double life. Disguised by a sky blue mask, Nacho conceals his true identity as he takes on Mexico’s most famous wrestlers and takes on a hilarious quest to make life a little sweeter at the orphanage.
THE REVIEW: Jack Black hasn’t made many movies that haven’t made me laugh—Nacho Libre is funny although it’s definitely full of flat moments. This is a typical Jack Black flick full of his usual wackiness—screenwriter Mike White knows Jack Black personally and also wrote School of Rock for him so it makes sense that the film was written with only Black in mind as the lead. There are positives and negatives in that equation. Most of all it stereotypes Jack Black and offers him only a one-dimensional character.
Black is funny with all of his zany faces. Jack Black does a great job of delivering weak dialogue that still make the viewer smile. Number one is Black’s ability to do physical comedy—even if means falling or shaking has body in a particular way. If you’ve seen Jack Black in the past then you know what you are in for—there are no surprises here. It’s the same Jack Black except in tights.
FRANKLY: On the plus side, Nacho Libre is a short movie that hums along at a swift pace. Jack Black in an average film is still better than a lot of other comedic actors in a great film.
+ Charlie Craine
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