I was one of the lucky few who saw “Napoleon Dynamite” before it became immensely popular. I went and watched it on my birthday with some family and didn’t know anything about it yet. I thought it was decent, a little pointless, but worth a few chuckles. I truly didn’t get why it became so popular, but it was only a matter of time until Jared Hess made a new movie. When I first saw the trailers for Nacho Libre, I thought that it looked horrible. I didn’t find one thing in the trailers funny, and the only reason I went is because my friends wanted to see it. However, it turned out to be a decent movie and fans of Napoleon Dynamite will like Nacho Libre, while people who disliked “Napoleon” will also dislike this movie.

Nacho Libre follows the story of Nacho, an obese man who wants to be a professional Luchadore (a Mexican wrestler), but was instead forced to become a cook at a Christian orphanage. It is against his religion to become a Luchadore, since they fight for “false pride” among other things. However, Nacho desperately wants to become one. Soon, a new nun named Sister Encarnación begins to work in the orphanage, and Nacho falls in love with her. Unfortunately, she is strongly against Luchadores, but Nacho decides to follow his dreams. He teams up with a thief, named Esqueleto, and the pair become popular Luchadores, making loads of money.

Yep, that’s basically the whole plot. This movie isn’t big on plot, although it still has a lot more plot than Napoleon Dynamite. There really isn’t much conflict within this movie or much of a storyline once the movie reaches the 30 minute mark. It’s basically Nacho trying to become a better wrestler and wrestling. Some people might like the certain amount of randomness and absurdity. I probably would’ve preferred more of a plot though. Most of the stuff in this movie was just thrown in for no reason. It didn’t have any purpose or point in the story. Such as the sub-plot between Esqueleto and a morbidly obese lady. There seems to be a romantic sub-plot introduced in the middle of the film, and than it goes nowhere. It had no purpose except to make a joke out of the fact she climbed through mouse holes in the wall (don’t ask). Either way, Jared Hess can definitely pull of pointlessness better than most directors can, so this isn’t a huge problem.

Nacho Libre manages to be slightly funny and worth a few laughs, but definitely not gut busting. The humor is stupid, and half the time it is kind of funny and half the time it is kind of un-funny. It’s never painfully bad, but never amazingly good either. The humor is mainly reliant on non-sensical things and cheesy lines. Some of the humor works. I laughed out loud at some of the scenes, such as when Nacho flings a piece of corn into a mans eye. It was dumb, but it caught me from surprise and was funny. As well, there were some other funny parts. Esqueleto’s “I like orphans now” scene was pretty funny, as well as the scene where Nacho and Esqueleto trained. Yes, it was pointless and included such things as Nacho rubbing feces in his face, but it was still pretty darn funny. The movie managed to be funny half the time with random sequences and hilarious songs, although nothing had me burst out laughing.

However, the other half of the time, Nacho Libre wasn’t very funny. The thing about the “random humor” is that it is hit or miss. Half the time it can be funny, the other half it can be unfunny. Some of the scenes failed to make me laugh, such as when Nacho asked for the sister to come to his room to have toast. I just don’t see the humor in that. There’s nothing funny about toast. Same with the scene where Jack Black “where’s his recreational clothes”. What is there something funny about him visibly clenching his butt? Maybe, but I don’t think so. The fart jokes were lame, although they were few and were never drawn out into long, stupid, sequences. There were other bad jokes too. A lot of the slapstick failed to make me laugh. There’s nothing that funny about Jack Black flying off his bike or flying into the air after getting hit by a bull. Slapstick is funny once or twice, but it isn’t funny the tenth time. Finally, there is nothing comical about a fat lady falling in love with a skinny guy. Someone please tell Jared Hess, as it is in both his movies now. While none of the above scenes are funny, they aren’t horribly painful to watch either. I remember watching Date Movie and cringing at how bad each joke was. Nacho Libre isn’t like that. The bad jokes are bad, but not atrocious.

Although I’m not the biggest Jack Black fan, he turned in a good performance in this movie. He basically was in every scene, so he had to carry a lot of this film on his back. Jack Black definitely was funny, as Nacho. He had a hilariously stupid accent and looked almost as dumb as he talked. For the most part, he was funny, although he was only as good as the script given to him. He couldn’t save all of bad jokes, but he definitely made a lot of things funnier. I can’t imagine some of the jokes being funny in the script without Jack Black’s hilarious delivery. However, Jack Black is not at all convincing as a Mexican Cook turned Luchadore. He was clearly going for an over exaggerated funny performance and nothing the least bit realistic. Ana de la Reguera is decent as Sister Encarnacion, although she isn’t given too much to do, besides talk to Jack Black occasionally. Hector Jimenez is good as Esqueleto and almost matches Jack Black in funniness, although falls short by a bit. These three are basically the only big characters in this movie and carry the whole film on their back. They were wise choices, as they perform their roles well.

My biggest beef with Nacho Libre, besides half of the jokes being unfunny, is Jared Hess’s directing. Although Nacho Libre is lit properly, the shot composition is pretty poor and the editing is bad. Jared Hess has avoided basic directing rules, and while he does pull it off better than some other amateur directors, sometimes it became blatantly obvious. As well, he managed to direct most of the wrestling scenes poorly. Directing an action sequence is much different than a scene where characters are talking. I’d prefer more cuts and angles, instead of just one long shot after another for the fights. It makes them less interesting. Finally, Jared Hess incorporates dozens of cheap editing transitions, such as swirls. This just drew me out of the movie and looked amateurish. Editing and directing seemed a bit amateur.

Nacho Libre was a decent movie, and definitely better than I expected. Half of the time it was funny, half of the time it wasn’t. It was devoid of plot and had amateurish directing and editing, but the acting was great. I recommend it to anyone who liked Napoleon Dynamite, which is the vast majority of people. It is very similar and many people will like it.


Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Funny Movie