I ate some bugs. I ate some grass. I used my hand to wipe my…
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"I ate some bugs. I ate some grass. I used my hand to wipe my…"
Jack Black´s quote in the film "Nacho Libre" ended with the word tears. However, any adult and most children know that the word ´tears´ does not rhyme with grass. However, the word that would properly complete that quote pretty much describes this effort by the chubby funnyman. "Nacho Libre" is a film that had a lot of potential, but where the film´s title character struggles to find victory until the closing moments, the only victory for the audience is that the closing moments bring about closure to a film that is neither funny, nor entertaining. Jack Black flails around and goes through the motions of a wrestler in his performance as a friar who cannot find a place in the world. After sitting through the ninety-two minute running time of "Nacho Libre," I found it hard to fine a place for "Nacho Libre" on my shelf.
From the creators of "Napoleon Dynamite" and "School of Rock," "Nacho Libre" tells the story of an orphan whose place in the world is that of a cook for a Christian orphanage. Ignacio (Jack Black) had aspiration of being a wrestler as a young boy, but the clergymen that raised him in the orphanage quashed those hopes and Ignacio found an empty existence in a meaningless life where his only duty was to serve horrible food to sad and lonely orphans. However, when Sister Encarnacion (Ana de la Reguera) arrives at the orphanage, Ignacio becomes aroused and inspired to become the luchador he dreamed of being in his childhood, Nacho.
He enrolls the help of an overly skinny homeless man, Esqueleto (Hector Jimenez) and the two become a tag team wrestling pair that loses horribly, but entertains the crowd with their inability to do much of anything productive in the ring. Nacho strives to win the heart of Encarnacion and to win a wrestling match. He yearns to become a respected professional like Ramses (Cesar Gonzalez), but with absolutely no wrestling skills, Nacho and Esqueleto find earnings only in losing. When Encarnacion discovers that Ignacio is the wrestler Nacho, Nacho is cast away from the orphanage and must find his own place in the world and find redemption in the eyes of the clergymen that run the orphanage that is home to the orphans that he cares greatly for.
"Nacho Libre" strives to tickly the funny bone and a few times, the film manages to deliver a laugh or two. The initial fight between Nacho and Esqueleto, when Nacho is trying to recruit his services as a tag team partner is quite hilarious. The first few wrestling matches cross too far into the absurd to the point where the humor is lost. When Nacho and Esqueleto battle the two midget jungle people, instead of laughing, you are just trying to figure out what the writers were smoking when they came up with that idea for a fight. The training regiment Nacho puts himself and his partner through is a completely wasted opportunity and aside from a moment when Nacho is tossed into the air by a bull (perhaps the funniest moment in the film), the opportunity is completely lost to show these buffoons trying to become wrestlers.
The romantic aspect and the storyline that Ignacio is determined to become a champion for the orphans is lost by the quick-to-pass and slightly humorous wrestling bouts. One wonders how much better the film would have been if writers Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess and Mike White would have watched a few old "Three Stooges" episodes and a few old World Wrestling Federation films. A character like George the Animal Steele would have went a far way in this film instead of the oddity of wrestlers that Nacho and Esqueleto must battle. Instead of laughing through the fight scenes of "Nacho Libre," you find yourself just wishing the pain would end for the two wannabe wrestlers and you feel more sorry for them than entertained. The film becomes as sad and pathetic as the two wrestlers in the film. Jack Black´s underdog wrestler strives to becomes a heroic figure for the orphans he feeds slop too, but sadly, Black only delivers slop to the audience.
Video:
"Nacho Libre" is presented in a highly-stylized 1.85:1 widescreen image that is mastered with the VC-1 codec. Hardly being a fan of the film, I was hesitant to sit down and watch the film not once more, but twice more as the Blu-ray release and the HD-DVD release happened simultaneously. I figured I would at least be treated to a wonderfully detailed image where the powder blue tights would jump from the ring and onto the screen. Sadly, the same flaws and stylistic choices that were apparent in the DVD release and due to the film itself only intensified themselves with the high definition releases. The resulting image was murky with only occasional moments of high definition joy. In fact, much of the film looked nearly identical to the standard definition release. In my Blu-ray review, I compared the standard definition release through an upconvert player to the Blu-ray title and it was hard to discern which release was which. The HD-DVD release and the Blu-ray release are essentially identical in visuals.
With a color palette that looks as if it had been baked under the hot Mexican sun, the highly saturated colors come across warmly and help add character to this film. The red colors, which are typically the harder to reproduce, are magnificent and contrast nicely the powder blue tights and mask worn by Nacho. The constant sun-baked feeling to the film results in heavy yellows and this results in a dirty and dull look in a few scenes. The level of detail in "Nacho Libre" is occasionally soft and when you add in the golden hues used in the film, "Nacho Libre" is far from impressive looking. The source materials used for the DVD transfer were very clean, as would be expected by a film released in 2006. The film does look very detailed and crisp in many scenes, but the high definition picture quality of "Nacho Libre" can be best called inconsistent.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]20613[/release]