When I was a kid for the longest time I always wanted to be the Hulk. After watching an episode starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno I would run around the house sans-shirt and ripped up pants and terrorize everything from house pets to house plants. Punch through kleenexes pinned up on the clothes line like they were brick walls. It was my life's greatest ambition to the be the Incredible Hulk.
The opening to Nacho Libre reminded me very much of that childhood inocence. An orphaned child running around a Mexican orphanage dressed in a Luch Libre mask and home-made garb wrestling with statues and plants. . . reminds me of being a kid. Until (Much also like my childhood) the adults grabbed him and washed him down, giving him duties to make him grow up and act like a man.
Jack Black turns in a very Jack Black performance. If you've ever seen School of Rock, or Tenacious D. or any appearances of his on Saturday Night Live you know exactly what I'm talking about. This is Jack Black being Jack Black at his Jack Blackest. He plays Ignacio. A monk cook at an orphanage in Mexico that he grew up in. The monestary is meek and poor. He barely has enough money to afford good food for the children and staff and he also garners no respect from any of the brothers. To help his Orphanage and the Orphans, he decides to moonlight as a masked Luchadore named Nacho, and allows himself to be beat up every night for money. Money he begins to use to provide fine dining, but then turns to selfishness the further into the new life he gets.
Most deceitful about this movie is the way that it was advertised. From every trailer and commercial for this movie had it shown as a non-stop comedic romp on the level of Adam Sandler-esq stupidity. But it is actually a lot better than that. While there is a lot of fun and comedy abound in this film it is actually a very sweet and loveable movie. About a loser who can't win, but who'se losses bring happiness and peace to others.
But then there are the times when this movie tries to be really, really funny. Happy Gilmore Funny. But it goes about it in a childish way by using the faintest amount of poop-humor to wringle a smile out of the yungin's in the audience. And judging from the laughs in the audience around me, some of the older ones as well. Specifically after Nacho's first match his partner stands at a mirror in the bathroom contemplating their lot in life while Nacho is taking a loud noisy shit. Followed by other bits of farting and the like that almost make a sweet movie for kids, infantile.
What Nacho Libre has going for it in spades is a stellar supporting cast. Namely, Héctor Jiménez as Nacho's fighting partner Esquelato. This guy is all bones and teeth. You remember those old Disney cartoons where the skeletons would play xylophone on their ribs? That's this guy. He's odd to look at but very, very interesting at the same time. His character is also as innocent as Nacho. His greatest joys in life is corn on a stick and believing in science. In fact his love for corn leads to one of the biggest belly laughs of the whole movie. It starts off with a thug threatening him with a knife, and with a serene look on his face and a timed lick of his chops he brings his corn to the offense and throws the fucking cob right through the sunnuvabitch's eye!
Ana de la Reguera plays the newest nun to the convent, Sister Encarnacion. Ana de la Reguera is an angel come to Earth. Holy shit, the visage of beauty she owns will send many young muchachos straight into puberty while watching this movie. Nacho Libre will the first movie this summer to send boys into the theatre as children, and have them leaving as men.
If I could compare the way Jared Hess directs films it would be very close to Wes Anderson. he brings the grain on the film up and the quality down. Giving it a very real look to it. The browns are dirtier and the heat is intense. It gives the film a weight of realism that something like this recquires in order to draw you into it's world. If only they hadn't had as much farting.
FINAL ANALYSIS!
What is rereshing about this film is that as a wrestler, Nacho sucks. He can't thrown he can't maneuver, he can't anything. And time and time again he has his ass handed to him. What most conventional films would do these days is to have Nacho be a dynamo in the ring. He'd dance circles around the men that had been doing this for years. But the fact that he can't is an even bigger breath of fresh air and a choking market.
When in the finale things finally go Nacho's way and he finds his inspiration to win, he trapses around the ring with a look of joy and pleasure that only is allowed to people who have accomplished a life long dream. At that instant Nacho became a wrestler. And at the moment, I never wanted to be the Hulk so badly in my whole life.
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