Thank goodness for Jack Black, the saving grace

Rating: 6/10 (15 June 2006)

Watching Nacho Libre is a weird experience. Just when you're convinced that you hate it and you're making plans to hunt down director Jared Hess and punch him in the face, Jack Black goes and does something totally outrageous that has you unashamedly laughing out loud. Hess should thank Black, his saving grace, because about 15 minutes into the movie (with hardly a laugh in sight) I was already forming a posse.
It says a lot about Black's talent that his mere presence can keep a film afloat. His contorted facial expressions, decidedly unsexy poses, fake Spanish accent, and tendency to break out into song is enough to keep his fans, like yours truly, entertained. His narration of a letter he wrote to Sister Encarnacion is particularly hysterical. But the movie's strong point also exposes its main weakness - without Black this film is a disaster.
Feel free to send your letter of thanks to the screenwriters for that. The script is surprisingly weak, the plethora of bathroom jokes giving testament to that. Who sits around and thinks, "Hey, smearing manure on a guy's face would be HIIII-LARIOUS"? And what purpose, other than appealing to the least common denominator, is served by having Nacho occasionally accompanied by really fake-sounding farts? I question the necessity of such bathroom humor, my pupils rolling 180 degrees into the back of my head at each poop reference, yet at least 50% of the audience howls with laughter. Cheap laughs, "purpose" be thy name.
Thank goodness for Black's ad-libbing. There's no other way to explain the laugh-out-loud moments. Even when a slice of dialogue is obviously weak on paper, Black is skillful enough to make it work. It looks effortless. Unfortunately, Nacho Libre doesn't sustain a high enough laugh-to-head shaking ratio to make me a completely satisfied viewer.
I can appreciate the film's desire to offer something quirky and original, but I can't appreciate its inability to be consistently funny while doing so. There are just too many stupid jokes that fall flatter than Kate Moss' ... current hairdo.
Nacho Libre is one of those films that will be more enjoyable on a second viewing thanks to the wonderful mechanism that is known as the fast-forward button. I know where the good stuff is and can hopscotch my way to it. Disappointing? A little. Since I like Jack and his over-the-top stylings, this is a movie I wanted to love all the way through. Walking out of the theater, feeling slightly relieved that it wasn't "as horrible as I feared" just isn't a benchmark of greatness.
THE GIST
Nacho Libre is blatantly going after the same cult following that affixed itself to Napoleon Dynamite (same director, after all), and that's fine - it'll definitely have a following. You don't need Fodor's Guide to Nacho Libre to figure out if you'll be a part of this following.
If you've deemed the trailer the funniest thing since Johnny Betts' last review then go have a blast. If, like I, you're on the fence then don't risk it - save it for a rental. And if you don't like Jack Black at all then this is definitely NACHO kind of movie ... BWAHAHAHA! Sorry, but considering some of the bad jokes the Hess brothers forced on me, I figured I owed 'em one.