mostly funny movie

Rating: 6/10 (12 August 2006)

In spite of some unappealing ingredients - what the real Mexicans made of Jack Black's accent I can't imagine - I found this an endearing, often amusing, pleasantly unsentimental and occasionally extremely funny movie. Black plays a junior monk in the orphanage in which his character himself was brought up, longing to make it big as a wrestler. The whole thing is as preposterous as a Roland Emmerich movie, but here there are also a lot of laughs, interspersed with some wince-inducing wrestling scenes, which won't be to everyone's taste, but which I nonetheless enjoyed.
The cast play it straight to good effect, with Hector Jiminez contributing a particularly hilarious turn as the hero's sidekick. I suppose the politically correct ought to be advised to steer clear, but I'd rather they developed a sense of humour and went along, if nothing else for the costumes, which are very, very funny. Take in lots of popcorn.