Like nachos themselves, this film's too cheesy and not satisfying enough - 55%

Rating: 5/10 (26 May 2007)

Finally being able to get back online after a brief absence, my first duty was to come here and tell you all about a most strange little movie. Starring everybody's favourite bearded psychotic dwarf Jack Black, "Nacho Libre" had enough good praise behind to sink the Bismark but for me personally, I felt like I was missing the joke. Perhaps Black should stick to mocking rock as one half of Tenacious D because this doesn't really do enough for me to honestly recommend it.
Black plays Ignacio, a bumbling cook in a Mexican monastery who dreams of leaving it all behind and becoming a luchador. When his dreams overtake his duty to the orphans he feeds, Ignacio is forced to become the wrestler of his dreams - Nacho Libre. Teaming up with worryingly thin street urchin Esqueleto (Héctor Jiménez), they face off against some of the more bizarre opponents Mexico has to offer. Sadly, Nacho and Esqueleto aren't up to the standards of the mighty Ramses (Cesar Gonzalez) but spurred on by his forbidden love of Sister Encarnación (the gorgeous Ana de la Reguera), Nacho is determined to become the greatest man in stretchy pants.
Black, it has to be said, never convinces as a Mexican at all - his accent veers from scene to scene and the dodgy facial hair looks ready to fall off at a moment's notice. I think that ultimately, whether you'll like this film or not depends almost entirely on whether you enjoy Black's shouty performance. He's like Jim Carrey but without the face-pulling, coming across as little more than a barrel of TNT ready to explode at any minute. With a plectrum in hand, this is ideal but with a weak script, Black's brand of mania isn't quite what is required. To be honest, most of the humour comes from the wrestling scenes which capture the oddness and whirlwind comic violence of professional wrestling perfectly. The rest of the cast gamely try to keep up with Black but ultimately fail.
Maybe I'm missing the joke but "Nacho Libre" didn't really set my world alight. It's far too hit-and-miss, much like Black's career, to be a really funny film because I do think there was potential here. At best, this is a unusual kid's movie but I'm still not sure whether they'd get the joke or not. Wrestling movies aren't that common but what's the point in spoofing them when they are already pushing the boundaries of reality back as far as they can go? The same applies to spy movies trying to mock James Bond - anybody who watched "Die Another Day" will know how far the real thing had left the tracks. "Nacho Libre" has flashes of laughter but for me, I'd rather go toe-to-toe with Rey Mysterio.