Needs a lot more laughs than it has

Rating: 3/10 (28 December 2006)

I watched Nacho Libre because it looked amusing. I had my doubts of course, as the reviews were virtually bad, director Jared Hess' Napoleon Dynamite is one of the worst films I have ever had the displeasure of viewing, and I really do not love many of Jack Black's performances (save for High Fidelity and King Kong). It is with heavy disdain that I must say that the reviewers were right.
Ignacio (Black) is a Friar at a local Mexican orphanage. He wants to be a man of faith, but his fellow Friars think of him as something of a joke (I wonder why?). He works at as a cook, and despite wanting to give the children better food, he is unable to give anything but the regular disgusting meal. But Ignacio seems to have a thing for wrestling, and after seeing an ad asking for amateur wrestlers, decides to try it out with a local thief, Esqueleto (Héctor Jiménez). Throw in a bit of a love interest in new teacher/nun Encarnación (Ana de la Reguera), and you have the basic set-up of the film.
It may sound funny on paper, with Black playing another clueless idiot of a character, but the results are much less than that. There are a few snickers here and there, but never is there a single thing that struck me as laugh out loud funny. Black has an intoxicating presence on screen, but usually lacks the acting chops to back it up. Jiménez is much funnier than Black, but he never comes to any full realization with his character. Reguera looks gorgeous, but does basically nothing throughout the entirety of the film (Peter Stormare's tiny cameo does even less even with a mention in the opening credits), and with the exception of a "lion-esque" wrestling duo, no one else really stands out as much of anything in this production. They just go through the motions with the screenplay, and collect their cheque. There is no heart or soul in this picture, and it shows in the fact that no one even wants to try, they just want to swing by and pray for the best.
The main problem here is Black himself. This is not, and probably never should have been thought of, as a character for him to portray on screen. He just does not have it in him to play this doofus. His character is clearly set-up to be absolutely hilarious, but he is just lifeless and boring. Hell, his Mexican accent does not even stay Mexican throughout the entirety of his dialogue. Much too often does Black's normal American voice creep in, and give the audience a dose of who this guy really is. Another issue is in the fact that we never really understand what Ignacio's fascination with wrestling is to start with, just that he likes it and wants to live the life. The movie is short as it is, what is another minute and a half of explanation describing why he likes the sport so much, and strives to want to participate in it? Is it too boring of an ideal to give to an audience who probably should know better than to watch a movie like this in the first place? Can Black even handle any more dialogue with his disappearing/reoccurring accent?
The story itself is not too bad, although it becomes heavily repetitive and predictable as it goes along. The jokes come few and far between, and I can only hope this is intentional. It is bad enough that the few jokes that do appear are only worth a small snicker, but if there were actual jokes in the middle of these lulls and they just fell far too flat for anyone's tastes, than that would only continue to perpetuate this film's badness. It works in many ways better than Napoleon, but in other's, it feels like the exact same picture, only with more direction on the story and not just the main character's goofy quotes that are increasingly less funny every time you hear them.
Another jarring thing, and a bit of a surprise for me, was the blatant CGI. There are a small handful of sequences within the film that use special effects, but the ones that do stand out like a sore thumb. They look blatantly fake (which is a no-no in any film with any form of special effects), and they look like they belong to the wrong movie. Seeing Ignacio get whacked by a bull is funny, but seeing Ignacio go up and fall back down in complete CGI form and not a more seamless CG-created version of Black is just disrespectful for the medium. In an age where a giant ape can look photo-realistic and epic battles are being fought by millions of fake machines, ancient beasts and human beings without looking any different than the historical representations of any war, crappy CGI just does not cut it anymore. It needs to look realistic, no matter how small the shot. And here, it just looks silly and awkward.
Even with the problems, the visuals are all in check and very vibrant in their use. I love the red on blue outfit that Ignacio wears when he is Nacho, and I was really digging how realistic the villages and costumes the characters were wearing. I have never been to Mexico, but from what I know and imagine of it, this is what I am thinking. So the film gets some props for that at least.
On the whole, Nacho Libre is just one of those movies that may make a funny premise and a great trailer, but just ends up being DOA when it actually starts playing. A better script and much stronger acting could have helped this film become something actually worthwhile. But instead, it is just Napoleon Dynamite-lite. And that movie was not all too great to start with.
3/10.