Funny, but to specialized

Rating: 6/10 (10 July 2006)

The Frat Pack has been exploding all over the place. Will Ferrell has had his starring vehicles. As has Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Owen and Luke Wilson and Jack Black. Jack Black beats Owen Wilson and Ferrell and freshman initiate Justin Long to the summer movie comedy throne with Jared and Jerusha Hess' follow-up to Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre. Nacho Libre is about a man (Black) who was raised in a Catholic run Mexican orphanage. He studies to be a monk and is employed as the resident chef, making food that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment in the American prison system. But while he enjoys his work, he still desires to achieve his life long dream of becoming a Luchador (wrestler). This goes against the teachings of the monastery, so he fights in near secrecy as Nacho Libre, donning a mask to conceal his identity. He hopes to fight in a title match, winning money for the orphanage to have better food and a mode of transportation to go on field trips.
This film is really intended to hit only a few specialized audiences. Kids who will watch anything thrown at them (it's produced by Nickelodeon Studios), Jack Black fans, Napoleon Dynamite fans, and to a much lesser extent, wrestling fans.
Black runs this film. Where in his other films, like School of Rock and Shallow Hal, he had to rely on the supporting cast to really make the film, Nacho Libre could have been an hour and a half of just Black running around in tights, and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. But it serves for a very interesting paradox. While Black dominates this film, he doesn't come off as completely overbearing, as one might have expected. It's his film, but he's oddly repressed enough to allow his Mexican co-stars (each making their American major film debut) Ana de la Reguera and Hector Jimenez show off their talent.
The heart of the film still beats with all the marks of the Hesses. It's slow, simple and quiet. But not to the extent of it being bad. But again, you really have to have liked Napoleon Dynamite in order to fully enjoy this new venture. One can only hope that the two quickly learn that while the formula may have worked once (and now perhaps twice), it won't work every time, and they explore their range of film-making.
The wrestling scenes, while far between and almost too short, are highly entertaining, and should make any wrestling fan let out even the faintest of laughs.
It's an enjoyable film, but I'm afraid a bit too specialized, and my tastes are too broad to adequately suit it.