Nacho Libre

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2006)

Nacho Libre takes place in Mexico and is about a man named Nacho who works at a religious orphanage as the cook. The orphanage has no fresh ingredients for food, so the food that Nacho cooks is terrible. Having always been a fan of Mexican wrestling, Nacho meets a young man named Esqueleto who agrees to train with him and be a wrestling team together. The two of them never seem to win any of their fights, but they get paid even if they don't win, so they continue to do this, but must keep it a secret because the orphanage considers wrestling wrong. Also when a new nun named Sister Encarnacion comes to the orphanage Nacho falls in love with her and wants to impress her, but also must keep the wrestling a secret from her as well. Nacho Libre has good direction, a good script and a good comedic performance by Jack Black (who plays Nacho) as well as a good supporting cast. I was really surprised how much I liked Nacho Libre. I found it to be an entertaining movie and it had a lot of offbeat characters and situations which I really liked. This is a movie that is really different than a lot of the other summer movies that are coming out right now and that is one reason I liked this movie. It's humour, characters and situations all use a bizarre and original type of humour that I feel works well and it helps make the movie more unique and special than some of the other comedies out there. I also liked the film's story and there are some amusing parts as well as some sweet and touching moments that go along with this story. A lot of people said that this movie didn't look too good after they saw the trailers and I'm sure to a lot of people the movie does look silly and juvenile, but I think if you like odd humour and can appreciate a movie like Napoleon Dynamite (which is also by the same director here and co-writers) which had a similar sense of style and humour than you should be able to appreciate this film as well. This type of humour isn't for everyone which probably leads to some of the negative reviews you might have read for the film, but I was thoroughly entertained by this film and I think it will appeal to both adults and kids as a fun movie for everyone. With it's fun and well paced story and off the wall humour I definitely recommend Nacho Libre to fans of that type of humour and of similar movies like the film Napoleon Dynamite.