Tired and unfunny comedy

Rating: 4/10 (3 February 2008)

I have to admit, I was a fan of wrestling when I was a kid; and the subject matter is ripe for making a comedy film about. I'm a big fan of Jack Black in almost everything I've seen him and firmly (used to) believe that he can carry even the dullest film, and although I haven't seen it; Jared Hess' 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite is one of the most highly rated comedy of the last few years...so why is this film so dry? The film is set in Mexico and Jack Black plays a Mexican. This is part of the reason why the film is so lacking; it seems that Jared Hess was too happy to focus on the silly accents and the jokes suffer as a result of that. None of the characters are particularly interesting either. Jack Black usually makes the best of what he's given, but even he isn't able to make the lead role interesting. There's plenty of slapstick and childish humour as you'd probably expect; most of it not funny at all. The central character, aside from being a wannabe wrestler also cares for kids and wants to be a friar - and this subplot comes off as being very forced and uninteresting. Overall, this film was not funny and I don't recommend it!