For all you fans of Jack Black then this is the movie to see. All it is is the crazy and random humor of Jack Black, but fun nonetheless.
The basic premise of the movie is that Jack Black, or Nacho, is a brother at an orphanage in Mexico. But he doesn't want to be a lowly cook forever and he dreams of becoming a wrestler in order to gain fame, pride, and money to feed the orphans fresh food. On his quest he meets up with a skinny homeless man who agrees to be his partner in exchange for a split of the profit. Thus hilarity ensues with their misadventures as they lose each match on their battle to the top. There's even a little romance between Nacho and the new teacher Sister Encarnacion, although this of course can never lead to anything, them being devoted to god and all. And so Nacho learns that his true strength does not lie in material things, but his love of helping the orphans.
What can I say about this movie? It's basically an excuse for Jack Black to make another movie. There is a basic plot, which is saying something compared to most of the self-promoting movies out there and Esqueleto is funny in his own right, but Jack Black's antics, accent, and actions really steal the show, it's basically a one man show with back up dancers. But don't get me wrong, I thought it was hilarious. I love the fight between Nacho and Esqueleto in the beginning and the fact that Nacho ate an eagle egg to gain strength but of course lost horribly the next match. There are some fun quirks like when Nacho leaves the orphanage to live in the wilderness. Only later do we discover that he's right next door to the village. Other things I enjoyed were the matches themselves. There was a lot of hair pulling, clothes lines, and suplexes galore, enough to satisfy any wrestling junky. My favorite fight had to be the one with the demonic cavemen or whatever they were. The screams of Esqueleto made me laugh and Jack Black's facial expressions always bring a smile to my face. Even his expression when starting up his little scooter made me chuckle. A great part is when Esqueleto and Nacho crash a party to meet Ramses to try to make it professional. Now the scenario is not funny, but the fat lady following Esqueleto is, trust me. But my most favorite part was the love song that Nacho writes for Sister Encarnacion. It wasn't just the song, but the end of the song when Nacho realizes that someone besides Esqueleto was listening. Jack Black comes off as endearing though goofy. The orphans are pretty cute as well. We have the skinny orphan asking "Why can't we have like, a salad or something" and the chubby kid Chanco that cheers Nacho on even though he likes Ramses more. At the end all the orphans are wearing Nacho's mask to cheer him on with his fight against Ramses. The actors are decently cast and none really steal the limelight from Black, they share it with him.
So the down low on this movie is; it's entertaining and especially delicious as Nacho would say. I wouldn't hold out on any real story line, but we do see his growth and eventually he realizes the fault of his ways. He cannot win because he was only thinking of himself and how to make money in order to impress Sister Encarnacion. In the end, he realizes that all along he was fighting in order to give the orphans a better life and be able to take them to field trips in a bus. What did I learn from this movie? That eagle eggs do not give you strength in a wrestling match, that so long as you keep fighting the good fight good things will happen, and that we all can become wrestlers we just need a costume and a cool name.
"Nacho Libre" opens June 16, 2006 and is rated PG. Comedy. Directed by Jared Hess. Written by Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess. Starring Ana De La Reguera, Hector Jimenez, Jack Black.
