Nacho Libre

Nacho Libre
Directed by: Jared Hess, USA, 2006
Comedy, 92min
Distributed by: Paramount Home Entertainment.

Story:
Overweight monk Nacho [Jack Black] has dedicated his life to serving the lord. He works at an orphanage where his main tasks are preparing the food for the parentless kids, but without the proper funding the meals are of very poor quality. In a complex plan to gain recognition from the pretty nun Sister Encarnación [Ana de la Reguera] and provide the kids with better meals he takes a huge step into the wrestling ring as the masked hero Nacho Libre. But wrestling is a sin according to the bible and soon he faces a real dilemma. Fight for the lord and be banished from his home at the orphanage or give up his childhood dream of becoming the greatest wrestler of all time.

Me:
So this is definitely not in the same vain as Hess’ previous movie at all. Napoleon Dynamite has a more laid back subtle humour where Nacho Libre definitely has been fuelled with Jack Black to the hilt. It’s a decent movie with quite a few laughs. The pairing of Black with his fakey Spanish, tight perm hair and horrible moustache with the scrawny man-skeleton Esquelito [Héctor Jiménez] is hilarious. These guys cat fight to save their lives, but they soon realise that even the losers get paid which is a decent way to earn money. Obviously they set their eyes on the big league, and have to struggle to get there. This is what I liked about this movie. It wasn’t one of those, magic solution now we rock and win situations, well at least not until the very end, and that made it worth waiting for. Black struts his stuff, sings a few tunes and keeps the laughs coming, the setting in the wrestling world is great, and an old Santos fan like me just can’t stop enjoying the fights. Great stuff.

Image:
1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen.
Swedish, English, Dutch, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian subtitles are optional

Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo

Extras:
A commentary track by Hess, producer7script co-writer Mike White and Jack Black where they are eating dinner during the time adds something new to the usual commentary track. Two isolated clips of Black singing, three deleted scenes, trailers, still galleries, and a bunch of short featurettes promoting the movie are available.