Nacho Libre (2006)

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "There's sweetness in the slapstick, while the director mines his missionary past to present a Mexico as eccentric and off-beat as the small-town America lovingly mocked in his first film." 08/01/2006 p.35

Sight and Sound
"Director Jared Hess employs an offbeat aesthetic in keeping with his previous offering....Black's infectious, slapstick energy is also a great asset..." 09/01/2006 p.64

ReelViews 6 of 10
When a movie tries to be intentionally campy, it follows a difficult road. Most films that attempt this fail because the artifice of the situation drains the humor from it. Genuine camp is the child of earnestness and ineptitude, and is only found in features that the director intends to be taken seriously. That's not to say it can't be manufactured as a means of parody, but such an act requires a deftness of touch that, at least in this case, escapes director Jared Hess. After a promising beginning, Nacho Libre goes off the rails with its over-the-top satire and intentional campiness failing to generate many laughs. The film starts out funny, but it doesn't take long for it to become tedious...It's possible to see some similarities between Nacho Libre and Hess' Napoleon Dynamite. Both films are about outsiders, and both main characters have bizarre best friends. However, the main character in Napoleon Dynamite was an unpleasant individual. In Nacho Libre, he's a lovable loser...If you're a fan of Jack Black's overacting antics, you may find what Nacho Libre has to offer to be palatable. For me, the film dragged. It's only 90 minutes long, but it seemed longer. I laughed a few times, usually at physical gags (such as what happens when Nacho makes the mistake of challenging a bull), but too little of the film's humor worked its magic. Neither the romance nor the friendship between Nacho and Esqueleto has an effective emotional payoff, and attempts to humanize the Nacho caricature make parts of the film feel awkward. Too much in Nacho Libre doesn't work to enable me to recommend it to anyone except a card-carrying member of the Jack Black fan club. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 5 of 10
Jack Black is not very funny in "Nacho Libre," and that requires some meditation. Jack Black is essentially, intrinsically and instinctively a funny actor. He has that Christopher Walken thing going where you smile when he appears in a movie. It takes some doing to make a Jack Black comedy that doesn't work. But "Nacho Libre" does it...The problem with "Nacho Libre" is not its content but its style. It is curiously disjointed. Episodes meander on and off the screen without much conviction. While in training, Brother Ignacio climbs a rocky cliff to eat the yolk of an eagle's egg, and what's the payoff? He eats it and dives back into the water. Jokes do not build to climaxes, confrontations are misplaced, the professional wrestling itself is not especially well-staged and Black's tag-team partner, Esquelto (Hector Jimenez) is not well-defined...I suppose there will be those who find "Nacho Libre" offensive in one way or another, but with comedy a little political incorrectness comes with the territory. Yes, Mexico in the movie seems to be a country where English is the language and Spanish is a hobby. Yes, Brother Ignacio is mugged by a Wild Child for a bag of nacho chips. And yes, Brother Ignacio's cooking is so bad that this may be the first orphanage in the history of fiction where an urchin approaches the cook and asks, "Please, sir, may I have less food?"...I dunno. I sat there and watched scenes flex their muscles and run off in the direction of comedy and trip over something. I saw the great Jack Black occasionally at wit's end. I saw wrestling matches that were neither painful nor funny and not well-enough choreographed to make much sense. "Nacho Libre" begins with a certain air of dejection, as if it already suspects what we're about to find out. - Roger Ebert