Nacho Libre DVD Review (Jack Black) Empire Movies

NACHO LIBRE DVD REVIEW

Nacho Libre (Special Collector's Edition)
(Paramount Home Entertainment)

The Movie

The Extras

Reviewed by

5.5/10

6/10

Liam

For as long as I can remember, I've been a fan of Jack Black. Even in very early minor roles like "Bob Roberts" and "The Cable Guy" I can remember enjoying the guy. You might even remember his scenes in "The Jackal" with Bruce Willis (although the rest of the movie is pretty un-memorable). I guess what I'm trying to say here is that it's been nice over the last few years to see him come into his own with some better supporting roles (ie. "High Fidelity" and "Orange County") and more recently some leading roles (ie. "School of Rock"). Well, if you're like me and you've followed the guy for a while now, you might be looking forward to latest evolution of Jack Black with "Nacho Libre".

The movie stars our hero as Ignacio, a lowly man-servant at an orphanage somewhere in Mexico. We're lead to believe that Ignacio grew up at the orphanage and has been a wrestling fan forever. Now, he's grown up and is working in the kitchen serving the next generation of orphans on a very limited budget. (It looks like their daily meals include mud and leaves!) One day, a beautiful new nun named Sister Encarnación (Ana de la Reguera) comes to the orphanage. Inspired in part by wanting to serve better meals to the orphans and to impress Sister Encarnación, Ignacio follows his dream to become a Luchador/wrestler - even though it is forbidden by the monastery. Along with his new sidekick (Hector Jimenez), Ignacio enters the squared-circle as the masked "Nacho Libre". Although they pretty much suck as wrestlers and lose every match, Ignacio still makes enough cash to feed the orphans and impress Sister Encarnación. Although he has achieved his life-long dream, the one thing that remains beyond reach for Ignacio is respect. All this eventually leads to a championship match against Ramses (Mexico's most famous Luchador) for the chance to prove himself once and for all.

Nacho Libre was one of the movies I was really looking forward to this past summer. From everything I had seen and heard, the movie seemed like it was going to be a great time. And I don't know if it was all the self-inflicted hype, but the movie just didn't live up to my lofty expectations. Sure, I laughed out loud on a couple of occasions, but as a whole the movie was just missing something. In the end, the movie wasn't everything I had hoped it would be and that kinda sucks.

Special features on this DVD begin with a commentary featuring Jack Black, director Jared Hess and writer Mike White. You might be expecting this commentary to be fun however, like the movie, this one just turns out to be a little disappointing. They guys provide a few laughs, but overall the commentary is lacking that certain something. From there, we get a few featurettes. The first is titled "Detras de la Camara" (Behind the Camera) and is your standard making of featurette. This is followed by "Jack Black Unmasked!" which is a kid-friendly look at Jack Black and some of his on-set antics. Next, "Lucha Libre" is a brief (although pretty useless) look at Mexican wrestling. Finally, "Hencho en Mexico" looks at filming in Mexico. There's also an "Unscripted" feature from Moviefone featuring the film's stars which you may have already seen online at AOL. Next, "Jack Sings" features behind-the-scenes footage as Jack Black prepares for his musical number in the movie. The features are rounded out by 3 deleted scenes, some "Nacho Libre" TV spots, a TV spot for Nickelodeon's "El Tigre" and a photo gallery. For those of you looking for hidden features, you'll find some in the main "Special Features" menu, the "Featurettes" menu and the "Deleted Scenes" menu. Finally, for those of you who enjoy DVD-ROM content, this DVD contains a "Nacho Libre" comic book creator and some content that was originally featured on the movie's website.

It's not like "Nacho Libre" is a terrible movie -- it's just not as great as I had expected. I'm sure this movie will have its fans. Unfortunately, I'm just not one of them. Still, I'm sure I'll be looking forward to whatever Jack Black has planned for the future. (Unless it's a sequel to this movie...)

Features
Audio Commentary by Jack Black, Jared Hess and Mike White
Nacho Libre Comic Book Creator
Deleted Scenes
Photo Gallery
Jack Sings!
5 Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes
...And Much More!

Video
Widescreen

Audio
Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround
English 2.0 Surround
French 2.0 Surround

Subtitles
English
Spanish
Closed-Captioned

Release Date
October 24, 2006

Rating
PG

Length
92 mins.

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