Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

NACHO LIBRE (PG)

MOVIE BIASES: NAAAAAAACHOOOOOOooooo. Um, pre-sold.

MAJOR PLAYERS: Jack Black (School of Rock), co-writers Jerusha Hess
(Napoleon Dynamite), Mike White (School of Rock), and co-writer/director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite)

Hhhhhhhhhh. That sighing sound you hear is the "Napoleon Dynamite"-like exasperation of my friends and family in response to my delirious, giddy-like-a-schoolgirl excitement for "NAAAAAACHOOOOOOoooo" (Libre). With such ridiculously zany commercials and trailers of a topless Jack Black in tights, a cape, and thicket of unruly hair, I can't help but adore a movie from the minds of the
greatest cult classic comedy/inside joke of our decade so far (yep - I wore my Vote for Pedro t-shirt today). Threatening to alienate anyone without a sense of humor, "Nacho Libre" delivers a whole new onslaught of catchphrases and expressions with which to besiege my "Dynamite"-weary friends. Ondele!

"The childrens need a real hero." No, that's not a typo - that's Steven, a.k.a. Esqueleto (Hector Jimenez), an indigent street urchin urging on Ignacio, a.k.a. "Nacho" (Black), to take up the "stretchy pants" of Mexican luchador wrestling - for the kids, of course. Nacho is a lowly friar, toiling away as the cook of an orphanage where the food is truly horrible because they don't have much money. After seeing the "kind of respect" that a celebrated luchador receives, Nacho teams up with Esqueleto to tag team wrestle on the amateur luchador circuit. When their unusual combination of fear plus fear equals money (and underground fandom), Nacho uses his winnings to inject some flavor into the orphanage menu. But will Nacho's secret
"lucha libre" avocation and now worldly lifestyle derail his devotion to God and would-be relationship with the hot new teacher nun, Sister Encarnacion (Ana de la Reguera)?

Full of diverting sight gags and hysterical wrestling action, "Nacho Libre" is the riotous Latin cousin to "Napoleon Dynamite's" tomfoolery. "Nacho" is, technically, a sports movie, too, providing us plenty of wrestling "action" that is, by far, the most laugh-inspired physical comedy you will see all summer (props again to my former
stage combat teacher, Nick Powell, who second unit directs and is the stunt coordinator). Hess is a brilliant physical director, adding gentle, cartoony sound effects that mock/accentuate his superhero status in Nacho's own mind while employing that same hideous, troubadour-sounding score from "Dynamite" with Danny Elfman-produced (Batman) Mexican flair. Proving "Napoleon" was no fluke, the husband and wife team of Jared and Jerusha Hess tag team with Mike White, the writer behind Jack Black's breakout comedy "School of Rock," to concoct yet another silly, cult comedy waiting to happen. And it truly is cultlike - either you will turn yourself over to the insanity of scenes like Nacho's bedroom courtship of Encarnacion with...toast(!?!)...or you won't. And if you can't or won't, well, sorry but it sucks to be you; I laughed myself new tear ducts.

Inducing the hilarity is a mostly unknown-to-US-audiences Mexican cast. Get familiar with Hector Jimenez, whose nail file thin, orthodontically challenged atheist Steven ("I believe in SCI-ENCE!"), with a penchant for banshee-like screaming when his hair is pulled out in the ring, will have you flashing your not-so-pearly whites in his trademark sickly grin. Jimenez must be talented: he goes from scary bum fighter to goofy, endearing (and relentlessly flip-flop wearing) corn-eating sidekick with comic aplomb. Be prepared to fall in love with the pleasantly plump, heart-stealingly adorable Darius Rose, whose saucer-eyed Chancho idolizes Nacho to the point of donning baby blue tights and red boots. And then there's my newest REEL DEAL Crush, Ana de la Reguera. One of the most prominent actresses in Mexico
today, Ana's Sister Encarnacion seduces you with such hopeful, big brown eyes and chasms for dimples that she is a walking, talking billboard for God. Boasting an innocent, beatific smile that could save men's souls, Encarnacion is Eve before the Apple.

But back to Black. "Nacho Libre" is, quite simply, a Jack Black tour de force. I say that not to bury him, but to praise him. I sometimes have issues with Black myself. But when he's on, he is that combination of jolly fat man with a cool, edgy streak that somehow makes him amenable to the whole family - go figure.

And he is on like Georgia Power. Black, one of our more fearless maestros of physical comedy, shamelessly (or is it proudly?) bears his belly fat for half the movie, throwing himself into any situation with a headlong delirium that led my screening partner to comment, "Something is wrong with him. Seriously." Teamed with Hess, who similarly guided a then unknown Jon Heder's "Napoleon" performance into what I called a "cannonball of comedy," Black is at his creatively madcap zenith here, all darting eyes and flittering, rainforest thick eyebrows. And then there's that voice. Funneling his signature vocal intensity into a halting, Spanglish nightmare of an accent that is a whispery cross between William Shatner and Ricardo Montalban (ooo..."rich, Corinthian leather!"), Black's Nacho is that
rare character whose aggression actually endears him (like an early Adam Sandler - when he was funny).

"Sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. It's for fun." So yes, my dear friends, family, and colleagues - I am unbearable for a whole new reason. Hence the sickly, toothy grins. Hence the "I only believe in SCI-ENCE!" Hence the "You cra-see!" There is only one way to find out what I'm talking about with this oddly PG-rated movie (going to show that the MPAA favors fart jokes and violence over
swearing and sex) that I keep quoting in my everyday life. Come on - all the cool kids are doing it! Remember, a Vote for Pedro is a vote for "Nacho," too.

"Would you like to join me in my quarters for some toast?" Yes, Nacho, I would. (Crunch, crunch, crunch...)

@@@@ REELS
(FOUR REELS)
An urban legend/instant classic.

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare NACHO LIBRE (PG) MOVIE BIASES: NAAAAAAACHOOOOOOooooo. Um, pre-sold. MAJOR PLAYERS: Jack Black (School of Rock), co-writers Jerusha Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), Mike White (School of Rock), and co-writer/director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) Hhhhhhhhhh. That sighing sound you hear is the "Napoleon Dynamite"-like exasperation of my friends and family in response to my delirious, giddy-like-a-schoolgirl excitement for "NAAAAAACHOOOOOOoooo" (Libre). With such ridiculously zany commercials and trailers of a topless Jack Black in tights, a cape, and thicket of unruly hair, I can't help but adore a movie from the minds of the greatest cult classic comedy/inside joke of our decade so far (yep - I wore my Vote for Pedro t-shirt today). Threatening to alienate anyone without a sense of humor, "Nacho Libre" delivers a whole new onslaught of catchphrases and expressions with which to besiege my "Dynamite"-weary friends. Ondele! "The childrens need a real hero." No, that's not a typo - that's Steven, a.k.a. Esqueleto (Hector Jimenez), an indigent street urchin urging on Ignacio, a.k.a. "Nacho" (Black), to take up the "stretchy pants" of Mexican luchador wrestling - for the kids, of course. Nacho is a lowly friar, toiling away as the cook of an orphanage where the food is truly horrible because they don't have much money. After seeing the "kind of respect" that a celebrated luchador receives, Nacho teams up with Esqueleto to tag team wrestle on the amateur luchador circuit. When their unusual combination of fear plus fear equals money (and underground fandom), Nacho uses his winnings to inject some flavor into the orphanage menu. But will Nacho's secret "lucha libre" avocation and now worldly lifestyle derail his devotion to God and would-be relationship with the hot new teacher nun, Sister Encarnacion (Ana de la Reguera)? Full of diverting sight gags and hysterical wrestling action, "Nacho Libre" is the riotous Latin cousin to "Napoleon Dynamite's" tomfoolery. "Nacho" is, technically, a sports movie, too, providing us plenty of wrestling "action" that is, by far, the most laugh-inspired physical comedy you will see all summer (props again to my former stage combat teacher, Nick Powell, who second unit directs and is the stunt coordinator). Hess is a brilliant physical director, adding gentle, cartoony sound effects that mock/accentuate his superhero status in Nacho's own mind while employing that same hideous, troubadour-sounding score from "Dynamite" with Danny Elfman-produced (Batman) Mexican flair. Proving "Napoleon" was no fluke, the husband and wife team of Jared and Jerusha Hess tag team with Mike White, the writer behind Jack Black's breakout comedy "School of Rock," to concoct yet another silly, cult comedy waiting to happen. And it truly is cultlike - either you will turn yourself over to the insanity of scenes like Nacho's bedroom courtship of Encarnacion with...toast(!?!)...or you won't. And if you can't or won't, well, sorry but it sucks to be you; I laughed myself new tear ducts. Inducing the hilarity is a mostly unknown-to-US-audiences Mexican cast. Get familiar with Hector Jimenez, whose nail file thin, orthodontically challenged atheist Steven ("I believe in SCI-ENCE!"), with a penchant for banshee-like screaming when his hair is pulled out in the ring, will have you flashing your not-so-pearly whites in his trademark sickly grin. Jimenez must be talented: he goes from scary bum fighter to goofy, endearing (and relentlessly flip-flop wearing) corn-eating sidekick with comic aplomb. Be prepared to fall in love with the pleasantly plump, heart-stealingly adorable Darius Rose, whose saucer-eyed Chancho idolizes Nacho to the point of donning baby blue tights and red boots. And then there's my newest REEL DEAL Crush, Ana de la Reguera. One of the most prominent actresses in Mexico today, Ana's Sister Encarnacion seduces you with such hopeful, big brown eyes and chasms for dimples that she is a walking, talking billboard for God. Boasting an innocent, beatific smile that could save men's souls, Encarnacion is Eve before the Apple. But back to Black. "Nacho Libre" is, quite simply, a Jack Black tour de force. I say that not to bury him, but to praise him. I sometimes have issues with Black myself. But when he's on, he is that combination of jolly fat man with a cool, edgy streak that somehow makes him amenable to the whole family - go figure. And he is on like Georgia Power. Black, one of our more fearless maestros of physical comedy, shamelessly (or is it proudly?) bears his belly fat for half the movie, throwing himself into any situation with a headlong delirium that led my screening partner to comment, "Something is wrong with him. Seriously." Teamed with Hess, who similarly guided a then unknown Jon Heder's "Napoleon" performance into what I called a "cannonball of comedy," Black is at his creatively madcap zenith here, all darting eyes and flittering, rainforest thick eyebrows. And then there's that voice. Funneling his signature vocal intensity into a halting, Spanglish nightmare of an accent that is a whispery cross between William Shatner and Ricardo Montalban (ooo..."rich, Corinthian leather!"), Black's Nacho is that rare character whose aggression actually endears him (like an early Adam Sandler - when he was funny). "Sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. It's for fun." So yes, my dear friends, family, and colleagues - I am unbearable for a whole new reason. Hence the sickly, toothy grins. Hence the "I only believe in SCI-ENCE!" Hence the "You cra-see!" There is only one way to find out what I'm talking about with this oddly PG-rated movie (going to show that the MPAA favors fart jokes and violence over swearing and sex) that I keep quoting in my everyday life. Come on - all the cool kids are doing it! Remember, a Vote for Pedro is a vote for "Nacho," too. "Would you like to join me in my quarters for some toast?" Yes, Nacho, I would. (Crunch, crunch, crunch...) @@@@ REELS (FOUR REELS) An urban legend/instant classic. Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com © 2004, Edwardo Jackson