Nacho Libre DVD Review

Jared Hess loves to use actors who have perfected the expressionless face, one made famous by Buster Keaton in the silent years of comedy. Many extras are placed in ridiculous situations presented by Jack Black in and they give no reaction, which is where half of the humor in Nacho Libre comes from. Wes Anderson favors this humor also, which makes parts of Jared Hess’s films feel like family films made by Anderson. The other half of the humor should come from Jack Black’s wild antics. Whether or not you think he is a success depends upon how silly you like your humor and how much you like Jack Black. It essentially plays out like a movie that is great for the whole family, but might not necessarily satisfy any of them completely.

Jack Black is Nacho, a monastery cook who has always longed to wrestle. With no good ingredients available to cook for the orphan children Nacho decides to try and make the money by wrestling in secret. He convinces a street peasant, Esqueleto, to be his tag-team partner and they set out to win. Although they don’t ever win, they are successful at losing and continue to book fights which pay even if they lose. This money allows Nacho to prepare fancy meals at the monastery to try to impress Sister Encarnacion, a lovely new nun in the monastery.

As in Napoleon Dynamite, Hess’s first film, Nacho Libre has the same obsession over certain foods. Where Napoleon has tater-tots Nacho has toast and corn. The humor is strange but somehow it works. The script by Jared and Jerusha Hess also was fortunate enough to have the collaboration of Mike White as well. White’s quirky humor fits with Hess and Black.

The Special Collector’s edition has a dinner commentary with Jared Hess, Jack Black and Mike White. Why they decided to do a dinner commentary with the commentators eating while they talk is a mystery enough, but they are apparently eating Mexican because the sound of them munching on tortilla chips will ring in your ears through most of the film. There are also five featurettes, best suited for Jack Black fans. There is a ton of behind-the-scenes footage of Black talking into the camera and singing. The amount of on-set footage is staggering and surprisingly entertaining because of the natural entertaining value of the key figures in making the film. There is also a featurette about wrestling in Mexico and the filming on location there as well. There are also deleted scenes and footage of the process to getting Jack Black’s songs ready for the film.