**

Let's get something straight right off the bat. This is not a 'kid's film' even if it is a Nickelodeon production. The humor included fart jokes, jokes about diarrhea, and smearing animal fecal matter across someone's face.
And this got it a "PG" rating. Apparently as long as no one got in bed with each other animal feces as a facial is accepted now. Not by those with a social IQ above 10, but that is beside the point.
The point is, is Nacho Libre a film to waste you hard earned money on?
Short and sweet answer? You betcha'.
In some places, I thought I was going to cough up my popcorn. This would have gone well with some of the stuff happening on the screen I suppose.
Ignacio (Nacho for short), is a Friar in a Mexican Monastery an orphaned boy who "Cooking duties and…dead guy duties" and is usually looked at as not quite as 'Godly' as the other monks and priests, though the children love him. And oddly enough he comes across with a pretty good Mexican accent. His job since he was a child is simply to work in the kitchen, cooking the food for the Fathers and the orphans who live there.
But Nacho harbors a dark secret, because in his heart he wants to be a luchador, a masked wrestler.
Suddenly into his life comes a new teacher, Sister Encarnación (Ana de la Reguera) who fills Nacho with feelings he normally tries to suppress. We would assume, anyway. He is instantly smitten and sets out to woo her in typical Jack Black way by inviting her over to his quarters later that night to "have toast."
De la Reguera is amazing in this movie. While many of the priests seem to be taken with her, it is truly understandable as she is one of the most beautiful women I have seen on screen in quite a while. She carries herself well, and her eyes are the kind that can kindle heat of freeze a man in his tracks. Yowza!!
After some food is stolen from him by a homeless man and he is further humiliated by one of the older priests, Nacho goes off to earn more money for the orphanage and the children he cares for.
Teaming up with Esqueleto, the peasant who robbed him and who also has some of the worst teeth in movie history. Esqueleto makes Pee Wee Herman look like Mr. Universe, and of course he is pursued by a woman who is his exact opposite in the weight department. And of course, this was expected just like so many of the other jokes in the film. The problem will be for most critics (of which I don't think of myself as being. I am a Reviewer) will be to prove that having an idea of what is to come is actually a bad idea in this movie.
To me, it was a part and parcel of what the whole thing was about. Just as much as "Cars" was about teamwork and friendship, Nacho Libre is about doing something not because it will bring you glory or fame but because it might help others. It could make a difference in someone else's life.
I doubt if that will be obvious to the college educated, high brow bunch who have to analyze everything and believe that a movie simply must have some redeeming value to make it worth seeing or telling others about. Say that last sentence with a snooty accent.
Nacho Libre is a shot at making fun of something that in its own way is already a parody of something else. It is also something that a whole lot of people are entertained by, entranced by and addicted to and they don't want to hear anything negative about it.
I think Nacho does that. Skewering a a sport that turns metal chairs into a weapon and brings out midget wrestlers who look like a cross between the X-Men's Wolverine and one of George Lucas' Sandpeople, but with bigger teeth would be a hard job for anyone to do.
Fortunately, Hass picked a good team to work with. Black, Jiménez and Ana de la Reguera work together to create a cast that honestly feels right and seems to work right. They move against each other and with each other to provide a well thought out, well done and actually funny movie.
As I said, this is not a movie for 'kids'. It is rated PG for "action and crude humor including language" and would be fine for kids around 10 and up.
NACHO LIBRE runs 1:31.
PS: This is one of the few films I have wanted to get the soundtrack for