NACHO LIBRE

US, 2006, 92 minutes, Colour.
Jack Black, Ana de la Reguera.
Directed by Jared Hess.

Berated all his life by those around him, a monk follows his dream and dons a mask to moonlight as a Luchador (Mexican wrestler).

How stupid is stupid? Nacho Libre is pretty stupid. Not that audiences can’t enjoy something stupid. We do. But this one is really hit and miss.

It will be a hit if you like Jack Black, who has been pretty funny in the past, in School of Rock and even as a creep in King Kong. One of the troubles is that he is a calculating comedian. You can see him working out how to win over the audience, one of those actors who can never get enough applause. It will be a miss if you don’t like impossible farce, silly dialogue and story lines – and if wrestling is not your favourite sport.

The director made the cult hit, Napoleon Dynamite, but goes for lower common denominators for comedy. The setting is a Mexican orphanage where Jack Black grows up, is put into a habit, belittled by the friar in charge, gets a crush on a pretty nun who comes to teach and, with the aid of a skinny friend, moonlights as Nacho Libre who builds up a following amongst the crowds at the wrestling matches.

With not much effort the producers could have checked with some church advisors to save them from making a kind of Police Academy version of orphanages, friars, nuns and the church – and even of wrestling as well.