I think “Napoleon” was able to survive some of the Hess’ shortcomings by being so unexpectedly odd - it’s deficiencies created a sort of vacuous cinematic vision. The characters were so bizarre, the story so threadbare, and the production so cheap, that it couldn’t help but be memorable. Casting the unknown Jon Heder as Napoleon also worked to their advantage; with no prior experience for the audience to fall back on, it was easy to accept Heder/Napoleon as a believable character.
Now the Hess’ are back with “Nacho Libre,” and they’ve brought with them a bigger budget and a bigger star. That would be Jack Black as the (kind of) titular character, a Mexican monk named Ignatio who dreams of becoming a professional wrestler. You may be wondering, “Jack Black? As a Mexican?” Honestly, the end results are not nearly as bad as they might’ve been. Technically Ignatio is only half-Latino, so Black doesn’t need to be a perfect ethnic match. And, as far as the accent goes, it’s not the most accurate in the world, but it serves the comedy well. In all, Black is still more convincing as a Mexican than, say, Charlton Heston.
Where he gets into trouble are the moments in the film where he stops being Ignatio, and wanders into his usual Jack Black routine. For example, Ignatio has several singing moments in the movie, nearly all of which contain Black’s “School of Rock” style “rigga-digga-doo” vocal bits. The wrestling angle also unfortunately lends itself to Black’s tendency to prance around and cavort on screen. That can be amusing, but it’s ultimately more of Jack Black’s shtick, and not something that helps develop Ignatio as a character.
I was also disappointed with the juvenile nature of a lot of the humor in “Nacho Libre.” There were far too many fart noises for my taste, and too many gags involving gross food. Granted, this is a movie primarily aimed at children, however you shouldn’t need to pander to kids in order to entertain them. In contrast, the highlights of the film were the wrestling sequences featuring Black, sidekick Esqueleto (Hector Jimenez), and various luchadores including Cesar “Silver King” Gonzalez (known for his stocky physique). The action was fun and exciting, and included a fair amount of decent lucha-style wrestling moves.
Otherwise, there is also a romantic subplot in “Nacho” that is mostly overlooked. Although, when your lovebirds are a wrestling monk and a comely nun (Ana de la Reguera), there’s not much you can do, particularly in a kids film. It also would be nice if the filmmakers were trying to say something with this film, but outside of a slight moral quandary over whether wrestling is a godly calling there doesn’t seem to be much message here either.
Unfortunately the greatest loss in “Nacho Libre” is of the indie film charm and spirit of inventiveness that made “Napoleon” a fun flick, despite (or perhaps because of) its flaws. Sometimes the worst thing you can do to a low-budget filmmaker is to give them more money; it certainly didn’t help Kevin Smith in his jump from “Clerks” to “Mallrats,” and it doesn’t seem to have benefited the Hess family either. The budget for this film is purportedly $25 million; one only wonders what they could’ve done with five.
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