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11/02/2021

Nacho Libre (2006) - Black and Hess triumph with underrated comedy bullion

♥♥

 

+ Best Farce of the Year + Best Poster of the Year

 

Jack Black looks utterly hilarious with blown-up hair and a blown-out red cape on this fantastic poster for Jared Hess' Nacho Libre


Ignacio is a Catholic friar brother in an orphanage with dreams of wrestling greatness, when a new female nun catches his attention, and he begins to tempt fate by doing underground luchero [Mexican-style wrestling] fights.

 

Nacho Libre is written by Mike White (Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)), Jerusha Hess and great Arizonian filmmaker, co-writer/director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite (2004), both).

Impassioned Nacho may be Jack Black's (The Office (2009, TV-series)) best balls-out comical performance of all. Nacho Libre is an enthusiastic film in every way. Héctor Jiménez (Cómo Filmar Una XXX (2017)) is also hilarious as his sidekick, saying rip-roaring lines such as, "I hate all the orphans of the world!"

There are many entertaining fights.

Some of Nacho Libre's perceived 'innocence' as a film really stems from under-addressed Catholic problems: Jiménez's character's homosexuality, and the impossibility of Ignacio's flirt with the nun are never directly addressed. But the overwhelming amount of laughs are unmistakable. Nacho Libre is a riot.

 

Related posts:

 

Jared Hess: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Napoleon Dynamite (2004) - You'll wanna visit Preston, Idaho! 








Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 35 mil. $

Box office: 99.2 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.83 times its cost)

[Nacho Libre was released 16 June (North America) and runs 92 minutes. Shooting took place around September 2005 in Mexico and California. Hess had a falling out with studio backer Paramount, because the latter would not accept Beck's score for the film and instead hired Danny Elfman to compose a new score. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Cars, to a 28.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#3-#5-#5), grossing 80.1 mil. $ (80.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 7.3 mil. $ (7.4 %) and Mexico with 4.4 mil. $ (4.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 1.5/4 star review, translating to 4 notches under this one. Hess returned with Gentlemen Broncos (2009). Black returned in Eagles of Death Metal: I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News) (2006, music video) and theatrically in Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006). Nacho Libre is rotten at 40 % with a 5.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


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