Critic's Grade: C-

Many summers ago, back when the movies were not so huge to me, my uncle and I used to watch wrestling on his big TV. Since then I have learned to love the movies and have realized that that TV was not so big after all. Outside of my family's visits, I never watched wrestling any where else. It kind of seems like senseless fighting and just pure entertainment that I never really got attached to. Of course I had my favorite wrestler that my uncle and I coveted, the big red machine, Kane. Well, besides that fact that my uncle went off and got married, the watching of wrestling deteriorated.

Why I told you that little story I do not know, I'm just really trying to make conversation so we can transition to the film Nacho Libre. I like to be able to relate and the only other way I can is by talking about my friend who wants to be a proffessional wrestler. I really, really, do not want to get into that.

The Lucha Libre is a Mexican style of our version of wrestling developed sometime in the 1930s. It actually translates loosely to english as "free-style fighting." Most of them wear masks and are traditionally unmasked right before their official retirement.

In the magical land of Mexico (in which in the real world everyone is fleeing), a priest, Nacho (Jack Black), has lived at a Mexican Monastery since he was an orphan and his dream to become a luchadore (wrestler) is crying out. Every since he was a young child (Troy Gentile),shown in flashbacks, he has alway wished to be a masked fighter. Everyday he serves the orphan children disgusting slop.

When a beautiful nun, Sister Encarnacion (Ana de la Reguera), joins the monastery, Nacho is determined to become a luchadore to win money to serve the orphans great food and win the heart of the Sister. He hunts down the local thief, Esqueleto (H?ctor Jim?nez) who has a striking resemblance to Gollum, the creature from The Lord of The Rings. Though depressed at his the teams' losing streak, Chancho (Darius Rose), a very heavy orphan, is the only one who has any faith in him.

Jack Black is a man of many masks, even if sometimes a little Jack is sticking out. Previous roles have included the rock and roll freak turned subsitute teacher in School of Rock, a shallow man hypnotized to purity in Shallow Hal, and an extremely determine filmmaker in King Kong. In Nacho Libre, there is an instance when he says "What's going on" or something along those lines, almost completely without the Mexican accent. Another time he does this is singing a song he wrote for Encarnacion while in the desert, again, almost completely unaccented. Most of his lines are delivered humorously in the film, and all his little Jack-isms you accept in making the film funny.

Unfortunately, his prescence is the only element that is enjoyable in this film. Most of the other actors/actresses seems quite two dimensional, but it probably feels this way because the writers gave these folks nothing to do but be background characters to Black.

Director and Writer Jared Hess of Napolean Dynamite (his claim to fame, or in my book, to shame), litters Nacho Libre with occassional stupid slapstick, fart jokes, and fecal humor. A film with quite an interesting topic takes a kiddie turn at a PG rating, and the Nickelodeon Movies credit at the beginning had me saying to myself, "Uh-oh."

It was quite dissapointing to watch him result to humor that only children would probably consider laughable. Other writers Jerusha Hess (also wrote N.P. with Hess) and Mike White,who played Ned Schneebly in School of Rock and helped write it, obviously has some experience in writing the Black material. Much of the story doesn't flow that well either, complications, solutions, complications, solutions, etc. As well as the one hundred minute running time feels over two hours. "Is it over yet?"

Not a lot else can be said about this film. It's sort of like those famous comedy scenes in various places in which the wall of a building falls on someone and they survive because they were lucky to be standing where the open window fell. That is exactly how this film worked. Jack Black remains standing even though the most of the foundation has already crumbled.

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