NACHO LIBRE - nowhere near as funny as other Jack Black flicks

NACHO LIBRE is the new movie from the guy - Jared Hess - who gave us the whimsical high school comedy NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. It also stars Jack Black, the comic legend from HIGH FIDELITY and, playing it more straight, KING KONG.

NACHO LIBRE has a deliberately infantile plot. Nacho (Jack Black) is a monk who has to cook food in a poor Mexican monastery cum orphanage. He cooks crappy food because he has no money. He fancies the new teacher, Sister Incarnacion and tries to impress her and give the kids better food by wrestling for money. However, the Church frowns on wrestling.

As one might expect given the plot, the humour in NACHO LIBRE is pretty infantile too. It consists in a really fat guy and a really skinny guy wearing "stretchy pants" getting seven shades of shit kicked out of them in a wrestling ring. When not wrestling, the humour consists in Nacho's afro, manic eyebrows and all the actors using pastiche Mexican accents. It's the kind of slapstick humour the British perfected in unsophisticated comedies such as 'Allo 'Allo.

NACHO LIBRE also has a deliberately infantile directorial style. There is little to no camera movement. Every scene is like a framed picture with all the action in the centre of the screen. Or else it is an aerial shot, usually capturing food that Nacho has arranged into a smiley face. When there is a proper tracking shot it is conspicuous and serves to a highlight a key moment - such as when Nacho has come out as a wrestler to the monastery and walks towards the village putting on his wrestling mask.

I have to say that I normally have no objection to this kind of simplistic, fake-naive comedy. I loved NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, after all. But, much to my surprise, I found NACHO LIBRE a bit weak. It's only ninetey minutes long, but that's a long time to fill if you only have "stretchy pants" and a silly accent. (Amazing, and nice to know, that you can still get away with such non-PC stuff!) So, much to my amazament, I have to give this movie a reluctant thumbs down. I suspect that fans of SCHOOL OF ROCK and other Jack Black fare will be a little disappointed.

NACHO LIBRE is already on release in the US, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Kuwait, Italy, Mexico and the UK. It opens on Agust 18th in Italy and Spain. It opens in September in Finland, Argentina, Australia, Iceland, Brazil and Turkey. It opens in October in Belgium and Japan and in November in France, the Netherlands and Germany.

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE - quirky to the point of genius

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE is, I suspect, the kind of movie that you either love or hate. But for me, this movie is kooky, quirky and eccentric to the point of genius. It is sweet, hopeful and yet never schmaltzy or obvious. And it's key message: that there is someone out there for all of us, is a fantastic way to start the year. The movie is a super low-budget indie flick by Jared Hess. And I mean Indie in the fullest sense of the word: from the eccentric characters in boon-dock America, to the pop-culture references, to the focus on the geeks and freaks at High School, to the cooler than thou sound-track, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE wears its Indie heart on its sleeve. However, all these features are never grating and, compared to some recent movies, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE never feels like it is trying too hard. Indeed, the story seems to unwind without effort and enchant us. The eponymous hero is a high school nerd, with big glasses, big teeth and a righteous 'fro. He says "gosh" a lot, draws cartoons of cross-breed animals, and is the star of the movie in his mind To wit, 'You know, there's like a butt-load of gangs at this school. This one gang kept wanting me to join because I'm pretty good with a bo staff." Genius. Napoleon is brought to life in a comic performance of real subtelty and brilliance by newbie Jon Heder. I have no doubt that his dance routine is destined to become as famous as Ricky Gervais' routine in British cult classic, THE OFFICE. The story, such as it is, follows Napoleon as he gets his first girlfriend, who is equally geeky. We also see Napoleon's brother Kip hook up with an internet date and Napoleon help his best mate, Pedro, get the student presidency. What links all these stories is the triumph of outsiders over the conventional without compromise. Like I said, this movie is one you either love or hate so it's hard to recommend. But if you find that off-beat comedy sets you giggling, you should check it out.

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE played at Sundance and London 2004 and is currently on release in the UK. It opens in Germany on May 18th 2005.