4/4  Nachoooooooooooo!
This movie is amazing! I love it! This movie is like Napoleon Dynamite...you either love it or you hate it. Jack Black is one of my favorite actors. Hes just too funny. The movie itself sounds stupid...but the humor is funny. There are alo... (read full)

1/4  Nacho Libre Quick Review
I may have cracked a smile here and there, but I never laughed, which is not a good thing when you're watching a comedy. Confusing dumb with funny does not a good movie make.

0.5/4  Nacho Libre Quick Review
Terrible, terrible film.

0.5/4  Nacho Libre Quick Review
This movie looked pretty funny during it's previews but the truth is it wasn't funny at all. It is one of thoes movies that got turned off before it was finished. Two thumbs down for this dumb movie.

5/5 Much better than you might expect
  by Ann Arbor doc (Ann Arbor, Mi)
Much better than most comedies; you do have to have a sense of humor to enjoy it, so if you rarely laugh, don't go to this movie. Kind hearted and humorous portrayal of Mexican culture; if you have lived in Mexico as I have, you should enjoy this. Also it's refresing to see a movie that can be humorous without resorting to overt sexual conversations.

4/5 IT'S FANTASTIC!!!!!
  by I. Saucedo (lebanon, nh)
Its been a long time since I have laughed this much!!!! Getting down to "the nitty gritty" it is an enjoyable comedy. The chemistry between Jack Black "Nacho" and Hector Jimenez "Esqueleto" is what makes the movie so funny. His accent was not Mexican but very funny. My family and I just loved the movie, which I think we have seen 5 times in the theatre.

4/5 It's Funny, Enough Said
  by Keith A. Jones (Philadelphia PA)
I didn't even bother to read reviews for Nacho Libre but seeing it with anything below three stars to me is unfair. I seriously don't understand why some people even attempt to watch a film like this knowing it is out of their field of funny. I actually enjoyed Nacho and it hit dead on to my expectations. Plain and simple the film is about a man Named Ignacio who is the cook for a Mexican monastery orphanage that doesn't have money for good food and spices. Ignacio gets up every morning to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner and it's always the same exact meal, cabbage and mayonnaise soup or mud. Already you feel sorry for the poor kids but one day a new nun shows up, the beautiful sister Encarnación played by Ana de la Reguera. Ignacio becomes inspired immediately but doesn't get the courage to live his dream to be a luchador, if you know anything about the history of the luchador you know how respected they are and in here well paid win or lose. When Ignacio finally gets the courage to enter a match with his crazy unexpected partner he enters under the Nacho Libre

Though Nacho treated himself to a few luxuries it is always about the kids for him and he made sure they had good food. One major thing I loved about Nacho Libre is that it was very funny but it showed no disrespect to the Mexican or luchador culture. It tells a story and though I'm almost sure Jack Black doesn't have a Mexican background he played his role very well. The funny stuff in Nacho libre comes from a lot of things and I think the funniest were the wrestling matches. Nacho and his partner lost every match and their girlish screams were too much. Then you have Jack Black's accent which is just too much or when he's about to fight someone and shows them his skills and jumps in the air and meows like a mad cat.

Though Nacho didn't win any matches for a good period of time and somehow got a chance to fight the champion is understandable because some of his matches were close and you could see him progressing. I seriously saw little problems with Nacho Libre and I really enjoyed it. I don't know what people look for when they watch this movie because it is very different from the same old same comedies. The cast was great, not only Jack was the funny one; his partner really did a nice job supporting him. Great movie and I would recommend it for anyone that needs a movie for the entire family to watch and I give it four stars for the slow beginning.

4/5 classic Jack Black
  by Andrew Olson (Macon, GA)
It's good to know that farce is alive and well in the world. Since the mid 90's it feels like film makers have lost their grip on truly great weird comedy. Movies that speak to the few and turn off the rest. It seems that even as the tools to unlock our imaginations get flashier and flashier, and special effect budgets grow and grown, American film grow static and stale. Then when it seems like all hope is lost, a film like NACHO LIBRE comes along.

Somewhere in Mexico, a young priest named Nacho (Jack Black) longs to be recognized. He's tired of serving the same bland food to the young boys in his charge. He's tired of being disrespected by the other priests. He longs to be a luchadore (a Mexican wrestler), and to gain the affections of the stunning Sister Encarnacion (Ana del la Regura). Then when all hope is lost he teams up with a new friend named Esquelta, and takes the Mexican wrestling world by storm. Will the orphan boys get better food? Will Nacho win the heart of Sister Encarnacion? Will he lose everything he has, on a quest to become a great warrior? Giving this movie its due will provide those answers and more. The movie not perfect. It's a little overly long and some of the jokes fall flat on their face. But there is an earnestness and a sweet gentility in the film that will win you over. You cannot enter this movie with the wrong attitude and if you don't like weird movies its not for you. But if you let it entertain you and if you give into the fact that it really bizarre, it will work. You have to take every scene with grain of salt and logic must be thrown out the window. But if you turn off that part of your brain that strives for everything to be plausible, than this film will entertain.

Then for no apparent reason the movie does something I didn't quite expect, it begins to tackle a serious subject. Behind all the silliness is a story about how legalism traps us in a place of boredom and predictability. Whether it be religious legalism or secular legalism, NACHO LIBRE is about a misfit who succeeds because he goes out on a limb. He doesn't give up his religious fervor when the chips are down, when his atheist friend tells him to give into science and logic, and he doesn't give up on God because men of cloth treat him badly. He stays true to his faith and not his religion. This message is not beaten over the audiences head. This is not a religious picture. But it gives the film a dimension that I didn't expect.

Director Jared Hess doesn't stray to far from his Napoleon Dynamite roots. But that's okay. It works here and he hits the right comic tones. I can't wait to get the DVD because I'm convinced that the film really needs to be viewed a second time. (I'm reviewing this based off the movie, not the actual DVD; I have yet to get that.) Knowing what to expect allows the audience to settle into Hess' skewed comedy. The film is very dry and if you don't know what to expect its easy to dismiss the comedy and think the film is horrible. You have to work at it a little bit and let it sink in. But when you get it you'll love it.

If you're looking for an hour and half of silliness you can't go wrong with NACHO LIBRE. It's cute, sweet, and you get to stare at Jack Black's upper torso for far too long. Trust me- if you like weirdly sweet Mexican wrestling comedies, this is the film for you.

5/5 Go Nacho!
  by G P Padillo (Portland, ME United States)
Like Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre is going to have people on both sides of the fence, leaving few sitting on it. Count me on the "for" side - in fact, this is the funniest, and one of the most heart warming movies of 2006. After a number of disappointments, it was an absolute pleasure to sit through a movie with a script that sings, characters that one wants to root for from the beginning and a soundtrack that can't help but keep a smile on your face.

Jack Black is in Shallow Hal mode here, alternating between disgusting and endearing, and cracking the audience up at every turn. A lot of reviews have mentioned this is not much more than Black running around half naked and sporting a faux Mexican personnage. It is so much more than that. Black's "Nacho" is a classic tortured spirit, caught up in the ordinariness of his mundane life as a Friar at an orphanage but dreams of stardom as a luchadore . . . and, of course, love.

The love interest here is a little complicated as it's a nun Nacho's in love with; Sister Sister Encarnación, portrayed by the stunning Ana de la Reguera (who strongly resembles a younger Penelope Cruz).

Nacho's sidekick features an amazingly hilarious physical actor, the rubbery faced, thin-as-a-noodle, Hector Jimenez as Esqueleto. His screams alone are worth the price of admission.

There are sight gags throughout of the highest - and lowest - order, touches of the bizarre that echo Mr. Hess's first major effort; combined with an at times almost childlike sense of wonderment and look at life.

This is a major American filmmaker's sophmore effort and it is a glorious, wonderful, big smelly valentine of a movie. You couldn't ask for more from a summer flick than Nacho has to offer. See it!