NACHO LIBRE - Blu-ray review

"I ate some bugs. I ate some grass. I used my hand to wipe my…"

Jack Black's quote in the film "Nacho Libre" ended with the word tears. However, any adult and most children know that the word ‘tears' does not rhyme with grass. However, the word that would properly complete that quote pretty much describes this effort by the chubby funnyman. "Nacho Libre" is a film that had a lot of potential, but where the film's title character struggles to find victory until the closing moments, the only victory for the audience is that the closing moments bring about closure to a film that is neither funny, nor entertaining. Jack Black flails around and goes through the motions of a wrestler in his performance as a friar who cannot find a place in the world. After sitting through the ninety-two minute running time of "Nacho Libre," I found it hard to fine a place for "Nacho Libre" on my shelf.

From the creators of "Napoleon Dynamite" and "School of Rock," "Nacho Libre" tells the story of an orphan whose place in the world is that of a cook for a Christian orphanage. Ignacio (Jack Black) had aspiration of being a wrestler as a young boy, but the clergymen that raised him in the orphanage quashed those hopes and Ignacio found an empty existence in a meaningless life where his only duty was to serve horrible food to sad and lonely orphans. However, when Sister Encarnacion (Ana de la Reguera) arrives at the orphanage, Ignacio becomes aroused and inspired to become the luchador he dreamed of being in his childhood, Nacho.

He enrolls the help of an overly skinny homeless man, Esqueleto (Hector Jimenez) and the two become a tag team wrestling pair that loses horribly, but entertains the crowd with their inability to do much of anything productive in the ring. Nacho strives to win the heart of Encarnacion and to win a wrestling match. He yearns to become a respected professional like Ramses (Cesar Gonzalez), but with absolutely no wrestling skills, Nacho and Esqueleto find earnings only in losing. When Encarnacion discovers that Ignacio is the wrestler Nacho, Nacho is cast away from the orphanage and must find his own place in the world and find redemption in the eyes of the clergymen that run the orphanage that is home to the orphans that he cares greatly for.

"Nacho Libre" strives to tickly the funny bone and a few times, the film manages to deliver a laugh or two. The initial fight between Nacho and Esqueleto, when Nacho is trying to recruit his services as a tag team partner is quite hilarious. The first few wrestling matches cross too far into the absurd to the point where the humor is lost. When Nacho and Esqueleto battle the two midget jungle people, instead of laughing, you are just trying to figure out what the writers were smoking when they came up with that idea for a fight. The training regiment Nacho puts himself and his partner through is a completely wasted opportunity and aside from a moment when Nacho is tossed into the air by a bull (perhaps the funniest moment in the film), the opportunity is completely lost to show these buffoons trying to become wrestlers.

The romantic aspect and the storyline that Ignacio is determined to become a champion for the orphans is lost by the quick-to-pass and slightly humorous wrestling bouts. One wonders how much better the film would have been if writers Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess and Mike White would have watched a few old "Three Stooges" episodes and a few old World Wrestling Federation films. A character like George the Animal Steele would have went a far way in this film instead of the oddity of wrestlers that Nacho and Esqueleto must battle. Instead of laughing through the fight scenes of "Nacho Libre," you find yourself just wishing the pain would end for the two wannabe wrestlers and you feel more sorry for them than entertained. The film becomes as sad and pathetic as the two wrestlers in the film. Jack Black's underdog wrestler strives to becomes a heroic figure for the orphans he feeds slop too, but sadly, Black only delivers slop to the audience.

Video:

"Nacho Libre" is presented in a highly-stylized 1.85:1 widescreen image that is mastered with the MPEG-2 codec. Hardly being a fan of the film, I was hesitant to sit down and watch the film not once more, but twice more as the Blu-ray release and the HD-DVD release happened simultaneously. I figured I would at least be treated to a wonderfully detailed image where the powder blue tights would jump from the ring and onto the screen. Sadly, the same flaws and stylistic choices that were apparent in the DVD release and due to the film itself only intensified themselves with the high definition releases. The resulting image was murky with only occasional moments of high definition joy. In fact, much of the film looked nearly identical to the standard definition release. I compared this Blu-ray release to the standard definition release through an upconvert player and it was hard to discern which release was which. The HD-DVD release and the Blu-ray release are essentially identical in visuals.

With a color palette that looks as if it had been baked under the hot Mexican sun, the highly saturated colors come across warmly and help add character to this film. The red colors, which are typically the harder to reproduce, are magnificent and contrast nicely the powder blue tights and mask worn by Nacho. The constant sun-baked feeling to the film results in heavy yellows and this results in a dirty and dull look in a few scenes. The level of detail in "Nacho Libre" is occasionally soft and when you add in the golden hues used in the film, "Nacho Libre" is far from impressive looking. The source materials used for the DVD transfer were very clean, as would be expected by a film released in 2006. The film does look very detailed and crisp in many scenes, but the high definition picture quality of "Nacho Libre" can be best called inconsistent.

Sound:

"Nacho Libre" is presented with Dolby Digital English 5.1 and both French and Spanish 5.1 soundtracks. English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles are also provided. The 5.1 multi-channel surround mix is decent enough, but practically identical to the standard definition release. Most of the soundtrack is contained in the front three channels. Dialogue is very clean and clear, though I didn't follow what some of the ring announcers were saying. The .1 LFE channel and the rear surrounds are hardly used by the film's soundtrack. Environmental or ambient sound effects are sparse through the film. The film's score and musical selections are carried nicely through the front channels of the film. The film's wrestling sequences, which do not last very long, are meant more for a few quick comedic moments than they are to present an audio experience. Hard hits on the mats would have been great moments to exhibit a little bass, but these sequences hardly challenge the Dolby Digital format. In the end, "Nacho Libre" was about as flat in its soundtrack as the film was in its laughs.

Extras:

Having been billed as a "Special Collector's Edition" on DVD, the moniker was dropped for the High Definition versions, though the special features are the same slate. If there is any redeeming quality to the home video release of "Nacho Libre," it is the decent number of supplements packed onto the release's single disc. The Dinner and A Commentary by Jack Black, Jared Hess and Mike White finds the film's star, director and producer munching down on some authentic Mexican food and delivering a commentary track discussing "Nacho Libre." The commentary track provides tasty morsels on the making of the film and also a couple of laughs. Jack Black is an interesting character and he delivered better lines in the commentary track than he did in the film. With three people taking part in the "Dinner and a Movie" discussion, there were entirely too many moments where they simply sat back and watched the film with a viewer. The scene where Jack Black goes searching for an Eagle Egg was almost completely absent of comments by the trio.

Five featurettes follow the commentary and provides roughly an hour of footage on the making of the film. Detras de la Camara runs for twenty nine minutes. I'm going to guess the title translates to "Making of the Film." I could be wrong. Featuring hand camera footage and more polished views on the making of "Nacho Libre," this featurette is easily the best supplement of the release. Jack Black Unmasked! is a thirteen minute EPK style vignette where Jack Black takes viewers on a tour of the making of the film and was apparently shown on Nickelodeon. The quick Lucha Libre takes a quick look at Mexican wrestling. Hecho en Mexico shows the locales used for the making of the film. "Lucha Libre" and "Hecho en Mexico" run for about six minutes combined. Finally, Moviefone Unscripted with Jack Black and Hector Jimenez is a nine minute chat with the film's tag-team wrestling partners where they interview each other with audience supplied questions.

A number of smaller, yet still entertaining features are found after the featurettes. Jack Sings finds Jack singing the songs "La Cancion de Ramses" and "La Cancion De Encarnacion." He sings these songs in the film, but these are more ‘cut-loose' performances with some behind-the-scenes moments pertaining to the songs. Three Deleted Scenes are provided – "The Way of the Eagle," "Poem for Ramses" and "Ramses Gets Jumped." Running for nine and a half minutes, the scenes have a couple laughs, but don't really add much to the storyline. Three Promo Spots, an El Tigre Promo Spot and a Photo Gallery finish off the supplements for "Nacho Libre."

Closing Comments:

"Nacho Libre" was not very Nacho Grande for this reviewer. I was disappointed, as I mentioned in my review of the standard edition DVD. I did not look forward to watching it yet again on the high definition formats. But for journalistic purposes, I sat down and watched it twice more. In all honesty, I was able to swallow the film a bit easier with each repeated viewing, but this may very well be simply because my hopes were already dashed and I was just fitting into a familiar pattern. If you watch something enough times, you can find yourself comfortable doing so and I tend to believe after enough viewings, even "Salo: 120 Days of Sodom" can become pedestrian. As was the case with the DVD release, the Blu-ray release is unimpressive in its story, visuals and sound and hardly outdoes the standard definition release. Fortunately, it does contain a decent number of supplements. I'd expect a lot of others would find equal disappointment in "Nacho Libre" and ultimately cannot recommend this film.