Nacho Libre 2006

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Some things work well, but many are strained in execution. There are times Nacho Libre looks like it's struggling to find a reason to continue. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Nacho Libre may settle for too little, but at least it isn't a miserable high-concept vanity project. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The comedy is hit and miss, with good bits interrupted by dead patches. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Imagine my disappointment then, which grew to disbelief, which turned into utter disdain, by the time the credits rolled on this clunker. Read more

Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Sometimes it looks like a movie that was more fun to make than it is to watch. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Hess seems intent on proving that lowbrow American slapstick comedies can be as slow and deliberate as the films of Robert Bresson. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: The only gag here, as far as I can tell, is Black squeezing himself into a pair of red tights and prancing around like a mental patient. Funny yes, but over the course of an hour and a half, it wears a wee thin. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Very broad and very silly, it's a doodle of a comedy -- a one-joke idea (fat guy goes luchador) padded out to feature length by Black's willingness to do anything for a laugh. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: What's rare to see, and what ultimately makes Nacho Libre so enjoyable, is the story of an underdog who's allowed to remain a humble clown all the way to becoming a hero. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: A spongy guy in a clingy suit who has a spongy hairdo is funny, to a point, and kudos to Black for the self-deprecation. Kudos as well for his athleticism and balletic grace as he leaps around the ring. Unfortunately, they can't support a movie. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Nacho Libre is a throwaway movie, but that doesn't mean it could not have been better. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: High concept still fails without writers filling in the blank spots, and 'Jack Black in wrestling tights' is funny for about as long as the trailer you've already seen. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Nacho Libre is a funny idea for a skit that's been put on the rack and tortured into a screenplay. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's happened to all of us. You get revved to see a big Hollywood comedy, starring an actor so funny he could make you laugh in your sleep, and you're disappointed. Majorly. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The irony is that just about any actual Mexican wrestling movie is funnier than this would-be parody, which never gets off the mat. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Nacho Libre is more lazy than offensive. Things happen, but there's really no story. People do stuff, but they don't become characters. It might have made a dandy Saturday Night Live skit. But it's not much of a movie. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The movie is a bauble, but it's an enjoyably weird and original one, and it is anchored by Black's constantly amusing performance. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: For all of Black's slovenly tics, his impish drive is the only thing that keeps Nacho Libre from slipping off the tracks. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie is semi-infantile camp but often riotous. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The combination of body slams and bathroom jokes makes it a heck of a lot livelier than Cars. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Nacho Libre scores points only on occasion. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Oddly reverent, faintly patronizing (they shot it in Mexico, with an exceptionally homely cast of extras), and always warm and funny. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: After a promising beginning, Nacho Libre goes off the rails with its over-the-top satire and intentional campiness failing to generate many laughs. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It takes some doing to make a Jack Black comedy that doesn't work. But Nacho Libre does it. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Black has the potential to be the rare comedian capable of making lemons into lemonade, but the fruit he's squeezing here is bone-dry. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Disappointment, my fellow gringos, presumes positive expectations, so perhaps it is best to report, with some sorrow but no deep surprise, that the new comedy starring Jack Black and directed by Jared Hess, is not illustrious. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The film's sheer lack of everything that customarily passes for comic fuel -- energy, wit, character, fun, a plot -- renders Nacho Libre a torturous patience tester of the first order. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: What is missing in plot and character development is made up for in silly fun. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: Nacho Libre strikes a delicate balance of whimsy and absurdity that may surprise auds primed to expect wall-to-wall slapstick. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: [It] isn't an entirely unpleasant experience, which is to say it doesn't feel as though it's worn out its welcome before the second reel. It takes slightly longer before its gears begin to slip and its jokes begin to wear and its laughs begin to fade. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Is it funny? Now and then. Stupid? Very. Racist? Possibly. Ugly? Profoundly. Wild? Undeniably. Singular? Completely. Read more