Nacho is a man without skills. After growing up in a Mexican monastery, he is now a grown man and the monastery's cook, but doesn't seem to fit in. Nacho cares deeply for the orphans he feeds, but his food is terrible--mostly, if you ask him, a result of his terrible ingredients. He realizes he must hatch a plan to make money to buy better food for "the young orphans, who have nothing" (and if in doing so Nacho can impress the lovely Sister Encarnacion, that would be a big plus). When Nacho is struck by the idea to earn money as a Lucha Libre wrestler, he finds that he has a natural, raw talent for wrestling. As he teams with his rail-thin, unconventional partner, Esqueleto (the Skeleton), Nacho feels for the first time in his life that he has something to fight for and a place where he belongs. As Lucha is strictly forbidden by the church elders at the monastery, Nacho is forced to lead a double life. Disguised by a sky blue mask, Nacho conceals his true identity as he takes on Mexico's most famous wrestlers and takes on a hilarious quest to make life a little sweeter at the orphanage.

You either like Jared Hess’ comedy which could be best described as quirky and off the wall or you don’t. The odd ball jokes are fast flying in this movie, just like his previous movie Napoleon Dynamite and I have to admire him at times even if I don’t think a lot of the jokes are that funny. Why do I admire him then, as I am not one of these rabid fans of his who quotes his movies endlessly tell you want to stab them with sharp instruments, I admire him because he is unique and he takes painstakingly effort in all the small details of every film he does. Just listen to the music of Nacho Libre, the music almost transcends the movie and becomes another one of his screw-ball characters, it has a life of its own. Jared Hess’ movies are also the most quotable movies you will ever watch “get that corn out of my face” is a line you will probably hear a hundred times from fans of his movies. So while Nacho Libre only got small chuckles out of me and a slight smile for a lot of the movie, I understand why this movie will probably become the next cult hit. It is quirky, it is unique and for those who like that kind of off the wall humor this movie will be a classic to them and those of us who don’t will need to start carrying sharp instruments again.

For those who are unaware of it, in Mexico wrestling is as big as baseball once was in America. You can see the painstaking time they spent on making sure they didn’t insult the sport as they might have found themselves mobs of angry Luchidore fans everywhere. I personally lost my interest in wrestling when I was eleven and I found out it was staged but Mexican wrestling looks like something I could get into where it’s not like the travesty that has happened here in America where it has become nothing but a soap opera.

I have to wonder how much of this movie is Jack Black and how much is Jared Hess. Because there are times you can tell it is Black influencing the movie with his own odd ball humor and his love of singing and there are other times when you can feel Hess’ fingerprints on the movie. I am more of fan of Black and his Tenacious D kind of acting then I am of Black the movie star. So it was fun to have a little of both in this movie as it seems that Jack was allowed to go wild at times and just let his own comedy come out. Black and Hess make quite the pair and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear or see them working together in the future as they both have a sense of humor that is quite out of the norm and they seemed to work well together. I think it was Jack Black that made this movie much more enjoyable for me then Napoleon Dynamite as I found myself laughing more and be entertained more, still not a fan but I am warming up to it I guess.

Grade: C+