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Nacho Libre

6/10

Stars: Jack Black, Ana de la Reguera, H?ctor Jim?nez, Darius Rose, Troy Gentile

Director: Jared Hess

Credit tubby Jack Black with doing something really off the beaten track. The results are something else, but you gotta credit the guy for invention.

Here, the School of Rock star, sporting a moustache and a mainly credible Mexican accent, is Nacho, head cook and bottlewasher at an impoverished monastery somewhere in the scrubland of Meh-ico.

Secretly longing to be a wrestler - and impressing lovely newcomer Sister Encarnacion (de la Reguera) wouldn't be a bad thing - Nacho takes as his tag-ring partner Squeleto (Jim?nez), a cadaverous, bucktoothed stealer of food in the streets. Together, they're entirely beatable, losing every match, but gathering big bucks for the monastery, where the slop for lunch suddenly becomes haute cuisine - or at least Nacho's idea of it.

The first 40 minutes of this is barely preferable to a visit to the dentist, but there's some good fun in the last hour or so, even if the film pretty much loses touch with reality in the process.

Small quibble: why would children laugh at a man on fire and in danger of his life? Answer: they wouldn't - so this incident late in the film is something of a no-no.

David Quinlan

USA 2006. UK Distributor: UIP (Paramount). Colour by De Luxe.
92 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 06 Aug 2006