Xixax Film Forum

Film Discussion => The Vault => Topic started by: edison on December 12, 2005, 08:27:17 PM

Title: Nacho Libre
Post by: edison on December 12, 2005, 08:27:17 PM
The new film from Jared "Napoleon Dynamite" Hess and written by Mike White

June 2, 2006

Premise: A wildly original, off-the-wall comedy about Nacho, a lowly slop cook at an orphanage who secretly dreams of becoming a famous Mexican wrestler. Moonlighting in disguise, he is ultimately exposed and excommunicated by the church. But when he defeats Mexico's most feared Luchador, and gives his winnings to the orphans, he becomes a local hero.

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aintitcool.com%2Fpics%2Fda-big-nacho.jpg&hash=1b215512c5b3f6990e5995f4bcef9b64a8c906f0)
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: ono on December 13, 2005, 03:20:08 AM
No.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Pubrick on December 13, 2005, 03:40:01 AM
that premise sounds like the whole story. either way, after reading it, the picture went from creepy to emotionally charged. i lovitz.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: hedwig on December 13, 2005, 05:30:55 AM
another pic:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cinemovies.fr%2Fimages%2Fdata%2Fphotos%2FG905734419024.jpg&hash=24db863d5aae41cb5292e63a286165a18ac0f19a)
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: cine on December 13, 2005, 06:05:31 AM
whats with all these mexican heroes in his films? is this going to be a running gag/theme?  first pedro and now this.. no thank you.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Gamblour. on December 13, 2005, 09:39:07 AM
I laughed really hard at both pictures. Looks fine to me.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: grand theft sparrow on December 13, 2005, 09:40:47 AM
Quote from: Cinephile on December 13, 2005, 06:05:31 AMno thank you.

No. Thank you!
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: w/o horse on December 17, 2005, 01:40:09 AM
I just found out that Mike White wrote this with the double Hess.  Interest increased slightly.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: edison on December 17, 2005, 02:02:21 AM
Quote from: Losing the Horse: on December 17, 2005, 01:40:09 AM
I just found out that Mike White wrote this with the double Hess.  Interest increased slightly.

really?

Quote from: edison on December 12, 2005, 08:27:17 PM
The new film from Jared "Napoleon Dynamite" Hess and written by Mike White
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Ravi on December 17, 2005, 02:18:00 AM
The main character is a slop cook!  And he wants to be a Mexican wrestler!  And he's excommunicated!  And he wears tights!  And a wedding dress!  And he's played by Jack Black!
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: pete on December 17, 2005, 02:41:07 AM
Quote from: edison on December 12, 2005, 08:27:17 PM

Premise: A wildly original, off-the-wall comedy about Nacho.

man, if only "wildly original off the wall" was in the premise in every comedy then we wouldn't have so many lame comedies.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: w/o horse on December 17, 2005, 01:32:11 PM
Quote from: edison on December 17, 2005, 02:02:21 AM
Quote from: Losing the Horse: on December 17, 2005, 01:40:09 AM
I just found out that Mike White wrote this with the double Hess.  Interest increased slightly.

really?

Quote from: edison on December 12, 2005, 08:27:17 PM
The new film from Jared "Napoleon Dynamite" Hess and written by Mike White

Honestly.  I didn't get past Napoleon Dynamite.  What else should I say?  Everyone is gay.  What else could I write?  I don't have the right.  What else should I be?  All apologies.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: MacGuffin on January 22, 2006, 06:37:32 PM
Mexican culture in a sweaty headlock
Jack Black teams with "Napoleon Dynamite" director Jared Hess for "Nacho Libre," a film with a respectfully knowledgeable view of Mexican pop culture. Source: Los Angeles Times

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.calendarlive.com%2Fmedia%2Fphoto%2F2006-01%2F21520368.jpg&hash=ef5bf2fc0f151b190743a91a9eb91b4aef4a280c)(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.calendarlive.com%2Fmedia%2Fphoto%2F2006-01%2F21520509.jpg&hash=bd5efcd0578ca2cb5215783939e1cf8aaa3bad30)

TLACOLULA, Mexico — Jack Black's comic antics often leave audiences in stitches. Now Black himself is being sewn back together, a jagged line of dark thread embroidered around his eye.

His impromptu surgery was necessitated by a stunt sequence in his latest cinematic venture, "Nacho Libre." That's what comes from being a successful Hollywood leading man with a bent for throwing yourself headfirst into the action, literally.
 
"I'm delicate, like a piece of china," says Black, whose barrel-chested bulk is more suggestive of the Great Wall than a Ming vase. "I dived ... and fell on some people and I hit a chair. Busted my eye. It was fun: I got a nice little three-day vacation. Scarred for life — the scar's not going to go away. But that's part of the job."

Funny guy, this Black, and, in his own unique way, surprisingly agile and athletic — which you already knew if you saw him crank up those righteous guitar solos in "High Fidelity" and "School of Rock." These may be just the qualities he'll need to carry off the stout title role in "Nacho Libre," a bruising comedy that director Jared Hess ("Napoleon Dynamite") and a Mexican American crew spent filming here last fall. The Paramount Pictures release, which is being produced by Nickelodeon Movies along with Black's production company, Black and White Productions, is slated to reach theaters this summer.

Fresh off his appearance as a smarmy action-film director in Peter Jackson's "King Kong" remake, Black stars in "Nacho Libre" as another kind of high-spirited scrapper risking life and limb to pursue his obsessively offbeat dreams. He's Ignacio (a.k.a. "Nacho"), a Norwegian Mexican kitchen worker and priest-in-training at a Mexican orphanage, with a heart of pure gold and a midsection of pure cellulite.

Various complications naturally ensue, and when the orphanage is threatened with closure, Nacho dons a mask and moonlights as a luchador, a practitioner of the anything-goes style of Mexican professional wrestling known as lucha libre ("free fighting"). Black describes his character as "a little bit vain, but he's also a little sweet and innocent."

Lucha libre is a longtime fixture of Mexican pop culture that reached its commercial and creative zenith between the 1940s and early 1980s. That's when star wrestling personalities such as Santo and Blue Demon ruled the ring and a slew of Cine Luchador flicks transformed a marginal "sport" into a full-blown subculture. ("Nacho Libre" takes place in lucha's 1970s heyday.) Several of these flicks were camp masterpieces, and their melodramatic plots frequently involved a more or less heartfelt element of personal struggle as the heroic luchador battled evil adversaries and fickle fate.

And although "Nacho Libre's" lead role is being played by a non-Latino who estimates his Spanish vocabulary at 40 words, the filmmakers say their movie takes a respectfully knowledgeable, if humorous, view of Mexican popular culture. "We didn't want to be a gringo-Hollywood production," says co-producer Julia Pistor.

Even granted lucha libre's innate absurdity, the goofy premise of "Nacho Libre" may seem like something cooked up after one too many mescals. Not so. It's loosely inspired by a real-life Mexican priest who, for more than 20 years, lived a double life as a luchador nicknamed Fray Tormenta (Friar Storm), taking part in some 4,000 bouts. Some of the money he earned went to fund an orphanage that he ran.

Though the "Nacho Libre" team met with Fray Tormenta, who still lives near Mexico City, the idea wasn't to make "a straight-ahead biopic," says Mike White, the movie's co-screenwriter and Black's production partner. "It's funny," White says. "We're doing a movie about something that's very inauthentic, but it's so authentic in Mexican culture."

Though lucha libre's conventions — elaborate body-slamming maneuvers, flashy capes and masks, midget wrestlers — are less well known on this side of the border, lucha libre has gradually developed a fervid U.S. following. Black is now among the devotees. "I knew the Mexican wrestlers," he says, pausing between scenes under the withering Oaxacan sun, while an assistant teases his long, shaggy hair into fighting trim. "I thought they looked cool, but I'd never been to a match. There's a lot of impressive moves. But also the theatricality is so fun to watch."

The only thing in the movie more theatrical than the lucha libre throwdowns may be the dramatic Mexican backdrops. Much of "Nacho Libre" is being shot in this majestically beautiful corner of southern Mexico, about a six-hour drive from Mexico City. Prized for its rich indigenous culture, the state of Oaxaca also is one of Mexico's great culinary meccas. "It's been a struggle to keep a fighting weight," says Black, polishing off an elote — corn on the cob slathered in mayonnaise. "Much of the movie I'm shirtless. Fat is funny."

Unlike many Hollywood films set in Mexico, "Nacho Libre" aspires to a truly bicultural sensibility. Most of its principal and secondary roles were cast with Mexican or Mexican American talent: Ana de la Reguera as an angelic young nun, Sister Encarnación, who teaches at the orphanage; Héctor Jimenez as Nacho's wrestling partner and faithful sidekick Esqueleto (the Skeleton); Carla Jimenez as a spoiled rich girl with an unrequited crush on Esqueleto; Richard Montoya of the Los Angeles-based theatrical comedy ensemble Culture Clash as Nacho's chief rival for the beautiful Sister Encarnación's friendship and romantic favors; and the "Galindo brothers," a wrestling tag-team of Oaxacan pseudo-siblings.

"It's not just a Jack Black movie where he's the engine driving the comedy," says White, who worked on the screenplay with Hess and the director's wife and collaborator, Jerusha Hess. "Jack is a really funny element among many elements. This is a world you would want to get inside and experience with or without Jack as a protagonist."

White compares the movie's depiction of provincial Mexico, with its picturesque pueblitos and cactus-studded vistas, to the affectionately tongue-in-cheek way that small-town Idaho appeared in "Napoleon Dynamite." "We don't want to do 'Three Amigos,' where the source of comedy comes from stereotypes or movies you've seen before," White says.

Black may not be the movie's sole raison d'être. But no one visiting the set last fall could miss his fireplug presence, striding around bare-chested in red-and-blue wrestler's tights, white boots and a matinee-idol's pencil mustache. To prepare for the role, Black says, he trained with a wrestler in Los Angeles who "taught me some kick-ass moves" and how "to use the ropes for maximum velocity."

Asked to name his favorite technique, Black narrows his eyes and a wicked smile slithers across his face. "I'm going to go with the python squeeze. Woe to he who doubts the fury of the dreaded python squeeze!" But Black allows that he leaves some of the heavier lifting in the film — diving off cliffs, being engulfed in flames — to his stunt doubles, one of whom broke three ribs during filming.

Facing fears ... of grasshoppers

As Black prepares for another scene in which a disconsolate Nacho has gone into the desert to search his soul, he's girding his loins to try one of Oaxaca's signature foods: chapulines, or grasshoppers. "This whole movie for me has been about facing my fears," he says. "Today I am going to face one of my biggest fears: eating grasshoppers."

White, Pistor and other crew members who've taken shelter from the sun under a white plastic tent chuckle at Black's repartee. On a hillside some hundred yards away, clumps of people from the nearby village have gathered to watch the proceedings. No one from the film crew or security staff seems to mind, a reflection of the high-spirited but low-stress atmosphere that the crew attributes to Black and Hess' genial influence.

A gangly, stork-like figure in shorts and plaid shirt, Hess scampers across the rocky hillside where the day's sequences are being shot, sidestepping cactuses and burro droppings. Visible on a peak directly across the sun-streaked valley are the bleached ruins of the ancient Indian site of Yagul. "It's just so quaint, and I feel like it's such a beautiful part of Mexico," says Hess, who learned to speak fluent Spanish while serving in Venezuela as a Mormon missionary a few years ago.

Hess has become enthralled with "the whole aesthetic and the vibe" of lucha libre. But while the sport is wrapped in mythic personalities and heroic clashes between técnicos (good guys) and rudos (bad guys), luchadores don't possess superhuman qualities, Hess points out. Instead, their appeal derives from their flesh-and-blood triumphs and defeats, and it's this all-too-human quality that helps Nacho's character come alive on the screen, Hess believes. "I find it unrealistic when characters in a film just have one objective that you're going for," Hess says. "Nacho has a lot of characteristics. He does have a lot of very Don Quixote-like adventures."

Hess politely excuses himself and dashes off to talk with his crew. The sun is beginning to slip behind the mountains, and there's still some more filming to be done. "You got the scoop?" Black asks a reporter. "Not till you see me eat the grasshopper, you don't."

After filming wraps up for good, Black says, he's going to need a vacation to "heal up some bangs and bruises." As for "Nacho Libre," besides the movie there's already a video game in the works. Will there be action figurines too, or perhaps lucha versions of the old Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots?

"There'd better be a Galindo action figure," Hess says, speaking of the wrestling team. "Those guys blew my mind."
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Pozer on January 23, 2006, 03:39:04 PM
Quote from: Pubrick on December 13, 2005, 03:40:01 AM
i lovitz.
Wait, John Lovitz is in this?  I'm out.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: hedwig on February 03, 2006, 06:03:40 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aintitcool.com%2Fpics%2Fnacho1.jpg&hash=77a5c2eac34e761485c3f468d54c364568e6f043)



TRAILER (http://www.aintitcool.com/Nacho_large_vid.html)
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: modage on February 03, 2006, 06:45:30 PM
looks good.  i guess i didnt realizes jack black was playing a mexican/latino character until now.  i thought he might be the fish out of water white guy getting into this stuff.  and looks like hess has inserted a 'pedro' like sidekick here as well.

edit: watched the preview again.  actually this looks pretty great.  and very left of center considering the way most comedies are sold.  so  :yabbse-thumbup:  :yabbse-thumbup: 
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Pozer on February 03, 2006, 09:56:59 PM
Si
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Pubrick on February 04, 2006, 12:16:38 AM
Quote from: Hedwig on February 03, 2006, 06:03:40 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aintitcool.com%2Fpics%2Fnacho1.jpg&hash=77a5c2eac34e761485c3f468d54c364568e6f043)



TRAILER (http://www.aintitcool.com/Nacho_large_vid.html)

steal it directly: http://www.nacholibre.com/trailer/nl_large.mov (2:30, 37MB)

deserves a chance, nap was good despite the hype.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: JG on February 04, 2006, 08:25:58 AM
jared hess makes me feel dirty.  when i saw napoleon dynamite, i felt all wierd inside.  not in a good way.  watching this trailer i get the same feeling.  i just feel so filthy.  it reminds me of fat people wearing wife beaters eating TV dinners in the living room that they never cleaned. 

i'll probably see it, but i don't think i'll like it that much. 
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Pubrick on February 04, 2006, 11:08:30 AM
nothing you say makes sense.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Pozer on February 04, 2006, 12:10:52 PM
That Jimmy Gator, always in his dizzy spells, fading away.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Kal on February 04, 2006, 05:45:04 PM
Whats not to like? We need at least one movie like that every year...
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: pete on February 05, 2006, 01:04:33 AM
check out this Japanese film called Cromartie High if you need one right now.  That one is pretty deadpan and whacky.  Download it on edonkey or something.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: sickfins on March 01, 2006, 01:25:34 PM
in addition to touring with radiohead, beck is scoring the film 'nacho libre', which is his first time doing all of a movie's score by himself.

beck says
"No filmmaker since Fellini has had such an eye for amazing characters [as Hess]." He adds, "it's about monks who secretly want to be wrestlers. They have pointy white boots and tights under their robes."

yeah ok but hey new beck music.  and he's finishing off an album he recorded two years ago with nigel godrich.  so there
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: NEON MERCURY on March 01, 2006, 03:08:48 PM
Quote from: sickfins on March 01, 2006, 01:25:34 PM
beck says
"No filmmaker since Fellini has had such an eye for amazing characters [as Hess]." He adds, "it's about monks who secretly want to be wrestlers. They have pointy white boots and tights under their robes."

hahaha..that should go in the dumbest thing someone has said about film thread...beck should keep his opinions about film to himself [exspecially if their this awful] and just keep doing mediocre albums like guero....
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: ©brad on March 01, 2006, 04:06:47 PM
um, what?
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: modage on March 01, 2006, 04:50:02 PM
http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=7172.msg218771#msg218771
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: MacGuffin on March 28, 2006, 10:15:50 PM
New Nacho Libre Date
Par shifts opening day.

Paramount is shifting the release date of the new Jack Black comedy Nacho Libre from June 2 to June 16. No reason was given for the change of dates. The closest competition Nacho faced at the box office on June 2 was X-Men: The Last Stand on May 26 and The Omen: 666 on June 6, both from Fox.

The new June 16 date gives Nacho a slot in-between two other big summer movies: Pixar's Cars on June 9 and Warners' Superman Returns on June 30.

Nacho Libre stars Black as Ignacio (friends call him Nacho), a cook by day in a Mexican orphanage, who moonlights as a Lucha Libre wrestler to raise money for the orphans.

Jared Hess directed the film.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Kal on March 29, 2006, 08:38:02 PM
Been downloading the Nacho Chronicles for FREE on iTunes... very funny

Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: cron on April 01, 2006, 02:23:15 AM
fuck. i wish we had teasers posters that mexican over here in mexico. that's the best and simplest i've seen in a while. and guero rocks.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: MacGuffin on June 09, 2006, 12:01:31 AM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.movies1.yimg.com%2Fmovies.yahoo.com%2Fimages%2Fhv%2Fphoto%2Fmovie_pix%2Fparamount_pictures%2Fnacho_libre%2F_group_photos%2Fjack_black1.jpg&hash=7f89bb2f346b07e8f24aafa572b572e7ca2253ae)

New Trailer here. (http://www.movie-list.net/exclusive/nacho-libre.mov)
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: MacGuffin on June 13, 2006, 03:14:01 PM
AICN is quoting from a forum commentary written by longtime Danny Elfman orchestrator Steve Bartek on his own website that Elfman has removed his name from the credits of Nacho Libre:

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 9:22 am
Post subject: Nacho Libre disclaimer
a warning to all - Danny has taken his name off of Nacho Libre -
apparently a couple of the main cues we spent lots of time on we
taken out and replaced with music Danny didn't want to be associated with (and I believe he was upset about the way the studio treated him
in doing the replacement - not very above board- so most of the score
is still Danny - but his name will not be there
Steve
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: modage on June 13, 2006, 09:31:19 PM
thats so crazy. i hadn't even heard beck had quit/been fired until like 3 days ago and was replaced by elfman who then takes his name off it.  but judging from his recent scores, it is probably a good thing.  i would've been really interested to hear the beck one though.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Ghostboy on June 13, 2006, 09:48:13 PM
I just saw this tonight. I wasn't a big fan of Napoleon Dynamite, and although I think I like this better in some ways (the Mexican setting is just wonderful), objectively I'd say this is about its equal - better in some ways, worse in others. I was hoping there'd be some great Mike White magic, but I'd never have guessed he helped write it if his name hadn't been in the credits.

Oh, and regardless of who wrote it, the theme music/song is awesome.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: MacGuffin on June 16, 2006, 12:43:03 AM
Jared Hess' Big-Screen Oddballs
The director of "Nacho Libre" and "Napoleon Dynamite" on unleashing the misfits in his closet.
Source: Los Angeles Times

This morning we spoke with Jared Hess, the at times hard-to-hear director of "Napoleon Dynamite" and the upcoming "Nacho Libre." (Bad phone connection or is he just soft spoken? Maybe both?) Hess' newest film, "Nacho Libre," is about a Mexican monk who becomes a wrestler, and with it, Hess firmly establishes himself as the champion of the "unusual character."

Over the course of our brief conversation we learned that the director has "great love" for all his characters and that he does not like the word "weirdo" — which was too bad, because we found ourselves using it over and over. Whoops.

Q: Are you like the weirdo guy?
A: Whatever label you give the characters that I write, for me, I just like interesting personalities and people. Napoleon Dynamite was a composite of myself and my younger brothers, and Nacho is definitely an underdog — a guy with big dreams who doesn't have other resources or know how to get there. I always admire anybody who struggles.

Q: How do you direct weirdos?
A: I don't think they are weirdos. I have a great love and admiration for all my characters. They are people I can really relate to. I'm also very interested in characters and personalities that you don't typically see onscreen. And I'm always very excited about finding new people who don't have a lot of acting experience. They bring a level of authenticity.

Q: How do you keep a character's personality tic from being a shtick?
A: I think the most important thing is being true to the story and doing what feels appropriate. You experiment a lot during production, trying different things with each take and then deciding what is best.

Q: Why do you think so many people responded to "Napoleon Dynamite?"
A: I think for people that were looking back on adolescent experiences, they can relate to the awkward experiences they had in high school. Everybody at some point felt like a lonely awkward outsider. But it depends on anyone's background. How people responded to the film depended on their own life experiences and what their comic sensibilities are.

Q: Do you ever get sick of hearing people quote "Napoleon Dynamite"?
A: "Napoleon Dynamite's" success was a complete surprise. It's just a lot of fun that people are enjoying it on that level.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Gold Trumpet on June 16, 2006, 05:37:12 PM
Nacho Libre is really bad. This movie had no interest in the comic detail that made Napolean Dynamite a lot of fun. The movie proves once again Jack Black is not funny without any help. The help could have come in a better story or editing that didn't short cut every scene or a focus that wasn't just a montage of Black's antics. Napolean Dynamite had excellent control of comic characterization. Nacho Libre is just the sell out.

I wanted to like this movie. Today was a perfect day to hand over my critical eyesight and just enjoy a movie. I laughed once and chuckled once. The rest of the time I was getting gloomier as the movie went on.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: edison on June 16, 2006, 08:09:11 PM
Highly disappointed, but I knew I was in trouble when all the previews were kids flicks, How to Eat Fried Worms!?!, Barnyard!?!, Flushed Away!??!?!?!?!....what the hell. It was just so childish (dung and fatr jokes?), yeah there were some (3 at the most, depending on the person watching it) funny moments and lines, but there is no way this will have the following that Dynamite has. It seemed to try to hard to be funny. I will say that what I really liked were the set dressings (is that set design? I'm totally clueless about technical movie lingo), I just loved all the little knick-knacks throughout. Unfortunately, I know a lot of people will be very letdown.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: MacGuffin on June 16, 2006, 10:13:03 PM
Quote from: edison on June 16, 2006, 08:09:11 PM
Highly disappointed, but I knew I was in trouble when all the previews were kids flicks, How to Eat Fried Worms!?!, Barnyard!?!, Flushed Away!??!?!?!?!....what the hell.

Nacho Libre is rated PG.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: edison on June 16, 2006, 11:03:20 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on June 16, 2006, 10:13:03 PM
Quote from: edison on June 16, 2006, 08:09:11 PM
Highly disappointed, but I knew I was in trouble when all the previews were kids flicks, How to Eat Fried Worms!?!, Barnyard!?!, Flushed Away!??!?!?!?!....what the hell.

Nacho Libre is rated PG.

Good info had I known that before I went in, found out when the credits finished.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Ravi on June 17, 2006, 12:48:33 PM
What difference does it make if its rated PG?
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: edison on June 17, 2006, 02:48:02 PM
Quote from: Ravi on June 17, 2006, 12:48:33 PM
What difference does it make if its rated PG?

I would have then expected that sort of humor and understood its childishness, and the trailers would have made more sense. But to answer your question there is absolutely nothing wrong with a PG rating
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ on June 19, 2006, 04:07:06 PM
I know this is a kid's movie and everything, blah blah... but this was a piece of crap.  Jack Black's antics are always showcased as a selling point, but without them, this movie would have next to nothing.  The only one thing I like about Jared Hess (though he has little to base it on so far, but it seems like a personal style) is his use of ugly and normal looking people.  Not just characters that look like their role completely, or not who you'd automatically imagine to play the character.  This movie is mostly boring, and its only redeeming value was the spoiler I'll tell in this next sentence.

SPOILER
When the guy threw the corn into the guy's eye, that was awesome.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: tpfkabi on June 19, 2006, 10:29:46 PM
has Hess said he admired Wes Anderson in any interviews?

an above thread said Elfman's name was off, but his name is on the poster.
apparently Beck's music still made it because there was one Beck song i haven't heard before and some other bits.
i need to look up the soundtrack.


p.s. Walrus, did it seem odd to you that the spoiler scene you mentioned had no payoff? Seems like after something like that happened that character would show up again. This was brought up by my friend after the movie. I wonder if the possible payoff scenes hit the cutting room floor.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: Reinhold on June 27, 2006, 04:18:46 PM
Quote from: bigideas on June 19, 2006, 10:29:46 PM
has Hess said he admired Wes Anderson in any interviews?

an above thread said Elfman's name was off, but his name is on the poster.
apparently Beck's music still made it because there was one Beck song i haven't heard before and some other bits.
i need to look up the soundtrack.


p.s. Walrus, did it seem odd to you that the spoiler scene you mentioned had no payoff? Seems like after something like that happened that character would show up again. This was brought up by my friend after the movie. I wonder if the possible payoff scenes hit the cutting room floor.

i think the scene was its own payoff. the fact that it had nothing to do with the rest of the movie is fine. the rest of the movie sucked.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: grand theft sparrow on June 28, 2006, 01:54:02 PM
One of the things I've noticed in both of Jared Hess' films is that his characters have a distinct lack of sexual desire.  I suppose it's because he's a Mormon that that's the case.  But the fact that Pepe Le Pew has a more realistic, or at least relatable, attraction to the opposite sex than Hess' characters makes me feel a little uncomfortable when watching this and Napoleon Dynamite. 

I bring this up because, while I did laugh at Nacho Libre, I think that the greatest sin that was committed in the film is that the characters have enough to be but not enough to do.  There could have been some actual romantic tension between Nacho and Incarnacion.  All we got was his side of it, we never saw if she was ever wrestling with any demons.  I think it would have been funny, not to mention satisfying, if they had come within inches of kissing but remembered their vows and didn't act on it.  Give me something!  Anything!  It really did rely on Jack Black Jack Blacking it up on screen but there was an amusing short stretched out to feature length without adding any plot points.

And Hess really needs to lay off the Wes Anderson.  I mean, we here know every frame of Rushmore but damn, he's just shameless about it now.  He's sort of becoming the DePalma of quirky comedies.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: pete on June 28, 2006, 03:07:53 PM
maybe the film just isn't funny enough, but I feel like all these criticisms against it and suggestions of what could've happened are the very hackneyed things that Hess tries to avoid: cookie cutter comedies with these phony dramatic arcs and payoffs and romantic tension and hero and his fucking "visible goal" and whatnot.  fuck that shit man, just make a funny movie.  why do I need a reason to root for him?  an orphanage is reason enough.  the whole set up payoff character development thing is lame.  Those are the vices that ruined Saturday Night Live movies.  As soon as the characters hit the big screen they all of a sudden need dumb motivations and villains.  those are the worst of the comedies.  Old School and Wedding Crashers would've been so much funnier if they didn't have the girls or the bad guys or the rising action.  Ron Burgundy didn't have a bad guy.  These plot devices are always in the way of comedy and action movies, rendering them generic and boring.  Marx Brothers never had any of that.  Groucho sets a goal, then forgets it as soon as he sees a girl or an opportunity for a pun.  Stephen Chow always makes his underdog horny and cocky.  Chaplin and Keaton were geniuses, but they ruined studio comedies forever with their serious storylines.  Just like every pop band after the Beatles takes itself too seriously to be any fun, every comedy strives for some kinda City of Lights epiphany.  Hess might not be funny, but it's at least a step in the right direction.  It's time we stop modeling comedy after books and fables and just focus on putting in as many jokes as possible. 
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: grand theft sparrow on June 28, 2006, 04:44:00 PM
See, you bring up Stephen Chow.  Both Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle had those same formulaic devices that you're complaining about and they were both funny movies.  And the Marx Brothers definitely had those devices going on.  But the Marx Brothers also knew how to tuck jokes inside of jokes and it helped that they each had a different style and it all worked together beautifully.

I understand where you're coming from but my frustration with what wasn't in Nacho comes more from the fact that, had they added things like that, there would have been opportunities for MORE jokes.  Just because Hess is doing it differently doesn't mean it's better.  He's really just doing the same thing as your average Rob Schneider film, just with more interesting characters and quirkier jokes.  So I applaud his sense of humor but structure-wise, it's not much different.

I agree with you for the most part: if it's funny, who cares?  But you do the "putting in as many jokes as possible" thing one way and you get Anchorman or Naked Gun, where your characters are funny in and of themselves and the situations they're in give them a reason to be funny.  Great.  You do it another way and you get Scary Movie 4, where the movie is just an excuse to string together cheap slapstick gags.  Nacho splits the difference.  I like Jack Black and I found Nacho funny, but I have the same feelings about it that I did about Napoleon: great characters but everything doesn't quite work for them.  There was a little bit of romantic tension in the movie but the fact that that tension was a motivation for Nacho but never resolved is frustrating, especially since that resolution could have been hilarious in and of itself.  That's what bugs me about Jared Hess, he can develop funny characters but he doesn't care to tell any stories, he just likes to set up situations.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: pete on June 28, 2006, 09:57:24 PM
it was kinda like 4 am in taiwan when I typed this.  so the frustration also came out of watching bad movies on cable with my buddies as well.  my frustration with the desperation to tell a story still stands.  I think stephen chow and groucho began their scenes under the guise of an action movie, but quickly abandoned the urgency of the plot and the conflict as soon as they entered these elaborate, almost musical-number-like gags.  for the most part, stephen chow's gags in shaolin soccer were out-of-his character, and a lot of the gags had nothing to do with wanting to win the soccer match.  same thing with duck soup.  sometimes the heroes would add insult to injury by messing up on purpose.  this has nothing to do with nacho libre 'cause he doesn't really do that.  just saying.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: tpfkabi on June 28, 2006, 10:07:23 PM
the main difference between Hess and Anderson to me is how Anderson, as wacky and surreal as his stories can be, will hit you with these lines that hit harder than the most serious of dramas.

something like when Zissou says, "I hate fathers and never wanted to be one," etc. that might not be the exact quote but i think you know what i'm referring to.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ on June 30, 2006, 10:52:09 AM
Quote from: Reinhold on June 27, 2006, 04:18:46 PM
Quote from: bigideas on June 19, 2006, 10:29:46 PM
has Hess said he admired Wes Anderson in any interviews?

an above thread said Elfman's name was off, but his name is on the poster.
apparently Beck's music still made it because there was one Beck song i haven't heard before and some other bits.
i need to look up the soundtrack.


p.s. Walrus, did it seem odd to you that the spoiler scene you mentioned had no payoff? Seems like after something like that happened that character would show up again. This was brought up by my friend after the movie. I wonder if the possible payoff scenes hit the cutting room floor.

i think the scene was its own payoff. the fact that it had nothing to do with the rest of the movie is fine. the rest of the movie sucked.

I don't mind a few really random jokes when they come out of nowhere and aren't discussed anymore.  That's pretty hilarious to me in a comedy, a farce, which happened to be Nacho Libre's aim. 

I don't mind Hess' directing aesthetically, I think his style is really developing (piggy backing nicely on Wes Anderson) but I think his writing has a lot of room to grow (that's the best way I can put it).
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: tpfkabi on June 30, 2006, 05:45:55 PM
SPOILERS


these were the same two characters that had the whips, right?

it just doesn't seem to make sense. Hess shows them fighting these two guys, then they show up later in the movie and mess with Nacho's transportation. it just seems too random as if some scene linking the events is missing. also that kind of reaction to what the guys were doing (popping a tire i believe?) doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the film. but it's just my opinion and it's a comedy after all.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: gob on August 30, 2006, 04:36:44 PM
Hell I thought it was hilarious.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: RegularKarate on August 30, 2006, 05:24:24 PM
What? you don't have anything to say about Spiderman 2?
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: tpfkabi on August 30, 2006, 10:10:35 PM
i still can't believe there's not a soundtrack. i remember liking it and would have probably bought it after i saw the movie.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: MacGuffin on September 20, 2006, 02:17:49 PM
Quote from: bigideas on August 30, 2006, 10:10:35 PM
i still can't believe there's not a soundtrack. i remember liking it and would have probably bought it after i saw the movie.

Not Sure How Much Elfman Appears in NACHO LIBRE Soundtrack
Source: Cinescape

On October 17th, Lakeshore Records will release the soundtrack to NACHO LIBRE, the Jack Black comedy about the monk who aspires to be a professional wrestler. Danny Elfman came in at the last second to score this film when former composer, popstar Beck, withdrew from the project. There is no word yet, however, on how much if any of Danny Elfman's score will be included, and how many songs will occupy the CD space.

"This isn't the great Elfman score that makes me want to run out and buy the CD like EDWARD SCISSORHANDS or MEN IN BLACK did," wrote Scoremaster in www.aintitcoolnews.com back in June when he previewed the score. "This is the great Elfman score that works on a more cerebral level as an afterthought within the technical context of the film. Elfman approaches the film much like a television sitcom - small, punctuating cues which are frequently interrupted or cadenced after a few small phrases. The music changes drastically on a dime to fit the dynamics of the scene and he's careful not to over-saturate the film with unnecessary music."

Speaking of Elfman, he will appear as a guest on "Soundcheck" on September 27, 2006, at 2pm EST. The show, which airs daily on WNYC New York Public Radio, will feature Elfman speaking with host John Schaefer about his new live concert album, Serenada Schizophrana, which is his first orchestral composition written specifically for a concert hall, while also discussing his other current projects and future plans.

"Soundcheck" airs every day at 2:00 PM on 93.9 FM or at 3:00 PM on XM satellite radio. You could also tune in live online at http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck. The show is also available as a podcast.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: modage on November 05, 2006, 03:55:14 PM
Quote from: Ghostboy on June 13, 2006, 09:48:13 PM
I just saw this tonight. I wasn't a big fan of Napoleon Dynamite, and although I think I like this better in some ways (the Mexican setting is just wonderful), objectively I'd say this is about its equal - better in some ways, worse in others. I was hoping there'd be some great Mike White magic, but I'd never have guessed he helped write it if his name hadn't been in the credits.

Oh, and regardless of who wrote it, the theme music/song is awesome.
agreed.  corn in the eye was pretty much the biggest/(only?) laugh in the movie.  it was weird, so i wanted to love it, but it didnt quite work.  it looked great though, whoever his cinematographer/production&costume designer were, they're awesome.
Title: Re: Nacho Libre
Post by: pete on November 07, 2006, 01:55:07 AM
dunno what you guys are talking about, it was pretty consistently funny.  a lot of the gags were pretty simple--item trajectories, farting, screaming, grossness...etc. but they were all delivered well.