I remember seeing ads for Nacho Libre in the movie theaters. I immediately thought to myself, "Ah, what a stroke of genius! Combine Jack Black, a funny actor, with Mexican wrestling, easily the funniest form of wrestling available anywhere." And then I learned Mike White had also penned this one, and I expected nothing less than greatness. Not specifically School of Rock part 2, but certainly something with a lot of strong laughs.

Now, the movie is over, and I'm sitting there thinking, "What happened?" the movie was barely funny in any way whatsoever. And then I read the back of the case. And it hit me. Napoleon Dynamite. The director and co-writer, Jared Hess, made Napoleon Dynamite, perhaps my most-hated film of the last decade. A terminally unfunny affair that somehow become an indie darling, that movie will forever burn in my personal cinema purgatory. And rewatching Nacho Libre, I could see all the hallmarks of Jared Hess' work: the Wes Anderson rip-off sequences, the "quirky" characters with no backstory and funny names, and, of course, the general lack of humor.

Nacho Libre stars Jack Black as Ignacio, a priest who has been relegated to the role of slop cook. He has nothing in his life, except his love of Mexican Wrestling, and the orphans that his monastery cares for. Early in the flick, a nun (Penelope Cruz-lookalike Ana de la Reguera) joins the monastery for a few weeks, and Ignacio immediately falls for her. One day, after a particularly foul lunch, Ignacio, sick of being pushed around by the other priests, and hoping to gain respect in the nun's eyes, decides to make good on his dream and become a Luchadore. But because he can't leave the orphans, he does it in secret. He picks up a vagabond, Esqueleto (Hector Jimenez), and the two become a dynamic wrestling duo, with Ignacio calling himself Nacho. At first, the pair continually lose, but they get paid well, so they don't mind. Eventually, Nacho's pride swells up, and he's no longer content to lose. And once his night time antics are discovered by the other priests, his position at the monastery rides on his winning, as well.

There certainly seems to be plenty of room in the basic plot of Nacho Libre for gag after gag after gag. And yet, the films falls so short of what it could have been. Instead of focusing on the inherent humor in Mexican wrestling, it relies on cheap flatulence and unfunny, overly bizarre situations. In fact, the wrestling takes very little screen time, and Ignacio goes from perrenial loser to champion in less than no time. The film is extremely shallow, with most of the characters having the flimsiest of motivations at the best of times, and almost all of the relationships between characters remaining undeveloped.

Furthermore, Jack Black is criminally misused. Part of the greatness that was School of Rock was his sense of enthusiasm. Here, he plays a browbeaten, meek, and soft-spoken man. His personality is further subsumed by his thick accent. Now, I'm generally the first to applaud when an actor, particularly a comedic one, breaks out of the roles for which they are generally typecast. The problem is, this role would have benefitted from Jack Black's usual performing style. As it is, Black is playing the straight man in his own movie.

And the final touch of death comes from Jared Hess. Hess has shown himself to be a disciple of the Wes Anderson school of directing. However, Wes Anderson understands how to marry style and substance with his own unique sense of humor and visual style to create something where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Hess does not have that skill, so what we get is a clumsy rip of Wes Anderson, done without style, grace, or humor. Hess is so concerned with adding another bizarre character that he forgets to give them all reasons for being there in the first place. And considering he co-wrote the script, we can't just blame his directing. It's clear that he doesn't yet understand what makes a good comedy, because both of his attempts have failed.

The HD DVD:

The Image:
Nacho Libre is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. In an attempt to make Mexico look more "Mexican," Hess had his cinematographer blow out almost every scene, I guess to make things look like they're being baked in the hot Mexican sun. In certain outdoor sequences, it's so bright that I almost thought it was the TV exhibiting blooming, but it's just the style of the film. As such, it's a little hard to judge the transfer, although it seems to have replicated the original look rather well. I did notice some edge enhancement from time to time, but nothing that really destroyed the image.

The Audio:
I've got to give credit where credit is due, Nacho Libre has a fine Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix, with strong use of surrounds. A lot of the film takes place in areas with crowds or livestock, and frequently both, and this mix was alive with the hum of people and animals alike. Is the sound particularly better than most modern surround mixes? Not really, but it does a great job of immersing you in the world of the film.

The Supplements: Nacho Libre has a large collection of extras, most of them better than the finished film (all extras are in standard definition except for the trailer).

Things get off to a rocky start with the tepid commentary (and dinner) with Jack Black, Mike White, and Jared Hess. You'd think these three guys would be able to sit around and crack jokes like crazy, but they're very subdued and spend most of their time saying how good they thought the movie was. Pass.

To make up for the commentary, we get almost an hour's worth of featurettes that are generally aimless, but are still a heck of a lot of fun to watch. You finally get to see Jack Black being Jack Black, and watching the crew having fun making the movie is more entertaining than the movie proper. Again, we get a lot of "This movie is so great, I love working on this movie" kind of comments, but the best parts of the featurettes make them worth sitting through.

For some reason, there's a feature called "Jack Black Sings!" that is listed entirely separately from the featurettes. Don't ask me. This one centers on the scenes where, guess what, Jack Black sings. Worth catching to see Black get into the singing mood.

The disc also has several deleted scenes, including the infamous "Dove Dress" sequence that is 100% better than anything in the main feature. I have no idea why it got cut, but it's the only example in this production of completely out there zaniness that actually works. The other deleted scenes are throwaways.

We also get three TV promo spots and a photo gallery.

On the back of the case is a disclaimer which says "Special Features are presented in standard definition (except where noted HD)." This got my hopes up that perhaps some of the extras aside from the trailer would be in HD. But no, just the trailer. Better than nothing, I guess.

The Conclusion:
Nacho Libre is proof that even funny people have their off days, too. The brilliant minds behind School of Rock are undone by the creators of Napoleon Dynamite, resulting in an unfunny mess of a film that garners, at best, a few chuckles. Rent It.

Daniel Hirshleifer is the High Definition Editor for DVD Talk.