3/5
Written by Luke Barnes
Summary
A Friar, Jack Black, dreams of becoming a luchador.
Before this viewing I had never seen this film all the way through before. Upon finishing it for the first time I found it to be enjoyable if not overly impressive.
Black is always very likeable and that is true here, his character of Ignacio is very easy to root for and you do develop a bond with him over the course of the film. Additionally he also gets several funny lines, I would say he was the only character in the film that made me laugh. Not all of the jokes landed, especially with the side characters, but enough of them did that it kept me engaged; Black has fantastic comedic delivery.
I enjoyed the look into the world of Mexican wrestling and luchador culture and think that more films should focus on it. Admittedly, I think the story would have been better served by having a Mexican actor in the lead rather than Jack Black as there was an element of white saviour to the film that I really didn’t like.
Overall, though the casting is troublesome I found this film to be enjoyable and even funny at times, not perfect but entertaining.
Pros.
Black
The comedy
The look into luchador culture
Cons.
The white saviour aspects
Not all the jokes land
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Another Millennial Reviewer 