A curious Spanish-language comedy starring Will Ferrell, who learned all of his lines phonetically (I've heard from Spanish speakers that he did a great job with that). This is apparently a parody of cheap Mexican melodramas, and it has an interesting and often absorbing aesthetic (obvious painted backdrops and such). The problem is, the filmmakers seem to think that this is funny in and of itself. It reminds you of something like Black Dynamite, but they kind of forgot they needed to write jokes outside of the goofy cheapness. There are a few - just not enough. The cast is pretty great here, including Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal, Pedro Armendariz Jr. (who died before the film was released), Nick Offerman and the gorgeous Genesis Rodriguez (also quite fine in Man on a Ledge). At 84 minutes, this is hardly a chore, but you always feel like it could be infinitely funnier than it is.
Review of Casa de mi Padre
