NACHO LIBRE (2006) 0 stars out of 4. Starring Jack Black, Hector Jimenez, Ana de la Reguera, Richard Montoya and Peter Stormare. Screenplay by Jared Hess & Jerusha Hess & Mike White. Directed by Jared Hess. Rating PG. Running time: Approx. 100 mins.

       
Years ago, I'd sometimes catch on very late night TV some of those old Mexican horror films in which a masked wrestler named Santos or Samson would battle Aztec mummies, werewolves, Dracula and other assorted vampires as well as mad doctors.

        While these movies were not great — the fun was listening to the dubbed, and dumb, English dialogue — they had a certain raw charm to them.

        Through these films, I learned about the Mexican passion for the Lucha Libra wrestlers, who wore masks to hide their identities.

        Hopefully, none of those wrestlers will see Jack Black in Nacho Libre, for if they do, they may march across the border and body slam the comic until he is pulp.

        Nacho Libre, which was co-written by Napoleon Dynamite's Jared Hess as well as Jerusha Hess and Black's School of Rock writer, Mike White, is an embarrassment.

        If it was meant as a tribute to those fabulous personalities, I would hate to see what insulting them would look like on screen. The movie is nearly amateurish.

        It is excruciating to watch, and difficult to believe that men with comic sharp minds such as Hess, White and Black could fall so short of the mark.

        The story revolves around Nacho (Black), an orphan with no skills, who is a cook — and a bad one — at the monastery where he was raised.

        Nacho wants to earn money to buy better ingredients so he can cook better meals for the orphans and priests — as well as the newly arrived Sister Encarnacion.

        Nacho decides to become a wrestler.

        Supposedly the plot is similar to ones Santos and other wrestlers used in some of their films. I surely hope those were better.

        Nacho Libre's jokes basically revolve around Nacho getting the heck beat out of him in the ring as well as several revolving around flatulence.

        The humor is strictly grade school. The movie is missing the wit and charm Hess, who directs, created for Napoleon Dynamite and White and Black used in School of Rock.

        Black's phony Mexican accent is of the type that got the Frito Bandido banned from television after the Hispanic community began complaining.

        Nacho Libre is so bad — and filled with so many below-the-border clichés and stereotypes — that it can set U.S.-Mexican relations back 50 years.

        It could though be used as a bargaining chip in further negotiations on the illegal immigration problem. President Bush could threaten to flood our south of the border neighbor with prints of the film if any future talks go bad.

        But even that would be cruel and unusual punishment.

        Nacho Libre is a black eye on the careers of all involved.

Bob Bloom is the film critic and DVD reviewer at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at serialhero48@yahoo.com. Bloom's reviews also can be found at the Journal and Courier Web site: www.jconline.com
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Rottentomatoes Web site: www.rottentomatoes.com.