Casa de Mi Padre (2012)

If you're a Will Ferrell fan, this isn't quite exactly the same kind of Will Ferrell comedy that you might be accustomed to (except there is a scene where you see his awkward, pasty buttocks, but... that's to be expected I guess). Casa de mi Padre is supposed to poke fun at Telenovellas, so unless you are familiar with that genre and understood the fun that this movie is intended to poke fun at, then you will not get this movie at all. I certainly didn't. I wasn't able to connect with anything. I found the jokes awkward and haphazard. Some of the scenes are obviously badly done on purpose, but it's still painful to watch. The worst part was the love scene...which was just awful. From an outside looking in perspective, I'm not sure what this was supposed to be. It's not outright comedy to me, and it's not really a drama. It's a parody targeted for a limited audience, so not really everybody's cup of tea.Although it's amusing to see Will Ferrell speaking Spanish - he's pretty good in my opinion! And Gael Garcia Bernal is still sexy as ever as the evil drug-lord Onza. I watched this film out of curiosity, but wouldn't personally recommend it.

"If you were smart you would know that you are dumb."Directed by Matt Piedmont (known mostly for his work in Saturday Night Live and the Funny or Die videos) and written by Andrew Steele, Casa de Mi Padre, is a spoof on the Mexican tele novellas. It was a nice idea, but poorly executed considering there were very few funny moments and five minutes into the film the gags wore off. This could have worked much better as a 5 minute skit in SNL, but it doesn't have enough comedic moments to carry the film for 80 minutes. I'll give Casa De Mi Padre credit for being original and for trying something different, but the story just dragged during most of the film. Will Ferrell surprised me as he delivered all his lines in Spanish by learning them phonetically; he may not have spoken perfect Spanish but he did a decent job and I had no problem understanding him. Unfortunately despite having an interesting idea for the film, the execution was just too simple and the laughs were practically nonexistent. Casa De Mi Padre is a hollow film and there isn't much more to it.Armando Alvarez (Will Ferrell) has been living in his father's ranch in Mexico all his life. He's not bright, but he's loyal to his father, Miguel (Pedro Armendariz Jr.). He spends most of his time with his buddies, Esteban (Efren Ramirez) and Manuel (Adrian Martinez) goofing around while he cares for his father's animals. His younger brother, Raul (Diego Luna), is an international businessman who has returned to save the ranch and introduce his new fiancé, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez), to the family. However, Raul seems to be running an illegitimate business and Armando warns him he has brought trouble to the ranch. The town's drug lord, Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal), has declared war on Raul for interfering in his area, while Raul has also drawn the attention of DEA Agent Parker (Nick Offerman).Will Ferrell is a funny guy and most of his films work for me, but Casa De Mi Padre is just too dull and uninspired. It's a shame because there is a talented cast, Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal are two of the best Mexican actors, Nick Offerman always delivers, and Genesis Rodriguez is a beautiful actress. I grew up in South America, so I'm familiar with the novellas they were trying to spoof, but after five minutes the jokes wore off. The trailers made me believe this was going to be hilarious, but it wasn't at all. There were some funny moments involving the production design and the animatronic white jaguar, but everything else was poorly executed.

There is something hilarious about a film where Will Ferrell stares passionately and speaks Spanish.I'm not always a fan of Ferrell, but here the guy is funny as hell. The best part is that he doesn't even tell jokes. On the contrary, he's almost overdramatical to a point where silliness abounds. And that's probably the thing that either makes the movie for you or turns you away from it. Think of it as fun and care-free satire combining spaghetti westerns, Spanish soap operas and crime movies about drugs. In "Casa de mi padre", you find lots of shoddy sets, fake animals, dolls, R-rated violence, smoking and songs. I absolutely loved the songs! This is a weird combination of elements and felt so fresh. I could not help but get into a good mood. Add the most ridiculous love-making scene I remember seeing, and we got ourselves something special.This movie has problems though. As much as I love the fake outlook and silly approach, they kind of messed it up at some parts. Sometimes when they try to actually make a visual "so fake and ridiculous that it's funny"-joke, the joke lingers too long or is shoved in your face, thus losing some potential. When it works it's great and even pretty intelligent, and when it doesn't it seems like the movie is pandering to children in a "here's the joke! get it?"-manner. Also, some characters had the potential to be funny (Nick Offerman) but they ended up being something less.The whole cast is good and funny enough, and Ferrell gets two thumbs up, but Genesis Rodriguez was outstanding. She wasn't only outrageously beautiful, she had a certain edge to her performance. I really enjoyed it. She might have a great career ahead of her.When you watch this film, don't expect a typical comedy. Don't expect a "Hangover 11". Don't also expect a Lebowskian masterpiece, but something intentionally shoddy and funny in its own weird way. And Will Ferrell speaking/singing in Spanish, of course.

Once again, the schmoo wins the fair, but flawed, maiden. To appreciate and enjoy the humor of Casa de mi Padre, there are two requirements: a) a knowledge and understanding of telenovellas, particularly those from Mexico, and b) an ability to speak Spanish in order to understand the jokes. The latter is particularly important because some of the best, subtle humor is the contrast between the socially acceptable translation of certain Spanish idiomatic expressions spoken by various characters and the meaning of the Spanish words themselves. (Another movie with a variation on such humor is Wasabe, a 2001 movie with Jean Reno, best watched in French because the English subtitles are a more literal (and I would say guttural) translation than the milk-toast English voice-over version of the movie.)I particularly enjoyed the discussion/description by the Alvarez brothers of drug-addled and junk-food crazed Americans; definitely over the top. If you know novellas and can speak at least some Spanish, this is a movie you will enjoy because you will appreciate the gestalt of the setting, imagery, and storyline which is key to the movie's satire.