Casa De Mi Padre [Blu-ray] [Import]

I love telenovelas! That being said, Will Ferrell's Spanish in "My Father's House" is just bad enough that I can almost understand it, and trust me: I do NOT speak Spanish, so the captions are a treat.

This delightful spoof takes itself seriously every single second of its running time, which always adds to the fun. When the badly made fake white puma laughed sardonically, I bought every moment; and I loved the horseback riding on stuffed animals with a fan blowing their hair. Any time our three heroes are riding in the pickup, the same scene goes by the "windows" and you can practically see the wires holding up the bushes. Rough scene shifts and laughably poor continuity were fun all the way, e.g., our hero has a roll-your-own cigarette in his mouth, dribbling tobacco down his shirt front. In the next camera angle...no cigarette. Then from another view, there is that cigarette again!

We follow the estupido second son of a successful Mexican rancher. All the dialogue is in Spanish with the exception of a creepy American DEA officer who speaks a clumsy combination. This cast is terrific:
* Will Ferrell ("The Other Guys") is Armando, a well-meaning but clumsy hombre who will never measure up to his padre's expectations. He is still a virgin because the "right woman" hasn't come along. I think his chances would improve if he could only learn how to roll his own cigarettes!
* Genesis Rodriguez ("Man on a Ledge") Sonia seems to be the "right woman" despite the fact that she is engaged to Armando's brother and appears to be connected to drug lords. In keeping with the telenovela tradition, she sings at the end!
* Diego Luna ("Y tu mamá también") Raul is Papa's favorite. Little does the old man suspect that his son's obvious succe$$ is NOT based on livestock!
* Gael Garcia Bernal ("Letters to Juliet") is an especially great "bad guy!" He lights two Canadian Slim cigarettes and smokes them alternately with either hand. He wears white cowboy boots that are waaaay too long, and is obviously having a blast!

There is a hilarious scene where two Mexicans are discussing the drug trade. The "Narco" rationalizes that he isn't selling drugs to Mexicans, just fat, stupid Americanos. I was delighted with the equal time granted to the Gringos before the film ended!

The sound track is loaded with referential, mariachi-tinged música that adds to the fun. The men's trio "No Se" ("I Don't Know"), complete with bongos, was a delight. Amazon.com will let me know when I can add this one to my collection.

Nice parody of Westerns and Spanish telenovelas. Of course seeing a "gringo" play the lead in this comedy role with a largely Mexican cast was going to be fun, but Ferrell was absolutely perfect and the only guy that could have pulled it off very well.

It's true Will's career has been up and down with hits and misses, but he made a homerun here. I really enjoyed the movie.

With his poor broken Spanish and intentional bad acting guaranteed a laugh a minute. Just looking as his black perm and acting Mexican pretty much sold the movie. However, the barrage of over the top and bizarre sequences pretty much elevated the movie even more (and there are too many too list).

Probably my favorite involved the ones involving the "White cat" (pure gold).

The supporting cast is made of acclaimed Mexicans actors like Diego Luna, and the late Pedro Armendáriz Jr., and young up and coming actress Genesis Rodriguez who all gave great comedic performances.

You can tell they really had fun with this one.

Recommended.

This deadpan spoof of Mexican "telenovelas" generates a fair quotient of laughs provided you tap into its goofy spirit. Will Ferrell stars in this all-Spanish language tale of a Mexican rancher who has to defend his father's land after his no-good brother (Diego Luna) shows up having owed a debt to a drug lord (Gael Garcia Bernal). Andrew Steele apparently wrote "Casa De Mi Padre" in English, but the film is a faithful Mexican soaper all the way through, and one's familiarity with the genre probably will dictate how much of the film you'll find funny. Though I'm certainly not a constant viewer of Univision, there are some inspired moments here along with several amusing songs penned by score composers Andrew Feltenstein and John Nau. Lionsgate's Blu-Ray of this barely-released comedy hits stores on the 17th with commentary with Ferrell, Steele and director Matt Piedmont on-hand; deleted scenes; commercials; a featurette; music video; and interview with the late Pedro Armendariz, Jr., who co-stars in the film. The 1080p transfer is fine (English subs run on the picture itself as opposed to below it) and the DTS MA audio is nicely engineered.