Storyline: Armando Alvarez (Will Ferrell) has lived and worked on his father's ranch in Mexico his entire life. As the ranch encounters financial difficulties, Armando's younger brother Raul (Diego Luna), shows up with his new fiancé, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez). It seems that Raul's success as an international businessman means the ranch's troubles are over as he pledges to settle all debts his father has incurred. But when Armando falls for Sonia, and Raul's business dealings turn out to be less than legit, all hell breaks loose as they find themselves in a war with Mexico's most feared drug lord, the mighty Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal).From IMDB.com
The great thing about this movie is that it completely takes a dive all for the sake of making a few people laugh that "get it". I mean, look at the score on imdb.com. it clocks in a measly 5.5 rating, and only a 44% fresh rating at Rottentomatoes.com...but the critics that actually liked it are some of the more reputable critics out there. Is it a GREAT movie, hell no, but it takes those quirky things that people love about "b-movies" and glorifies them. Props that are obviously fake, using the same rolling background screen in every car driving scene, having the cuts be sharp and out of place, and below is a description of a scene that, to me, is in a league of its own.
There is a shot of two characters riding horses through a field, but to make it look as cheesy as possible, they never shoot the horses (there are no horses) but only shoot the actors from the chest up bouncing up and down to give the illusion of riding a horse. There is also a painted backdrop and to give the illusion that they are passing trees and such, the stagehands are moving small bushes past the actors in the background. Possibly one of the funniest things I have seen in a while. It's like a mashup of Grindhouse and Spaghetti Westerns.
If you have the time, you should check it out. Seriously. You will be glad you did, unless you end up hating it...then forget that I said anything.
The cover of this movie says it all! I found it while I was skimming new releases through my Hopper’s Blockbuster @Home app, and I knew I would love this movie. For starters, I can’t believe that I hadn’t heard of this movie, especially since it has a lot of big name Mexican actors in it. One of my co-workers from Dish told me that those major Mexican actors were leery of the script at first, but then realized that Casa de Mi Padre would be a tip of the hat to all the old cheesy Mexican ranchero movies and novelas. I really don’t think there’s any other person besides Will Ferrell who could’ve pulled this off as well as he did.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, thanks for the comment. I always love to see people post on here. Second, you are 100% correct! This movie so much better than most people realize. Even the poster for the movie has the lines where it looks to have been folded like older posters have been done in the past. It is just really original idea that most will mistake for "bad" that is actually really really well done.
ReplyDeletePS. The stuffed White Cat shots and the really cheesy animatronics are awesome.
No doubt, they were Ferrell’s idea! :)
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