Armando Alvarez 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, shows up with his new fiancee, Sonia. It seems that Raul's success as an international businessman means the ranch's troubles are over as he pledges to settle all debts. But when Armando falls for Sonia, and Raul's business dealings turn out to be criminal, all hell breaks loose as they find themselves in a war with Mexico's most feared drug lord, the mighty Onza.
Genres: Comedy Running Time: 1 hour 24 minutes Release Date: March 16, 2012 MPAA Rating: R (for bloody violence, language, some sexual content and drug use) Distributor: Pantelion Films
Cast And Credits
Starring:
Will Ferrell, Gael GarcAa Bernal, Diego Luna, GAnesis RodrAguez, Efren Ramirez
Directed by:
Matt Piedmont
Produced by:
Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Andrew Steele, Emilio Diez Barroso
Things begin simmering when Raul starts mixing it up with a drug lord, La Onza or “the Ounce†(Gael GarcÃa Bernal), a baddie with the usual bikinied ladies and machine-gun-toting muscle. Mr. GarcÃa Bernal and Mr. Luna clearly enjoyed playing dress-up, but it’s too bad that the story isn’t as retro as their clothes. “Casa de Mi Padre†demands that you not take it seriously, and for the most part that’s easy to do. Even so, there are times â€" as with an execution witnessed by Armando and his sidekicks â€" when, because of the devastation the drug war has wreaked in Mexico, the laughs take on a queasy quality that could have worked only if the filmmakers had gone very dark, very tough.
Superficially “Casa de Mi Padre†recalls the genre excesses and insider yuks of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s “Grindhouse,†their duetting homage to 1970s-style exploitation cinema. Yet while Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Tarantino are true believers, Mr. Steele and the director of “Casa de Mi Padre,†Matt Piedmont (another “Saturday Night Live†vet), come across as dabblers. That may be why they have a tough time finding a persuasive tone. The biggest joke in “Casa de Mi Padre†is that Mr. Ferrell speaks Spanish without winking throughout the hyperserious proceedings, and as he often does, he turns his character’s innocence into a strange state of grace. The sincerity of his performance makes Armando seem foolish and therefore funnier, at least when he has enough good material.
Mr. Bernal and Mr. Luna, by contrast, mostly seem to be having a goof playing cowboys and narcos, and their barely contained smiles, however shining, work against Mr. Ferrell’s commitment and undermine the movie’s poker-faced interests. “Casa de Mi Padre†is best when it stops pretending that anyone, including the filmmakers, cares about the pointless story, which also includes too much unfunny business with a few American lawmen that wastes the mustachioed brilliance of Nick Offerman. Far better are its oases of absurdity, like an increasingly preposterous sex scene featuring the inevitably naked Mr. Ferrell, once again flaunting his furred assets, and a lysergic trip to the other side with a conspicuously ersatz white leopard whose coat is almost as matted.
Por qué está hablando en español Will Ferrell en su nueva pelÃcula? Well, in the Spanish-language comedy “Casa de Mi Padre†Mr. Ferrell, his hair darkened and his deadpan locked, stands knee-, sometimes bare-buttocked-deep in the corn. (Some call it maÃz.) A quick-sketch routine stretched â€" amusingly, absurdly, thinly â€" to feature length, “Casa de Mi Padre†(“House of My Fatherâ€) stars Mr. Ferrell as Armando Alvarez, the eldest son of a rancher down Mexico, or rather down telenovela, way, where the men are brave, the women beautiful, the villains venal, the passions inflamed, the prose empurpled, the sunsets honeyed, and the dangers as numerous as the
Things begin simmering when Raul starts mixing it up with a drug lord, La Onza or “the Ounce†(Gael GarcÃa Bernal), a baddie with the usual bikinied ladies and machine-gun-toting muscle. Mr. GarcÃa Bernal and Mr. Luna clearly enjoyed playing dress-up, but it’s too bad that the story isn’t as retro as their clothes. “Casa de Mi Padre†demands that you not take it seriously, and for the most part that’s easy to do. Even so, there are times â€" as with an execution witnessed by Armando and his sidekicks â€" when, because of the devastation the drug war has wreaked in Mexico, the laughs take on a queasy quality that could have worked only if the filmmakers had gone very dark, very tough.
Mr. Bernal and Mr. Luna, by contrast, mostly seem to be having a goof playing cowboys and narcos, and their barely contained smiles, however shining, work against Mr. Ferrell’s commitment and undermine the movie’s poker-faced interests. “Casa de Mi Padre†is best when it stops pretending that anyone, including the filmmakers, cares about the pointless story, which also includes too much unfunny business with a few American lawmen that wastes the mustachioed brilliance of Nick Offerman. Far better are its oases of absurdity, like an increasingly preposterous sex scene featuring the inevitably naked Mr. Ferrell, once again flaunting his furred assets, and a lysergic trip to the other side with a conspicuously ersatz white leopard whose coat is almost as matted.
