Casa de mi Padre

Considered as a whole it's a wonderful and hilarious phenomenon, most of it is executed to Dadaist perfection.

If you take the film on its own terms, as a kind of Elvis movie dipped in guacamole, it's quirkily engrossing. Ferrell is a good straight actor for the same reason that he's an inspired comedian: He commits himself to every moment.

The fact that the entire film is in Spanish, and Ferrell plays a Mexican named Armando, are two of the tamest elements in the movie.

For a movie with a comedic premise this simple – essentially: can you believe we made a movie with a premise this simple? – Casa de Mi Padre can feel pretty exhausting.

It's really strange, and it's really subtitled.

It's a solid short film stretched to Silly Putty thinness.

You know a film isn't going to be considered high art when the guy to your left at the press screening is a reporter from Extra and the guy to your right lets out a loud "That's awesome, man" after each scene.

In a word, "perfecto". It is what it is. Pulls no punches, and, you know, in the world of Tarantino does homage or spoof or exact copy replicas of the films he saw as a kid, this does one better. Funny, Violent, and muy corazon!

A parody of cheaply made spanish, grindhouse westerns and cheesy soap operas. Most of the humor comes from how well it is mimicking the bad elements of it's inspiration. The poorly made shots, low budget special effects, and overly dramatic elements of the story are portrayed with mostly a straight face. The humor here is very meta. Lots of comedy films have succeeded with meta humor, but most often it is because they have their own out there gags to go along with the more subtle ones brought on by the theme. Outside of a few moments near the end these types of jokes are largely absent. It means that if you aren't in on the joke then you just aren't in on the joke. However even if you are in on the joke it doesn't mean that you'll find it all that funny. It can be an often witty film, but not a particularly laugh worthy one. With everyone trying to keep the real jokes to a bare minimum this can come of as more homage than parody. Rather than making fun of these types of crappy movies, it can end up being one. As a unique curiosity it succeeds. As a comedy not so much. It's an interesting take on meta-comedy and a lesson on the dangers of taking it too far. If you have a particular knowledge of the the films and television being made fun of here then this may be one worth checking out. Others in the mood for more straight forward humor may want to look elsewhere.

This movie isn't for everyone but I actually enjoyed it. The low budget is pathetic but still hilarious how much they purposefully make fun of it. They mock traditional Spanish westerns and the like throughout the film. Will Ferrell is genius. Genesis Rodriguez is breathtaking. Overall, it's just a really funny and silly movie that doesn't take itself seriously. I can't give it a higher rating because it's not that kind of movie. That being said, it's still a movie that certain people will really enjoy, myself being one of them.

As one can expect, the offensively condensed and rudimentary Spanish-lingo, ethnic digs, spaghetti-Western gags, and inflated run-time all run stale...very quickly. Being a slightly more original "MacGruber," yet equally moronic, not to mention subtitled, "Casa de mi Padre" is a full-length (84 minute) feature, diced into 5-minute 'SNL' skits, that when split accordingly, will make for great Youtube popularity. Ultimately, Ferrell's inundated, comedic dexterity, even his hailingly hilarious, puerile ignoramus self can bail out this feebly built spoof. This is the kind of flick where the foreground action becomes so untolerable, so uninterestingly involving, that the incidental details become the focus. So much, watching the various cigarettes being rolled up activated more cerebral cognition. As for Ferrell taking the time to "learn" Spanish for the film, at least he can now communicate with the native Mexican youth; that's about it.

Will Ferrel has done a lot of movies and some of his more absurd comedies are some of his best. Especially he 'R' rated films. This is not one of them. I don't doubt the choice to have the entire film subtitled is one of them. I don't personally care for "reading" movies myself, but when they are good, it's not something that stops me from enjoying a film. This isn't one of them. The movie, while a comedy, isn't up to his usual standards. It's not very funny and the few parts that DID make me chuckle are out numbed by the number of times I simply lost interest or didn't care about the film.