Instructions Not Included

There's a lot of movie here with unexpected developments, held together by the irresistible chemistry between Derbez and his adorable pint-sized co-star.

Some of the comic bits are a little too broad and silly, but Derbez, in his feature debut, makes Instructions Not Included a balancing act more successful than it should be.

The film’s counterintuitive success is largely due to Derbez, who demonstrates why he is beloved, both south and north of the border.

The ending of the movie is a real grabber, the sort of thing that lifts and improves a tediously long and otherwise mediocre film and tricks you into thinking it was better than it really was as you leave the theater.

Instructions Not Included is a sporadically amusing but unduly protracted dramedy that slowly — very slowly — devolves into a shameless tearjerker during its third act.

I honestly don't understand what people are complaining about, the movie was great. I absolutely loved it.

This is the highest grossing Spanish-language film to open in North America and it's aimed squarely at the family-film audience that Disney targets. Eugenio Derbez (who also co-wrote & directed) plays a ladies' man, whose life is upended when one of his former girlfriends drops off her baby at his door. Seven years later, she shows back up to re-claim the daughter he's raised. This is big on sentiment: broad comedy, dramatic conflict and tender emotion. Loreto Peralta (the daughter) is sweet and appealing. The audience around me was enthusiastic (some of the references are strictly cultural) and the movie is not without charms, but it's not likely to appeal to English-speaking families because of the subtitles.

The movie is ****. The story mix the typical mexican melodrama and Big Daddy by Adam Sandler but bad executed. Not original, very bad acting, Derbez is an overrated mexican actor, over-advertising.Televisa brainwashed has been successful.

We have seen this type of story over and over again, last time the playboy was interpreted by Adam Sandler in Big Daddy. This movie is predictable, it represents bad television and bad film making, the kind sadly sponsored by Televisa to a public with very low standards and expectations. Derbez acting and characterization of a playboy is highly poorly drafted and executed.

Don't waste your time and money, its unfunny, totally unrealistic, is like watching the puppies super bowl, if you want to see something with the same story line but better, watch 'Big Daddy' instead...