Truly Dreadful Film

A lot of fun.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Now if you were or maybe still are a big fan of the soaps, especially those from Mexico, than you may see more in this. Or you may be offended of course. But this one shot idea (no pun intended) loses quite a lot of its driving power. There are certain scenes that do have a lot of fun and a lot of material that are entertaining.But maybe I'm spoiled. And I don't just mean other Will Ferrell movies, but also a movie called "Tears of the Black Tiger", which while paying homage to cinema and Westerns and different other aspects, really walked the fine line perfectly. This movie has a lot shout-outs too (my sub-woofer had a lot to work with) and there is a lot of violence of course. And it's almost entirely in Spanish, if you didn't know that already. Watch but don't expect too much

I will be fair and say that Casa de mi Padre was an inspired idea. Will Ferrel truly took on a daring responsibility to widely release a Spanish speaking movie under his company banner as well as speaking Spanish throughout the film. The result is a mixed bag. I really admired its homage of the Sergio Leone spaghetti western meets Telenovela meets Grindhouse flick. It took advantage of this by using some really clever sight gags. Some of the action scenes were pretty kick-ass. Also, since this is a Spanish speaking movie, the subtitles leave room for some hilarious reading! But the film's efforts can at times feel tiresome. The first half of the movie is almost joke less. Almost as if the film was trying to rely on the fact that Will Ferrel speaking Spanish will be funny enough to carry a movie. Which it doesn't. The scenes without jokes fall totally flat and provides nothing to the audiences interest. To this effect, I turned off the movie half way through watching it the first time, convinced that I had watched a truly awful comedy. But I gave it a second chance, and to my surprise, I liked it. But lets face the facts, this is a forgettable Will Ferrel flick that will go among the ranks of "Semi-Pro" and "Kicking and Screaming" as one of his worst films. Rent it if you want to.

This movie shows that contrary to what I thought about Ferrell, this is a real artist that no longer cares about making tons of money but want to DO CINEMA while at the same time entertain and have fun. THIS IS WHAT REAL CINEMATIC ARTS are all about. People that thought this is not funny just don't know the telenovelas and the classic low budget Mexican cinematic arts world. Go investigate that context and have fun watching this film. It's too bad Hollywood won't support real cinema. It just cares about the money. This movies, along with Napoleon Dynamite and Instructions not included are excellent examples of the global multilingual world we live on. "Do you speak American" sums how ignorant we have become as a community. Thumps up for Ferrell.

While some may argue that Will Ferrell hasn't had a hit since 'Anchorman', he's not afraid to try new things.'Casa de mi Padre' (House of my Father), is Ferrell's good-natured parody of Mexican melodramas/soap operas. Ferrell plays Armando, the lowly brother of drug dealer Raul, who falls for his brother's gorgeous fiancée Sonia.Ferrell speaks Spanish – along with the predominately Mexican cast – to deliver a story of love betrayal, brotherhood, family, drug dealing and bloodshed. The deliberately clichéd plot runs second to the films' embracing of its low-fi effects, slow-motion fight scenes, coarse language, mannequins, animatronic animals and continuity errors. One scene involving a graceful white lion and a coyote is interrupted by a long explanation of the chaos caused by the filming of the scene.While not as memorable as some of Ferrell's best films, you have to admire Ferrell for trying something new, as well as the films' willingness to embrace its flaws, which adds to the laughter.