estebangonzalez10 "If you were smart you would know that you are dumb."Directed by Matt Piedmont (known mostly for his work in Saturday Night Live and the Funny or Die videos) and written by Andrew Steele, Casa de Mi Padre, is a spoof on the Mexican tele novellas. It was a nice idea, but poorly executed considering there were very few funny moments and five minutes into the film the gags wore off. This could have worked much better as a 5 minute skit in SNL, but it doesn't have enough comedic moments to carry the film for 80 minutes. I'll give Casa De Mi Padre credit for being original and for trying something different, but the story just dragged during most of the film. Will Ferrell surprised me as he delivered all his lines in Spanish by learning them phonetically; he may not have spoken perfect Spanish but he did a decent job and I had no problem understanding him. Unfortunately despite having an interesting idea for the film, the execution was just too simple and the laughs were practically nonexistent. Casa De Mi Padre is a hollow film and there isn't much more to it.Armando Alvarez (Will Ferrell) has been living in his father's ranch in Mexico all his life. He's not bright, but he's loyal to his father, Miguel (Pedro Armendariz Jr.). He spends most of his time with his buddies, Esteban (Efren Ramirez) and Manuel (Adrian Martinez) goofing around while he cares for his father's animals. His younger brother, Raul (Diego Luna), is an international businessman who has returned to save the ranch and introduce his new fiancé, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez), to the family. However, Raul seems to be running an illegitimate business and Armando warns him he has brought trouble to the ranch. The town's drug lord, Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal), has declared war on Raul for interfering in his area, while Raul has also drawn the attention of DEA Agent Parker (Nick Offerman).Will Ferrell is a funny guy and most of his films work for me, but Casa De Mi Padre is just too dull and uninspired. It's a shame because there is a talented cast, Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal are two of the best Mexican actors, Nick Offerman always delivers, and Genesis Rodriguez is a beautiful actress. I grew up in South America, so I'm familiar with the novellas they were trying to spoof, but after five minutes the jokes wore off. The trailers made me believe this was going to be hilarious, but it wasn't at all. There were some funny moments involving the production design and the animatronic white jaguar, but everything else was poorly executed.

isabelle1955 To be honest I only watched this movie because I like Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal, but I hoped it might be modestly amusing. In truth, it's funny for the first few scenes but it's a joke that wears thin very quickly. It had potential, and the stars are all engaging actors, but really, it's not very good and it's not very funny. I've seen worse, but as a spoof of a Spaghetti Western meets Tarantino, which I assume it's trying to be, it's simply too weak. Not quite sure what Luna and Bernal are doing here..? Paying the rent I guess. I think the coyote meets stuffed puma part with overlaid text was one of the weakest movie jokes I've seen in a while. Have the courage of your convictions guys! If you think a stuffed animal mock fight is funny, go for it. Don't pad it with a 6th grade voice over and explanation..! Truly disappointing.

gavin6942 Scheming on a way to save their father's ranch, the Alvarez brothers find themselves in a war with Mexico's most feared drug lord.First of all, proper credit must be given to Will Ferrell. Love him, hate him or somewhere in between, he gave this role his all. Despite knowing it would not be his biggest hit, he plunged in and actually learned to speak Spanish for the part (or at least enough to fake it).There is plenty of good humor here, from the white mountain lion to the DEA agent played by Nick Offerman (who is awesome just by being on screen), and we must not forget the butt-centric romance scene. Not sure what was up with that, but well played.And not only is this a good comedy, it is a good story, too. Maybe it is stereotypical to have a story about Mexican drug dealers and American drug agents... maybe that gives the wrong impression of Mexico. But it makes for an interesting conflict.

LawyerTom1 Once again, the schmoo wins the fair, but flawed, maiden. To appreciate and enjoy the humor of Casa de mi Padre, there are two requirements: a) a knowledge and understanding of telenovellas, particularly those from Mexico, and b) an ability to speak Spanish in order to understand the jokes. The latter is particularly important because some of the best, subtle humor is the contrast between the socially acceptable translation of certain Spanish idiomatic expressions spoken by various characters and the meaning of the Spanish words themselves. (Another movie with a variation on such humor is Wasabe, a 2001 movie with Jean Reno, best watched in French because the English subtitles are a more literal (and I would say guttural) translation than the milk-toast English voice-over version of the movie.)I particularly enjoyed the discussion/description by the Alvarez brothers of drug-addled and junk-food crazed Americans; definitely over the top. If you know novellas and can speak at least some Spanish, this is a movie you will enjoy because you will appreciate the gestalt of the setting, imagery, and storyline which is key to the movie's satire.