Nacho Libre Alamo Premiere Show

To preface: It's impossible for me to separate the film from the event, as the event was done to present the film optimally - through the eyeholes of a mask.

Many years ago, on a trip to LA, I found myself with my last $20 faced with a decision. I could either buy a Mexican wrestling mask or I could buy some album (I can't even remember what one).

Little did I know how much that would pay off later.

Tonight, the Alamo Drafthouse's Rolling Roadshow took me out to the Glenn in Bee Caves for a premiere of Nacho Libre. Free to those of us who donned the masks of the trade. Of course, I was very happy to do this, as the mask is fun to wear. Hopefully Nacho Libre will become the cultural sensation as it's cousin Napoleon Dynamite was, so that it'll be a new fad. Just go downtown or to the grocery store and wear a lucha mask. Save time on hair, makeup, etc. Just a thought.

When the Alamo has a premiere, they do things right. A sellout crowd of 1000, 150 of whom were masked. They also brought in a troupe of authentic Mexican wrestlers from Mexico City to ply their trade. The wrestlers put on a fantastic show, I don't know if they thought the crowd was into it, though. Cheers and jeers just aren't as loud in an open venue. That didn't stop them from going all out, though. Wrestlers were thrown into trash cans, exposed, demasked, and abused for the crowd. Two of the wrestlers were midgets (well, one midget and a short dude) and were incredibly talented. My favorite bit involved the good (legitimate) midget being triple-teamed by the evil wrestlers. They beat him so badly that he had no life left in him. They'd lift his arm, it'd fall listlessly to the canvas. The same with his leg. "ES MUERTO", they proclaimed him. The midget was dead. The Mexican people are a religious people, so, when confronted with the death of a colleague they couldn't just leave him there. The three evil wrestlers did the right thing and prayed for the midget's soul - BUT THEIR PRAYERS BROUGHT HIM BACK TO LIFE! The revived midget now had the power of God on his side and attacked his murders with all of his vengeance! The fight waged on, and soon even Time League, owner of the Drafthouse, found himself under attack.

A fantastic show, many stood and applauded the show. I had a blast with it. When he'd finally recovered from his injuries, Tim plugged some other Rolling Roadshow events, teasing us with his Snakes On A Plane show (1 ticket gets you 24 hours of the movie, and during each showing you can eat a different snake).

And then came the movie. It's really going to be interesting to see how people receive this movie. I liked it, but not much more than that. There's some stuff that doesn't work, and there's some that does. It's basically Napoleon Dynamite meets Jack Black. I like Napoleon, and I like Jack Black, so I was alright with it. Outside of a few very bright spots the movie is alright. But, it's very much in that Napoleon Dynamite vein, and those who hate it are going to absolutely hate this movie. Hate, hate, hate. Those who are into it are only going to like the movie. Not love, as they did Napoleon.

I would love to separate the movie from Dynamite, but it's impossible. The movies are incredibly similar in style, and it's obvious that the same people worked on it. It is a step forward for them, though, as this movie actually has a plot. In many ways Hess shows signs of growth, but at the same time, he put so much toilet humor in the movie that it's a step back in terms of maturity (seriously, Jack Black is almost always in the bathroom in this movie).

I liked it, but not much more.
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