Casa de mi Padre

Release date: March 16, 2012
Director: Matt Piedmont
Screenplay by: Andrew Steele
Cast: Will Ferrell, Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal, Genesis Rodriguez, Pedro Armendariz, Jr., Efren Ramirez, Adrian Martinez

My family and I, we have a different sense of humor. We usually don’t laugh too often with comedies that do too well in America, and I’m probably the only one that has ever laughed with anything related to SNL. The rest of my family detests the show, and it’s commonly label as “American humor.

This is why I’m usually wary with anything Will Ferrell does. He’s often hit or miss for me, but how can I pass up the opportunity to watch Will Ferrell speaking Spanish for a whole movie, when I laughed out loud with his, “Mi perro es mi favorito. Mi perro es mi corazon. Muchos taquitos. Buena suerte” [1] line on Bewitched.

Casa de mi Padre is the story of Armando Alvarez (Ferrell), a small-eyed with a somewhat impediment ranchero, whose relationship with his father (Armendariz, Jr.) reaches a low point when Armando’s little brother Raul (Luna) arrives with his future wife, Sonia (Rodriguez) with the plan of taking over Onza’s (Garcia Bernal) drug control zone.

While the plot is thin, it makes up for it by doing it hilariously, playing the best of Mexico’s telenovelas with elements of old school Mexican films — which most Latin American-grown audiences should be familiar with. I mean, we all know Genesis Rodriguez is El Puma’s daughter, so it’s laugh out loud funny when El Puma does show up as a performer at Sonia’s wedding.

I was reminded of the recent Chicogrande, though that one did take itself seriously while still delivering enough laughs. Will Ferrell’s Spanish is remarkably understandable in this one without subtitle aids and makes it one hell of a fun ride with lines like, “los ojos de un pollo chiquito,”  when describing his eyes. This type of dialogue is only ten times more hilarious if you’re a Spanish speaker listening to a non-Spanish speaker say it.

The rest of the cast does as well, complementing Ferrell’s over the top performance, with Luna playing the newbie drug lord and Gael Garcia as the total badass to a tee. I didn’t care much for Genesis Rodriguez’ character, but she didn’t bother me. I could’ve done without her after credits song with Ferrell, though.

However, the cheesecake goes to the editors of the film and Jim Henson’s puppets because those were hilarious beyond belief. It’s as if Aslan — but not really, since it was a “gato blanco” — made a cameo in the film to give a pep-talk to Armando and pump him up for his final action sequence.

Except for the butt-showing scene, Casa de mi Padre would have been perfect to watch with your telenovela-loving, old-Mexican cinema watching abuelitos and laugh at.

Oh, yeah. I guess all the humor would be pretty lost while reading subtitles, huh? Time to brush up on your Spanish, people!

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

9 Responses

  1. Mirella says:

    Ok, you’ve got me pumped up for this! :D

  2. Rodrigo says:

    I heard some people saying that this seemed like a long SNL skit. Is it SNL-esque by any chance? Just asking.

    • amy says:

      @Rodrigo, that’s the general consensus I read online too. I didn’t feel it was SNL-esque. I thought it was fairly latin-american-esque. The jokes weren’t actually physical… but more on the side of mocking Latin American cinema/tv production and Hollywood stereotypes… and there was no Ferrell running around screaming like a banshee screaming “sweet baby jesus. tom cruise.” xD

      I thought it was funnier than any latest SNL skit or digital short.

  3. Rodrigo says:

    I liked the film. But I really hope that somehow Aguilera or Ferrell can get nominated for the songs they performed in Casa de mi Padre. Aguilera’s intro song is great and Ferrell’s “Yo No Se” is hilarious.

    • amy says:

      @Rodrigo, OMG. I loved Yo No Se. xD Por que es lenta la tortuga. xD I would love for that to get something, but I think Aguilera’s song has better chances and should be in the running for something. The original song category has been weak as of lately anyway… so it should increase the chances of the song.

  1. August 27, 2013

    […] Casa de mi Padre […]

  2. September 4, 2013

    […] OC Guns, a funky gangster-esque song, could have easily been part of the official soundtrack for Casa de mi Padre with its spanish swearing. It sounds funnier than Cruising California, but it sounds kind of […]

  3. July 10, 2014

    […] Will Ferrell, Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Genesis Rodriguez and Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) star in the upcoming Spanish speaking comedy Casa de mi Padre. […]

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