You see, Raul is the brains of the family, which is why he’s got money, power, and arm candy. Of course, one doesn’t go from being the son of a rancher to a guy wearing expensive suits overnight. At least, you don’t do it honestly. Raul is in some shady business, and his return to the family ranch isn’t exactly to show off his new lady. Raul also has a powerful enemy, Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal). Onza has what Raul wants, and vice versa. This conflict between the two puts Armando and the Alvarez ranch right in the middle of a war. Drug dealers, armed gangsters, police, and American DEA agents will all be playing a part. If that sounds like a volatile mix, that’s because it is. Let the lead fly and the bodies fall like rain. You have to give all the credit in the world to the production team behind Casa de mi Padre. They absolutely nail the look of 70s low budget cinema, be it Mexican or otherwise. The amount of detail put into making this film look cheap is staggering when you consider it. Everything from the pond set with the obvious (but very good-looking) matte painting and the rear projected truck drives to the white tiger puppet created by the Jim Henson Company and the stuffed horse race, has been perfectly emulated from the period. Even the film stock looks slightly cheap and scratchy, without too much obvious digital trickery. The whole of Casa feels a bit like Mexican Black Dynamite, and that’s a good thing. It works because the movie keeps its tone serious throughout, without winking at the camera. Even when the script (from SNL vet Andrew Steele) gets a little strange, or the scenes get goofy, the cast handles it completely straight. Of course, it’s easy to do that when you’ve got great actors like Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, as well as veteran comic actors like Will Ferrell, Efren Ramirez, and Nick Offerman. I was unfamiliar with Genesis Rodriguez, but she’s absolutely stunning (which is the main requirement for any telenovela lead actress), and she’s got good timing and delivery. Will Ferrell spent a month with a Spanish dialogue coach to learn his lines, and his delivery is very good. Perhaps too good to really be really funny. That said, while the cast is good and the movie is technically proficient, it just simply doesn’t hit the notes consistently enough or big enough to really get as many laughs as it could have yielded. Part of this might be my lack of familiarity with telenovelas and 70s Mexican cinema, and part of it might be the fact that the script has a good idea, but doesn’t really have meat enough to fill up 84 minutes of run time. US Correspondent Ron Hogan enjoyed Casa de mi Padre, but it really made him want to watch Black Dynamite again. Black Dynamite is pretty much the best spoof movie since Top Secret. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi.
title: “Casa De Mi Padre Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-08-28” author: “Jay Gavitt”
Unfortunately, it’s just not consistently funny enough to earn itself the mark of a classic, and will probably be remembered for its technical accomplishments and soundtrack rather than its laugh-out-loud moments. The entire film is spoken in Spanish with English subtitles (bar a couple of exceptions, and a Kris Kristofferson opening), and yep, this does include Ron Burgundy himself. Ferrell apparently spent a month with a dialect coach perfecting his Spanish language skills, which sound pretty legit to me (though I could be horribly wrong here), and immediately mark this film out as something different. Ditto the loving recreation of frankly shoddy production values often found in the films and TV shows Casa De Mi Padre is aping. You have obviously painted backgrounds, poor digital effects, laughable continuity errors, and bits where the film itself breaks. Also of note are the Jim Henson puppets which stand in for various dangerous animals, including an ‘amazing’ white mountain lion. Its recreation of low budget aesthetics is a source of much of the film’s fun, and comparable to Rodriguez and Tarantino’s Grindhouse in attention to detail. Similarly, there’s a surprisingly high amount of violence to be seen here, with gunshots and blood spraying everywhere on occasion. As the primary villain, Garcia Bernal is a preening and effeminate drug lord, surrounded by luxury and used to getting his way (and some of the best scenes involve his love of Canadian Slims). Luna, meanwhile, is a deranged cross between Pablo Escobar and Tony Montana, and probably by design seems to belong in a totally different movie. As for Ferrell, well, he’s dependable enough – apart from his non-English turn he’s pretty much the same loveable man-child he always plays, but with the added bonus of a really weird and disturbing bum-focused love scene. I can tell you now that Will Ferrell has a pretty hairy bum crack. In the end, this really hamstrings the piece, and makes it merely an entertaining curiosity rather than a comedy classic. This is a shame considering the talent involved, and the love lavished on the look of the thing. Casa De Mi Padre represents something of a missed opportunity, then; one which I found myself thinking kindly of because of who was in it, and how much fun they seemed to be having, rather than what they were actually doing or saying. Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
title: “Casa De Mi Padre Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-07-12” author: “Corinne Stricklin”
Unfortunately, it’s just not consistently funny enough to earn itself the mark of a classic, and will probably be remembered for its technical accomplishments and soundtrack rather than its laugh-out-loud moments. The entire film is spoken in Spanish with English subtitles (bar a couple of exceptions, and a Kris Kristofferson opening), and yep, this does include Ron Burgundy himself. Ferrell apparently spent a month with a dialect coach perfecting his Spanish language skills, which sound pretty legit to me (though I could be horribly wrong here), and immediately mark this film out as something different. Ditto the loving recreation of frankly shoddy production values often found in the films and TV shows Casa De Mi Padre is aping. You have obviously painted backgrounds, poor digital effects, laughable continuity errors, and bits where the film itself breaks. Also of note are the Jim Henson puppets which stand in for various dangerous animals, including an ‘amazing’ white mountain lion. Its recreation of low budget aesthetics is a source of much of the film’s fun, and comparable to Rodriguez and Tarantino’s Grindhouse in attention to detail. Similarly, there’s a surprisingly high amount of violence to be seen here, with gunshots and blood spraying everywhere on occasion. As the primary villain, Garcia Bernal is a preening and effeminate drug lord, surrounded by luxury and used to getting his way (and some of the best scenes involve his love of Canadian Slims). Luna, meanwhile, is a deranged cross between Pablo Escobar and Tony Montana, and probably by design seems to belong in a totally different movie. As for Ferrell, well, he’s dependable enough – apart from his non-English turn he’s pretty much the same loveable man-child he always plays, but with the added bonus of a really weird and disturbing bum-focused love scene. I can tell you now that Will Ferrell has a pretty hairy bum crack. In the end, this really hamstrings the piece, and makes it merely an entertaining curiosity rather than a comedy classic. This is a shame considering the talent involved, and the love lavished on the look of the thing. Casa De Mi Padre represents something of a missed opportunity, then; one which I found myself thinking kindly of because of who was in it, and how much fun they seemed to be having, rather than what they were actually doing or saying. Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
