Such a frustrating disappointment

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Awful. Like all Will Ferrell movies. Really awful. I had hopes, given that Gael García Bernal is a very talented actor. Indeed the only reason I watched this was because of Bernal. I honestly hope this doesn't have a lasting negative impact on his career. It does, however, make me question his judgement. He's far too talented to have participate in another juvenile slapstick Will Ferrell waste of time. In this film, Ferrell manages to reduce the entire cast and crew to his level--that of a pile of stinking dog crap. Now let me be honest, the first half of this film was so very very bad that I simply couldn't stomach any more of it and turned it off. Thus it is possible that in the last half, Ferrell suddenly became an actual actor with a touch of talent, and the film magically turns around. But given Ferrell's track record or participating in films that aren't worth the plastic in the DVD, I have serious doubts.

"Casa De Mi Padre" qualifies as the weirdest Will Ferrell comedy ever made. First, the entire film is spoken in Spanish without any obvious dubbing. Reportedly, Ferrell spent a month learning how to speak Spanish and delivered all his lines in Spanish. Second, this is a spoof of Mexican telenovelas, soap operas with endings. Third, despite being a comedy, "Case De Mi Padre" is horrifically bloody. When characters are gunned down, you are usually treated to ragged bullet holes in apparel and splatter bursts of blood. One shooting occurs in the distance so that we don't see blood splatter, and the villains drag corpse away behind an automobile. Fourth, despite all this R-rated violence, the film is obviously a comedy because everything is so incredibly deadpan. You can actually enjoy this nonsense as a straight drama despite some of its goofy characters because everybody behaves in such a straight-faced and serious fashion. Apparently, since I have never seen a telenovela, the production values are the bottom of the barrel. Mind you, not quite Ed Wood, but not far off. There are scenes here when the hero and heroine are shown out riding horses and you can tell that the horses are ersatz and the scenery sometimes moves more often than the characters. Some scenes show Ferrell and his friends cruising around in a pick-up truck with obvious back projection. Occasionally, the film breaks and bits are missing. The plot amounts to something of a reunion. The oldest son of a rancher, Raul (Diego Luna), comes home to receive his father's blessing for an impending marriage to sexy Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez). Renowned Hispanic actor Pedro Armendáriz Jr., plays the eponymous father. Ferrell plays the younger and often dumber son, Armando, who loves to ride the range, rescue calves, and rhapsodize about the agrarian beauty of the ranch. For the record, according to Box Office Mojo, "Casa De Mi Padre" coined a little more than $8-million. Director Matt Piedmont and screenwriter Andrew Steele have a lot of fun spoofing Mexican soap operas so much so that the joke isn't jokes in the film as much as the film is a joke. Critics who have complained that the film lacks hilarity are missing the point. "Case De Mi Padre" is a fantastic comedy that never wears out its welcome at 84 minutes and maintains a straight face throughout. The opening credits theme song is belted by a la "Goldfinger" style by Christiana Aguilera.

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.

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.