Casa de mi Padre (Quick Review)

Maybe you need to go into Casa de mi Padre with some sort of Pre established appreciation of the spaghetti western genre to fully appreciate what it's trying to do, but I find it really difficult to imagine anyone not getting at lease a smile or two out of Will Ferrells goofy satire film. Sure there are those who will immediately pass because it's a Spanish language film, but it could not have possibly worked any other way. Big credit much go to Ferrell himself for being able to pull off a foreign language so well and still getting solid laughs.

It's a simple story of a ranchers son named Armondo (Ferrell) who must rise out of his quiet cowardly state and fight against a threatening Drug cartel who look to destroy his family and his home. Its actually a pretty well told story, which is of course a backdrop to some laugh out loud comedic pokes at such an already enjoyable genre. Casa de mi Padre doesn't poke fun of the Mexican Western genre, but Black Dynamite did with the Blacksploitation genre. However overall it feels much less off the wall, and much more grounded to its story.  The real "parody" comes more in the way of its production values, some gut bustingly funny (intentional) errors, and a few exploited genre cliches thrown in the mix. Perhaps one of the funniest running gags is Armondos constant struggle with trying to roll his own cigarettes. Despite a few exceptions the majority of the events in the film are actually presented is a pretty dramatic and almost believable(within the genre) manor, and if played differently could have maybe even been a legitimate Mexican Western. ...sort of.

Definitely worth a watch if your a fan of classic Mexican westerns, Will Ferrell, or just having a fun time watching a fun film, which I am of all three of these things!