Casa de mi Padre - Blu-ray

Content: Although his father (Pedro Armendáriz Jr.) always makes it clear that he thinks he's a failure, Armando Alvarez (Will Ferrell) has always stayed on his family's farm in Mexico. But all that hard work hasn't helped. The farm is deep in debt and the livelihood of the entire Alvarez family is at stake. Armando's little brother Raul (Diego Luna), who has made a career in the U.S., is supposed to help pay off the debt. But when he returns to the farm with his fiancée Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez), Armando soon realizes that his brother is just a phony who can't be expected to help much. And so it's up to him to save the ranch after all. The fact that he has to take on powerful drug lord Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal) to do so, and then also falls for the beautiful Sonia, doesn't make things any easier...

With Casa de mi Padre, Anchorman creators Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have teamed up with director Matt Piedmont for a quirky and wonderfully trashy homage to the Mexican Western and Latin American soap operas. They even went so far as to shoot the film entirely in Spanish, with some comedy coming from Ferrell's very distinct accent alone. Of course, this is completely lost in the German dubbed version. But still, even without this aspect, there are enough other reasons to laugh at this parody.

Bad backdrops with painted backgrounds or model cities, amusing editing mistakes or completely exaggerated clichés always provide a good laugh. But also the overly stiffly delivered dialogues and probably the most absurd sex scene of the last years make Casa de mi Padre a wonderfully silly pleasure. And when the film then suddenly stops to inform the viewer in an extremely long text insertion about a mistake of the 2nd cameraman, or the action degenerates into a psychedelic dream sequence, fans of the very special humor of Will Ferrell get their money's worth.

Surely this absurd Western soap farce is even less suitable for the masses, as Anchorman or Ricky Bobby - King of the racers. But even if some of the gags are already very silly or are so bizarre that only a few viewers will get them, the film is overall a lot of fun. One of the reasons for this is the fact that you can tell how much fun the actors had playing such over-the-top characters. Gael Garcia Bernal in particular obviously took great pleasure in playing out his comedic talents as a mercilessly evil villain for once.

The well-humored acting of the cast, some truly delightful gags, and the extremely bloody and leaden finale help to console over some hangs and humorous pipe-drops. Still: to find Casa de mi Padre really funny, you should definitely have a soft spot for comedy of the more peculiar kind. But if you also like the smaller comedies of Will Ferrell, you should definitely take a look at this one. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: Aside from minor intentional flaws, such as intentional editing errors, the Blu-ray's picture impresses with decent image sharpness, a very warm, somewhat over-stylized color scheme, and well-adjusted contrasts. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix sounds very lively, especially during the lead-heavy finale, with the surround channels being put to good use. Dialogue, on the other hand, seems very centrally mixed and is a little less harmoniously blended into the action on the German version than it is on the English soundtrack. Good!

Extras: In addition to a short interview with Pedro Armendáriz Jr. who died shortly after filming, the Blu-ray also has the trailer for the film, a decent promo making of (approx. 15:43 min.), as well as some occasionally very amusing cut scenes (approx. 22:34 min.) to offer. Good!

Conclusion: Casa de mi Padre is a wonderfully absurd western soap parody that provides some really good laughs with all sorts of absurdities, overly wooden acting, deliberate editing mistakes and probably the weirdest sex scene in recent memory. If you like Will Ferrell's humor, you should get your money's worth here as well. The Blu-ray of the film is technically well implemented and the bonus material has some very amusing cut scenes to offer. Recommended

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp