By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Ken Marino
Cast: Eugenio Derbez, Salma Hayek, Rob Lowe, Linda Lavin, Raquel Welch, Kristen Bell, Raphael Alejandro, Mckenna Grace, Rob Hueble, Rob Riggle, Omar Chaparro, Renée Taylor, Rob Corddry and Michael Cera.
Rating: Good.
Ken Marino, makes his directorial feature film and teams up with Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez, who´s “Instructions Not Included” was a big hit in the box office in 2013. Together they bring “How To Be A Latin Lover” and it brings funny and good results.
The movie tells the story of Maximo (Eugenio Derbez) a man who made a career by seducing older rich women who has being dumped by his wife after 25 years of marriage.
Maximo is surprised about this and decides to move in with this estranged sister Sara (Salma Hayek) and his nephew Hugo (Raphael Alejandro).
In that time he will learn about the real meaning of what family is all about and this will also represent an opportunity of for Maximo to bond with his nephew and to cherish all what life con offer.
Ken Marino´s debut as a director did really cause a good impression in me and honestly I was not having any expectations of the movie. Honestly I kind had a misjudgment that it would be a silly comedy with over the top moments but once again I was wrong.
The performance by Eugenio Derbez as Maximo is hilarious and at the same time it´s moving. At the beginning I had the feeling that you don´t feel anything for his character and of course he is portrayed as a bum but then when the second act of the film starts, it´s when we route for him.
Salma Hayek is wonderful as well in this role and her scene during the second act of the film is by far one of the best ones of this film.
The flaws that I saw in the movie that I noticed was that by moments was too predictable. Like I have mentioned before in this genre you can get away with it and at the same time this genre is generous in allowing some levels of predictability; but like everything in life there are limits and this was not the exception.
The characters that I feel there were useless were both Rob Riggle´s, who is always the same character in every single movie I have seen and I hope he does something different and Rob Huebel´s who is over the top and both of them are not funny at all and the worst is that they both make a huge effort on doing so but they fail.
Despite of the flaws “How To Be A Latin Lover” had I think that is a really funny and entertaining film. At the same time is moving and we saw this in “Instructions Not Included” and Derbez is one actor who knows how to portray this type of characters and combines both comedy and drama in here.
“How To Be A Latin Lover” is guarantee of having a good time and I hope you have that feeling once you see it.