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It has the ingredients to be a great comedy: Eugenio Derbez, an enormous star in Mexico, has superb comic timing alternating between over-the-top slapstick and wordplay; a director, Ken Marino, who’s a gifted comic actor himself; lots of Marino’s funny friends in small roles. Unfortunately, it doesn’t add up. Derbez plays Max, a mostly benign lothario trying to land an older woman so he’ll be taken care of forever. It’s a decent idea, but Derbez is sunk by a script that has, at most, one broad laugh (a swimming pool/shoe polish gag), and a few chuckles. Marino’s direction has the buoyancy of a lead balloon, and the million cameos and bit parts are laugh-free; it’s hard to make Kristen Bell, Rob Corddry, Rob Huebel, Rob Riggle, Rob Lowe and Michael Cera a drag, but Marino pulls it off. The one redeeming plot point—Max’s relationship with his estranged sister Sara (Salma Hayek, underused as always) and her 10-year-old son Hugo (charming Raphael Alejandro)—is undermined by its constant I’ve-seen-this-before feel, but Alejandro is so sweet the movie nearly pulls it off. Seriously though, why is this movie nearly two hours long?
Official Site: www.lionsgate.com/movies/howtobealatinlover
Director: Ken Marino
Producer: Eugenio Derbez, Benjamin Odell and Mike Upton
Cast: Eugenio Derbez, Salma Hayek, Rob Lowe, Kristen Bell, Raquel Welch, Rob Corddry, Rob Riggle, Raphael Alejandro, Renée Taylor, Rob Huebel, Michaela Watkins, Linda Lavin and Michael Cera
Director: Ken Marino
Producer: Eugenio Derbez, Benjamin Odell and Mike Upton
Cast: Eugenio Derbez, Salma Hayek, Rob Lowe, Kristen Bell, Raquel Welch, Rob Corddry, Rob Riggle, Raphael Alejandro, Renée Taylor, Rob Huebel, Michaela Watkins, Linda Lavin and Michael Cera
