Casa de mi Padre (House of my Father) (Blu-ray) (2012)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Featurette-Making Of-The Making of Casa de mi Padre (15:43) Deleted Scenes-10 Deleted Scenes (Play all or Individually) (19:43) Music Video-'Fight For Love' music video (3:20) TV Spots-3 Fake TV Ads (Play all or Individually) (3:00) Interviews-Cast-Pedro Armendáriz, Jr. Final Interview (3:37) Theatrical Trailer-Original Theatrical Trailer (2:06)
Rating
Year Of Production	2012
Running Time	84:35
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Barry Levinson
Studio Distributor	Madman Madman Entertainment	Starring	Will Ferrell Diego Luna Michael Wallach Pedro Armendáriz, Jr. Kristen Connolly Genesis Rodriguez Christopher Denham Jane McNeill Kether Donohue Andy Stahl
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Marcelo Zarvos

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	Spanish DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (3254Kb/s) Spanish Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English (Burned In)	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, For fake products!
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, A fake ad by Grizzly Adams for cigarettes!

     Casa de mi Padre would have to be Will Ferrell's least known movie. This attempt to make a spoof film for Spanish-speaking Americans accustomed to viewing Mexican telenovelas misfired somewhat in 2012, and I suspect the reason why is because the intended audience couldn't appreciate the premise of the film being an homage to cheaply-made Spanish language soap dramas. The other reason would be simply because it is in Spanish. Foreign language films are known box-office poison usually with only Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Life Is Beautiful and Hero grossing over $US50 million at the US box office. (Sourced from boxofficemojo.com here.)

     Will Ferrell plays Armando Alvarez, a simpleton who works on his father's ranch. His brother, Raul (Diego Luna) is considered the smart one in the family, and he's headed home to help out his father (Pedro Armendáriz, Jr.) at the ranch with his debts. If it sounds simple enough, soon we learn that Raul is a drug dealer trying to move in on the Onza's (Gael Garcia Bernal) territory, and with the American Drug Enforcement Agency getting involved, you know a war is coming!

     In this homage to cheap Mexican soap dramas, the film contains deliberate continuity errors, cheap rear projection, stuffed animals instead of real ones and even a mannequin in the famous love scene between Armando and Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez), Raul's fiancé. Roger Ebert stated in his review of this movie that the 84 minutes runtime was "quite long enough", and in a sense it is because the premise of the film being a cheaply made soap drama is the main gag here, and there aren't enough gags throughout to keep you consistently laughing.

     If you want to enjoy this film, try not to take it too seriously. As can be seen, quite evidently the actors here were having a good time...you even see this in the extras!

Video

     Be aware that Casa di me Padre is a spoof of cheap Mexican telenovelas (i.e. soap dramas that, unlike American ones such as Days of our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful, usually wind-up after one season). For this reason, the image transfer looks soft.

     The film’s aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. It is 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

     Sharpness is evident in close-ups, sometimes there are instances of deliberate blurring for comedic effect.

     The colour scheme is awash with a golden hue all over, so that it's clear we are in the desert and the film is a spoof-western set on a Mexican ranch.

     There are no deliberate film artefacts, like in the grindhouse features Planet Terror and Death Proof from 2007 however, again for artistic reasons, we get over-exposed scenes that are too bright, especially the scene where Armando enters the bar! There are no compression issues either, the average video bitrate is 30 mbps.

     Unfortunately, subtitles are burnt-in in English! (i.e. there is no option to turn the subtitles on or off.)

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio transfer balances directional sound, sound effects and clarity of dialogue very well.

     The main audio tracks are both in Spanish. The default track is a LPCM 2.0 stereo track encoded at 1536 kbps. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is encoded at 3733 kbps and is more dynamic than the stereo track.

     The dialogue is clear and the audio is synchronised.

     The score for the film was composed by Andrew Feltenstein and John Nau. Christina Aguilera provided the title track, Casa de mi Padre, which opens the film during the opening credits, while two songs are performed by Will Ferrell; Fight for Love with Genesis Rodriguez and Yo No Se (I Don't Know) with Efren Ramirez and Adrian Martinez. Yo No Se is a particularly funny musical number!

     The film opens with some nice surround effects of the desert, with wind rustling in the back speakers. The sound of gunfire whizzing across speakers is well done too.

     The Subwoofer sees action in the gunfire scenes and the musical numbers.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

The Making of Casa de mi Padre (15:43)

     Will Ferrell, Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, and Genesis Rodriguez ham it up in their interviews, which are intended to be funny in the same way the film tries to be. Matt Piedmont, the director, is often the brunt of the jokes.

10 Deleted Scenes (Play all or Individually) (19:43)

     These 10 deleted scenes vary from being serious to being silly. Some scenes are extended scenes. They are all presented in high definition, but with a timecode at the bottom.

'Fight For Love' music video (3:20)

     This is a deleted extended musical number scene from the love scene between Armando and Sonia in the movie, but cut for time.

3 Fake TV Ads (Play all or Individually) (3:00)

     These three faux product commercials feature actors Will Ferrell, Diego Luna, and Nick Offerman in character selling beer and cigarettes. They can be viewed together or separately.

Pedro Armendáriz, Jr. Final Interview (3:37)

     Pedro Armendáriz, Jr. plays Señor Álvarez, father to Armando and Raúl. Sadly, he passed away after filming. This interview is done with deliberate bad sound.

Theatrical Trailer (2:06)

    The last extra is the theatrical trailer.

    The Region A Blu-ray of Casa de mi Padre also includes an audio commentary with director Matt Piedmont and screenwriter Andrew Steele, but does not contain the LPCM 2.0 stereo audio track. The Region B United Kingdom Blu-ray is identical to the Region B Australian release. In my opinion, the difference in specifications doesn't delineate a great difference in the quality of Blu-ray releases across regions.

     According to IMDb, the opening voice-over by Kris Kristofferson, "If it sounds Spanish, man, that's what it is; it's a Spanish movie," echoes the spoken opening of his version of "Me and Bobby McGee," which he wrote in 1970: "If it sounds country, man, that's what it is; it's a country song." This is the last serious scene in the film, so the opening voice-over works in challenging audience expectation! For me, Casa de mi Padre isn't as bad the critical consensus suggests, however I agree that it would have made a much better on-going series of Saturday Night live type sketches rather than a feature film.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall