Will Ferrell Makes A Mexican Crime Spoof Because He Can

I don't know much about the business side of entertainment. I assume it's all very scientific, with crucial decisions made by an elite few who use vast amounts of facts and figures from diligent test marketing to deliver only the scientifically quantifiable best possible entertainment to us plebes, who couldn't begin to comprehend the awesome level of responsibility with which these shadowy figures are tasked.

And then there's Will Ferrell, whose business plan seems to boil down to "doing whatever the hell he wants." Sometimes that means producing Eastbound & Down for HBO, sometimes that means doing voluntary local TV spots for Old Milwaukee (recently shared here by Devin). And sometimes that means making a narcocinema style Mexican crime film. In Spanish. Because he can.

Casa de mi Padre might seem to mainstream audiences like a retread of stuff like Nacho Libre, but the second season of Eastbound & Down gave me the feeling that Ferrell and Gary Sanchez Productions absorbed some of that weird Mexican drug film subculture - stuff like Chrysler 3000 and La Banda del Carro Rojo - and this doubtlessly hard-to-market thing was the result. Ferrell's movies can often be hit or miss, but on paper it always feels as if his heart is in the right place. That place of amusing himself first, and getting away with whatever he can.

The film opens March 16th, and co-stars Nick Offerman, that fella everyone loves on Parks and Recreation.