The chip on my shoulder wasn't a nacho. It was Jack Black. I never liked nachos or Jack Black. I thought he was awful in "King Kong." I still don't like nachos very much, but I like "Nacho Libre" -- and now Jack Black -- a lot.

	Jack Black is a lucha libre wrestler in "Nacho Libre." Click photo for larger image. 'Nacho Libre' Rating: PG for some rough action, crude humor and mild profanity. Starring: Jack Black, Hector Jimenez, Ana de la Reguera. Director: Jared Hess. Web site: www.nacholibre.com Family Film Guide

With wild-and-crazy guys from the Belushi-Sandler-Black Over the Top School of Comedy, it's all about the director: Does he contain their lava or let the volcanic suffocate the comic?

Jared Hess does the former, as he did two years ago in "Napoleon Dynamite," and the highly entertaining result is an exemplary bit of good, (pretty) clean, farcical family fun, at the expense of that less-than-fine Mexican art known as lucha libre -- free-style studio wrestling.

Folks south of the border take this "sport" seriously, especially in Oaxaca, where pudgy Ignacio (Jack Black) -- nicknamed Nacho -- works as a cook in the monastery-orphanage where he was raised. The food is lousy because the monastery is broke and can't afford groceries. Pretty soon his orphans' nutritional intake will be reduced to a bowl of steam. So Nacho, the chef by day, takes it upon himself to secretly become a luchador by night, and thus bring in some big pesos for the food budget.

Further motivation is his desire to nourish not only the sad-faced orphans but also the angelically beautiful Sister Encarnacion (Ana de la Reguera), for whom Nacho -- like Jimmy Carter -- has lust in his heart. Chastity is a must despite such lust, especially since the Church disapproves of lucha libre almost as much as it disapproves of wooing nuns.

In any case, Nacho can't go it alone. Our overweight hero needs a tag-team partner and finds a perfectly complementary one in the form of El Esqueleto ("The Skeleton"), played by the skeletally hilarious Hector Jimenez. In a film without any stars except Black, Jimenez's casting is most admirable and remarkable: He's a wonderful comic find, with his whiny delivery and impossibly huge, crooked teeth -- unveiled to great comic effect in a slow, silly smile.

Black's fearfully unfit physique is enhanced by absurdly unflattering unitard tights that fit him like the skin on an overcooked kielbasa. He and Jimenez do much of their own gladiatorial stunt work in the ridiculously funny ring scenes. If fans of real lucha libre think this movie does not pay proper respect to Mexico's revered pop-cultural pastime, they're right. But that's like complaining that hula-hooping and slam-dancing don't get respect. (My favorite moment of the cartoon violence is a villainous thug-wrestler getting hit with corn-on-the-cob in the eyeball. The Three Stooges would approve.)

Much of what's funny, however, is in the nuances of Black's performance. Director Hess lets him and Jimenez take their time, slowing down the hectic action and setting up laughs based on facial expressions and dialogue delivery as well as sight gags. This Nickelodeon production was written by the Hess (Jared and wife Jerusha) team with Mike White, who gave us "The School of Rock" as well as "Napoleon Dynamite."

Some may consider the film racist in terms of its Latino stereotypes and accents, but one man's racism is another's legit ethnic comedy. Nacho tells Esqueleto that they never win because Esqueleto doesn't believe in God. Esqueleto thinks about it a second before replying, "We never ween because jew are FAT!"