Gotta say, most Mexican comedy leaves me completely cold. Cultural thing, I guess; just seems so infantile. But I've been a major Derbez fan for over 20 years, since the days when I used to stay up to watch Al derecho y al Derbez on UNI. And he doesn't disappoint here, either. Latin Lover has his acid commentary on American culture, his trademark self-mocking (nobody can ring in a totally committed performance of an essentially reprehensible character like Eugenio, and make you love him in spite of yourself), and his wild, eccentric sense of humour. He's the Monty Python of Mexico, and that's a very good thing. Latin Lover is basically a Mexican movie made (mostly) in English. They even film "American" scenes in Mexican locations, which is awesome! How many times do we see Hollywood movies trying to pass off American or Canadian settings as other countries? Eugenio strikes again. That said, people who aren't familiar with Mexican comedic conventions will find some things "hokey". (I assure you the comedy of your nation is just as hokey, you've just been trained to accept it.) Those same people will probably also fail to note how groundbreaking Derbez is, with his adult-pitched gags, his razor-sharp irony, and his calm, cerebral delivery. People should have to watch 30 hours of non-Derbez Mexican comedy before they're allowed to have an opinion of Eugenio Derbez. He's a great comic by any standard; compared to typical Mexican fare he's a freakin' genius. Anyway, see the movie. It's fluff. It's meant to be fluff. It's talented, entertaining fluff. Have fun. Don't take it so seriously. You'll have fun. Oh, and to the woman who rated it low because "so much of the movie is in Spanish and I don't speak Spanish"...The Spanish bits are subtitled. All of them. In English.So that's my advice: accept another culture's comedic conventions; relish Eugenio Derbez' respect for his audience and fellow performers; and, uh... learn to read. And you'll like this movie.

10/6/17. More like 7 1/2 stars. This was such a cute movie about family and an aging Don Juan who thinks he still has it all. When he realizes he no longer can charm an older woman to marry him and financially care for him he ends up on the doorstep of his long-suffering sister, played by Hayek. it's a funny movie and fun to watch. Worth catching.

I was very disappointed as much of the movie is in Spanish. There is a mix of English and Spanish, but it seemed the interactions between brother and sister were all done in Spanish. This pretty much ruined the movie for me as I do not speak/understand Spanish. Aside from the above, the movie was quirky and cute, especially Hugo the nephew. He actually made the movie and all interactions with him were in English. Maximo is the uncle who has lived his last 25 years being married to an older rich woman. She ends cheating on Maximo and he eventually gets kicked out. With a prenuptial agreement signed, Maximo ends up money-less with his only opportunity to crash in on his sister. Hugo is her son, and the adventures soon begin.

"How to Be a Latin Lover" is a really new film from this year (2017) and at 115 minutes also a pretty long work. The director has several Emmy nominations, but the two writers are relatively inexperienced, but for that they did a good job. The story does include a bit of family drama, but it is really all about the comedy here from start to finish. Some bad guys, some good guys, some side-plots, some romance etc. basically all you would expect. The lead actor here is Eugenio Derbez and I must admit I have never heard of him before despite his really prolific and successful career. After all he plays the character in a film with Selma Hayek, Rob Lowe, Kristen Bell and Michael Cera and that's quite something. And I would say he did a decent job overall, even if he isn't really part in my favorite scene, the fake cop scene which was really hilarious. Oh yeah, Mckenna Grace is in here too and she deserves a mention too, not just because she plays her part very well, but also because she really shines in Gifted, another new film right now in which she plays a considerably bigger role. But back to this one here. Hayek's character, who was somewhat the only "normal" character really was a bit obsolete at times, also with her romance part, but I guess they needed here for the family conflict thingey, which was among the weaker parts of the film, but still okay I guess. And there is no denying how amazing she looks for her age. No surprise she plays a character a decade younger than she is. Same for Derbez, who also doesn't look his age.What I really liked about the main character is how he did not get together with Bell's character as you could have guessed at times in some kind of fairy tale story, but that he stays who he is and always has been when we see his new girlfriend at the very end. I also liked how they kept it low in terms of romance and even if people were falling in love on several occasions, it never felt that this is all it was about and that's definitely a good thing as it helped avoiding schmaltz permanently. All the actors did a pretty good jib here, even the ones I don't like that much in general and there's more than one fitting this description. I guess it was my loss that I have not come across Derbez so far, but I will keep my eyes open for him to appear in other stuff I am going to check out in the future. There are some jokes/moments that aren't working out really, but that's the case in every comedy and I am sure it also has a lot to do with my subjective perception. As a whole, I still give the film a thumbs-up because I believe the positive is more frequent than the negative and because I believe there is a good deal of creativity in the script here. Go see it. It also does not have too many lengths, if any at all, which is a good achievement for a running time like this, especially for comedies.