Ever since first seeing him on the short lived sitcom Rob, I have been a fan of Eugenio Durbez. His previous film that he also directed Instrutions Not Included was excellent so I was obviously interested in his latest film How To Be A Latin Lover costarring Salma Hayek, Rob Low, Kristen Bell, Raquel Welch, Rob Corddry, and Raphael Alejandro with Ken Marino in the director’s chair, but could it offer up the expected laughs or will it be past its prime?

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How To Be A Latin Lover follows aging Latin lover Maximo who is suddenly dumped by the older woman he married for money, he moves in with his estranged sister Sara and her 10-year-old son, Hugo. Determined to return to the lap of luxury, Maximo uses Hugo to meet a rich widow—and learns that love and trust must be earned. I was expecting a movie that was just ridiculous and while there are some of those elements here it was a lot more of a streamlined comedy than expected. This is one of those fun movies that is filled with laughs and heart that while it may not be breaking down the barriers in comedy still brings some refreshing fun.

 

All the cast are great with Derbez leading the charge and doing a great job as always. His usual charm and comedic timing is perfection and he is still able to offer up some of the more dramatic moments to keep the character deeper than it might have been otherwise. Hayek is a lot of fun here as well bringing some fun laughs to the heart of her character while being the glue holding most things together. Bell has one of the funniest parts of the whole film with running cat gag that had me laughing out loud every time she shows up on screen. The biggest surprise was Welch who is great in a smaller role, but the direction of her character was pure comedy gold. Most of the laughs are pretty straight forward and silly, including an ongoing gag of someone getting run over that remains funny every time.

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I really had a great time with this movie and hope we get to see more form Derbez in the world of comedy soon, but I am also interested to see what else he has up his sleeve. Grab your copy of How To Be A Latin Lover available now on Digital HD and then on Blu-ray and DVD August 15th from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.