Instructions Not Included
An Acapulco beach bum (Eugenio Derbez, who also directed and co-wrote the script) has a baby girl dumped on him from one of his flings, so, naturally, he moves to Hollywood and works as a stuntman to raise the kid, while refusing to learn English. When the child is 7 (and now played by Loreto Peralta), her mother (Jessica Lindsey) returns and wants custody. This Spanish-language comedy's original title translates as “Returns Not Accepted,” so the English subtitles may be no more accurate than that; what comes through is a sloppy melange of unpersuasive melodrama, amateurish mugging, unfunny comedy and mawkish sentimentality, a sort of boneheaded Kramer vs. Kramer. Derbez, a major star in Latin America, has all the personal charm and comedic gifts of Italy's Roberto Benigni—i.e. none whatsoever.
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