Actor Ken Marino makes his big-screen directorial debut via 2017’s How to Be a Latin Lover. As a younger man, Maximo (Eugenio Derbez) used his looks and charisma to seduce women, and he eventually married Peggy (Renee Taylor), a much older lady he nabbed for her money.

Life as a trophy husband lasts 25 years before Peggy trades in Maximo for a younger model and leaves him homeless. Despite his paunchy physique, Maximo attempts to regain his mojo so he can find a new benefactor – and he uses his estranged sister Sara’s (Salma Hayek) 10-year-old son Hugo (Raphael Alejandro) as “bait”.

Going into Lover, I expected a slew of sight gags that revolved around the incongruity of Maximo’s “sex god” attitude and his sagging middle aged body. The film promised lots of stabs at humor in this vein as well as jokes about horny elderly women and a form of inevitable lesson learned/happy ending.

Some of this proves true, but I will admit Lover goes for less broad shtick than I anticipated. While it throws out slapstick silliness at times, it usually shoots from a more subdued sense of humor.

While I appreciate that, I can’t claim it results in a particularly entertaining movie. Lover boasts a sweeter tone than I anticipated but it remains less than enthralling.

Some of the problems come from the film’s running time. Going into Lover, I assumed it’d run about 95 minutes – standard “comedy length”.

Nope! Instead, Lover plods for almost two hours, a span far beyond what the story needs.

Indeed, the extended running time does nothing more than sap the viewer’s energy. The movie dallies with unnecessary sequences and doesn’t use its cinematic real estate well, so it gives us a tale that feels like it should end a good 20 minutes before it finally concludes.

Marino clearly cracked open his Rolodex to pad out the cast of Lover, as it includes a mix of recognizable names/faces. In addition to Hayek, the film features Michael Cera, Raquel Welch, Linda Lavin, and Kristen Bell.

Heck, Lover boasts no fewer than four different Robs: Lowe, Riggle, Corddry and Huebel. What, Reiner, Schneider and Zombie were too busy?

Some of the actors churn a little amusement from their parts, but there’s only so much that can add. Lover remains so trite and leaden that it doesn’t allow much room for the performers to elevate the material.

Even with all those notables, Lover sticks with Derbez as its focal point, and he doesn’t carry the show, partly because he finds himself stuck somewhere between sincere and slapstick. Derbez never quite decides whether to concentrate on his character’s shallow/sleazy side or to make him more human, and this lack of focus makes his performance as muddled as the rest of the movie.

It may sound like faint praise, but I do admit Lover fares better than I expected. That’s mainly because I figured it’d give us a sub-moronic Deuce Bigalow vibe. While I’m happy Lover aspires to something more dimensional, it simply lacks much entertainment value.

How to Be a Latin Lover appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie offered a stellar visual presentation.

From start to finish, sharpness looked immaculate. Virtually no softness appeared, so the film looked concise and well-defined.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and edge enhancement was absent. I also failed to detect any source flaws.

In terms of colors, the movie featured a subdued palette that favored a golden tone. Across the board, the hues looked positive within these stylistic conceits, so they showed nice clarity.

Blacks were dark and deep, while shadows appeared concise and smooth. I thought the movie consistently looked great.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Lover seemed fine but it didn’t excel because of a lack of ambition. Like most comedies, the movie featured a limited soundfield that strongly favored the forward channels. It showed nice stereo spread to the music as well as some general ambience from the sides.

Panning was decent, and the surrounds usually kicked in basic reinforcement. Not much happened here, so most of the movie stayed with limited imaging.

Audio quality appeared good. Speech was natural and distinct, with no issues related to edginess or intelligibility. Effects sounded clean and accurate, with good fidelity and no signs of distortion.

Music was perfectly fine, as the score and songs showed positive dimensionality. This track was good enough for a “B-“ but didn’t particularly impress.

A few extras fill out the set, and we launch with an audio commentary from director Ken Marino, producer Ben Odell and editor John Daigle. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story/characters, cast and performances, editing and deleted scenes, sets and locations, music, cinematography and related domains.

A light-hearted track, the participants joke with each other a lot of the time, but not to an annoying degree. Instead, they mostly give us good notes about the movie, especially in regard to the copious amounts of deleted footage. Despite a few lulls, the track works well.

Two featurettes follow. Show Me Your Sexy runs 17 minutes, 35 seconds and offers info from Odell, Marino, writers Chris Spain and Jon Zack, and actors Eugenio Derbez, Raphael Alejandro, and Salma Hayek.

“Sexy” looks at the film’s origins and development, story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, and Marino’s impact on the production. It becomes a better than expected look at the film – while it lacks great depth, it still covers its topics efficiently.

A Little Help From My Friends lasts 11 minutes, 10 seconds and features Marino, Odell, Derbez, and actors Kristin Bell, Linda Lavin, Rob Lowe, Weird Al Yankovic, Renee Taylor, Rob Riggle, Rob Huebel, Omar Chaparro, and Vadhir Derbez. We hear about the supporting cast in this mildly informative program.

23 Deleted and Extended Scenes occupy a total of 33 minutes, 39 seconds. Most of these flesh out various characters, such as pieces that let us see more of younger versions of Maximo.

Some additional gags show up and various roles receive more exposition. A few laughs result but nothing crucial appears, and given the movie’s excessive length as released, I’m glad none of these made the final cut.

The disc opens with ads for Everybody Loves Somebody, The Big Sick, Beatriz at Dinner and Instructions Not Included. No trailer for Lover appears here.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Lover. It contains the same extras as the Blu-ray.

Due to its nice cast, How to Be a Latin Lover boasts the occasional moment of mirth. However, the movie runs far too long for something in the light comedy genre and it doesn’t develop into anything consistently engaging. The Blu-ray offers excellent visuals along with acceptable audio and a mostly useful collection of bonus materials. Lover brings us a mediocre film.