Napoleon Dynamite

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 1, 2004, 4:13 am

Has anyone else seen this besides me?

Plot Outline: An alienated teen decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small town high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home

Preston, Idaho's most curious resident, Napoleon Dynamite (Heder), lives with his grandma and his 32-year-old brother (who cruises chat rooms for ladies) and works to help his best friend, Pedro (Efren Ramirez), snatch the Student Body President title from mean teen Summer Wheatley (Haylie Duff).

What an odd movie. The movie involves the nerdiest nerd characters ever brought to the big screen. There's something about Napoleon's little mexican buddy that saved the film from being a bust for me.

I can't recommend even renting this movie because you may completely hate it. On the other hand, if you can download it, try it out. It's pretty deadpan humor.

The only actor I recognized was the girl that plays Napoleons potential girlfriend. She's the little kid from Waterworld.

Napoleon's pick up line:

Napoleon Dynamite: I see you're drinking 1% milk. Is that because you think you're fat? Because you're not. You could probably be drinking whole milk.

Teacher: Your current event, Napoleon.

Napoleon Dynamite: Last week, Japanese scientists explaced... placed explosive detonators at the bottom of Lake Lochness to blow Nessy out of the water. Sir Godfrey of the Nessy Alliance summoned the help of Scotland's local wizards to cast a protective spell over the lake and its local residents and all those who seek for the peaceful existence of our underwater ally.

57/100

-not your typical comedy
-may feel more sad for the characters than laughing at them
-starts and ends without much of a bang
-the expressionless mexican guy that Napoleon befriends could almost be the center of the story
-a few good 80's songs in the movie

Rivera Bladestrike · December 1, 2004, 12:55 pm

the stage scene was what brought it back for me, otherwise it most definately would have been a bust.

Deward · Post by **Deward** » December 23, 2004, 3:16 pm

I thought the movie was hilarious and I highly recommend it to anyone. The humor was definitely different and very subtle but hell the whole movie was different. There were no huge glamorized characters that fill the current crap available out there. This is a movie representing the weird, friendless types that every school has. One of the best and most subtly creative movies I have seen in a long time.

The whole election aspect is really a side plot to what the guy's life is like on a daily basis. The mexican is pretty funny but only because they actually have characters that are real not real made up.

Kylere · Post by **Kylere** » January 4, 2005, 8:13 pm

Watched it last night, this is a John Hughes movie without any of the brat pack in it, based in the sticks.

'Nuff Said

noel · Post by **noel** » January 4, 2005, 8:21 pm

I watched it more out of curiosity than anything else. I agree with Rivera, the movie without the stage scene is a total bust. The song choice for the stage scene was fucking spectacular. For those that don't know, it was Jamiroquai's 'Canned Heat'.

Generally, the whole thing was pretty overhyped, and that could have been part of the problem. I had high expectations when I sat down to watch it, and I was like... WTF? for the first 3/4 of the movie.

In other news, I hear the Anchorman DVD is spectacular, especially the outtakes and deleted scenes.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » January 4, 2005, 8:30 pm

noel wrote:
Generally, the whole thing was pretty overhyped, and that could have been part of the problem. I had high expectations when I sat down to watch it, and I was like... WTF? for the first 3/4 of the movie.

You obviously didn't read our reviews before watching it if you had high expectations!

For those that don't know, it was Jamiroquai's 'Canned Heat'.

I like Jamiroquai's music. Virtual Insanity is a great song.

Ebumar · Post by **Ebumar** » January 4, 2005, 8:40 pm

Such a fucking funny movie. Seriously goes in my top 10 instantly.

GOSH SUCH AN IDIOT

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » January 5, 2005, 4:56 pm

Damn, just finished the movie. Funniest movie i seen this year so far

. Definitely one for the DVD Collection.
Everything was just so perfectly 80'es wierd, mixed with rural small town. And Napoleon rocks. Was expecting Wierd Al's That Boy Could Dance somewhere

.

Btw, was in the only person that thought mangina when LaFawnduh showed up? Was so sure that poor Kip guy was gonna get it the hard way, his whole character was just too gay to let him be happy.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 8, 2005, 10:38 pm

Watched this with my girlfriend, another friend, and my cousin last night. We all want the 2 hours we spent watching it back. thats about all I have to say.

Keverian FireCry · Post by **Keverian FireCry** » January 9, 2005, 7:04 am

you suck at watching movies

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 9, 2005, 4:44 pm

Seriously,

If I wanted to get some insight into society and such, I would take a philosophy or psych class. That is the problem I run into with movies like this and Lost in translation.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » January 9, 2005, 4:47 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:Watched this with my girlfriend, another friend, and my cousin last night. We all want the 2 hours we spent watching it back. thats about all I have to say.

Napoleon Dynamite isn't a Friday night movie to watch with your GF and other friends. It's a Tuesday night movie to watch when you're sick, have the runs and have a lots to do at work the next day. You'll enjoy it more then, not with people around on a Friday night.

I mean, would you watch The English Patient with your GF and friends on a Friday Night when you're all fired up about the weekend? Nay!

Reviewers may have to start categorizing movies for days of the week.

Zamtuk · Post by **Zamtuk** » January 9, 2005, 11:50 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:If I wanted to get some insight into society and such, I would take a philosophy or psych class. That is the problem I run into with movies like this and Lost in translation.

wow

you liked fast and the furious didn't you?

Akaran_D · Post by **Akaran_D** » January 10, 2005, 1:00 am

I thought FandTF was a fun movie
The ads for this movie make me want to gag.

/entertainment value, flashy lights, big explosions, halfway decent plot, good laughs, and I'm in.

Kylere · Post by **Kylere** » January 10, 2005, 2:10 am

People that think the Fast and the Furious was a good movie are handy, I can skip trying to talk to them and move on to people with a clue.

Rivera Bladestrike · Post by **Rivera Bladestrike** » January 10, 2005, 3:26 am

Fast and the Furious is all that is wrong with the world. The movie is shallow as fuck and accurately portrays what the public cares about. Explosions and hot girls. The latter I'm ok with of course. But seriously, some movies out there actually have meaning and passion to them rather than the shit thats been coming out. You can usually find the good movies number 5 or 6 on the grossing list for the week under a bunch of shitty blockbusters.

Lynks · Post by **Lynks** » January 10, 2005, 9:26 am

Fast and the Furious reminds me of those guys that drive around 2am speeding down the road trying to pick up girls with the sound of their loud engine.

Does that even work?

Fash · Post by **Fash** » January 10, 2005, 10:14 am

Lynks wrote:Fast and the Furious reminds me of those guys that drive around 2am speeding down the road trying to pick up girls with the sound of their loud engine.

Does that even work?

They wouldn't do it if it didn't work.... they get hot chicks, who are all dumb as rocks. Someone's gotta love the stupid ones.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 10, 2005, 10:41 am

Oh yeah, thats right. I am ignorant in the company of you great folks because I don't jump on the "oh, this movie is different, so I love it" bandwagon along with you oddballs

Deward · Post by **Deward** » January 10, 2005, 12:29 pm

This is a definitely love or hate it movie. I loved it and will keep it in my top ten. I don't see any relation to Lost in Translation...I rented LoT and turned it off after 30 minutes. I got farther than that with Battlefield Earth (worst movie evah!!)

I was pretty sure that Lafawndah was a guy in drag too. They never did prove otherwise. I loved the Time Machine scene.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » January 10, 2005, 12:31 pm

I maintain my assumption that Akaran is the every-american, the total average joe, that mass market appeal is modelled after. He's like a dousing rod for commercial success.

Akaran_D · Post by **Akaran_D** » January 10, 2005, 1:13 pm

I appreciate your philosophy, Dregor, and I'll even go on to say that you may actually be right to a degree.

I hated the Royal Tennenbaums. I usually dislike "artsy" movies - though I enjoyed Lolita.

I love movies like Aliens, Predator, AvP, Resident Evil 1 AND 2, Ghostbusters 1 and 2, all of the Indy Jones, I even liked both Episode 1 and 2. I thought the Spawn movie was fairly cool and the Lara Croft movie was pathetically interesting (and you know you'd hit it if you had the chance). I enjoy comedies like Dodgeball & Meet the Parents, not so much a fan of chick flicks (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Wedding Singer), but I also dislike South Park, Dave Chapel(sp), and I hated Seinfield with a fiery passion. I think that Buffy, Angel and Dead Like Me were and still are three of the best canceled shows on TV; CSI is amusing and Scrubs is a great way to spend a half hour. Survivor, Fear Factor and the like are horrible; but Drawn Together was a laugh riot. Friends catered to the lowest common denominator; Deep Space 9 was interesting enough for the overarching plot (but the Sisco the Savior thing was crapola).

I am diverse enough to enjoy a variety of things, from dark humor to sci-fi and drama, but in all honestly, if I'm not even remotely impressed by the advertisements, I won't waste what money I have to spend on movie tickets.

Movies for me are a place to go for an instant quick fix of humor or violence, depending on what I'm in the mood for at the time. If I want to sit down and think, I'll go analyze CNN and the news nets for another hour or two a day.

So if this makes me the average joe schmoe, well.
I liked that show too.

Fash · Post by **Fash** » January 10, 2005, 2:02 pm

Akaran_D wrote:I usually dislike "artsy" movies - though I enjoyed Lolita.

I don't consider Lolita to be 'artsy'.... it's really more of a soft-core porno..... that i own on dvd.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » January 10, 2005, 2:10 pm

I watched Dynamite sober the first time, and laughed a decent amount for a low budget film.

I watched Dynamite fucked up the second time, laughed my ass off, and had a sore stomach the next day from laughing so much.

If you didn't like this movie, you hated the eighties, were a geek in high school and it is too painful to be reminded of your own days in school, and you didn't drink/smoke/inhale enough to be entertained by it.

So, my review of the movie is: See it, but drink/smoke/inhale before, during, and after it.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » January 10, 2005, 2:41 pm

I should kick your ass for calling The Wedding Singer a chick flick.

Akaran_D · Post by **Akaran_D** » January 10, 2005, 2:43 pm

hahah

noel · Post by **noel** » January 10, 2005, 5:24 pm

The one thing that did make me snicker pretty hard in Napolean Dynamite was the scene where he's wearing the 'Rick's College' shirt.

For those that don't know, Rick's College is a 2-year mormon school that preps you to get into BYU.

Zamtuk · Post by **Zamtuk** » January 10, 2005, 5:41 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:Oh yeah, thats right. I am ignorant in the company of you great folks because I don't jump on the "oh, this movie is different, so I love it" bandwagon along with you oddballs

I wouldn't limit 'you great folks' to just vv, as much as anyone not hypnotized by shallow storylines with little to no plot, loud sounds, big explosions, and horrid acting. You are a marketing puppet.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 10, 2005, 5:50 pm

Ok, ok. I understand now that since I disagree with you I must be a retard. I like a wide array of movies, am actually not into action and explosions all that much. But you can make all the assumptions you want, because it doesn't seem to be effective to try and reason with you.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » January 10, 2005, 8:57 pm

noel wrote:The one thing that did make me snicker pretty hard in Napolean Dynamite was the scene where he's wearing the 'Rick's College' shirt.

For those that don't know, Rick's College is a 2-year mormon school that preps you to get into BYU.

The star is a BYU graduate.

a_guide · Post by **a_guide** » January 10, 2005, 10:19 pm

noel wrote:The one thing that did make me snicker pretty hard in Napolean Dynamite was the scene where he's wearing the 'Rick's College' shirt.

For those that don't know, Rick's College is a 2-year mormon school that preps you to get into BYU.

LoL I went to Ricks College for 1.5 years! Although it is now BYU-Idaho, a 4 year school. It is a mini-and more lonely-BYU.

Zamtuk · Post by **Zamtuk** » January 10, 2005, 11:53 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:Ok, ok. I understand now that since I disagree with you I must be a retard. I like a wide array of movies, am actually not into action and explosions all that much. But you can make all the assumptions you want, because it doesn't seem to be effective to try and reason with you.

hrmm, ok, lets go with that. you dont like action movies all that much or movies that are deep and require thought (or insightful in your words), but then go on to say you like a wide array of movies. I never once called you retarded, just a marketing puppet, which you have proven to be.

Akaran_D · Post by **Akaran_D** » January 11, 2005, 1:22 am

What's the difference between a marketing puppet and someone that simply just likes the movies that are heavily marketed? I call it an intriguing coincidence - I ignore what the critics say unless I already have low expectations of a movie over all, because the average hollywood reporter isn't going to give Resident Evil 2 a spectacular review because they can't accept a good action flick for what it is - a good movie to sit back and blow your mind on for a while.

edit: hit enter too soon

Instead, they apply the same critiquing guidlines to a simple shooter - like Bad Boys, Bad Boys 2 - as they do an intellectual movie. So if you don't enjoy an intellectual movie, the critics are worthless and the marketing tends to be accurate. /shrug

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » January 11, 2005, 1:42 am

I found Dynamite to be a boring movie laced with quotes that I will remember for a long time. Some of the physical humor was hilarious, and I've always been a fan of subtle, dry humor.

But... but... It was so very boring. If it could have been pieced together in a more professional manner, this movie could have been A+ material. for me, the bottom line is that its uniqueness was paralleled only by its lack of polish.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » January 11, 2005, 2:38 am

Akaran_D wrote:What's the difference between a marketing puppet and someone that simply just likes the movies that are heavily marketed?

Nothing... nothing at all.

Burke · Post by **Burke** » January 11, 2005, 12:05 pm

Saw it this weekend and loved it. Lots of great nuances with the characters and little details throught the movie. And a new scene at the end of the credits on the DVD.
Kip just killed me. "You know I'm training to be a cage fighter, Napoleon. Why don't you come down here and see what happens?"

"Peace Out"

Keverian FireCry · Post by **Keverian FireCry** » January 11, 2005, 10:43 pm

A movie that can crawl at as slow a pace as Dynamite and be loved by many tells you enough. It's the slight comedy and over-the-top nerdy characters and the fact that they did not try to make the movie hip to turn on the masses

Movies like XXX and Fast and Furious are thrown together peices of shit scripts that are written not by someones imagination and creativity, but by marketing. There's no creativity there at all, they follow basic rules of any blockbuster, fast paced-random plot involving buff men and hot women and packed with as many marketing tools as possible. Usually that means cool cars, cool clothes..."cool" everything.

A slow paced movie is not always boring, and a fast-paced movie isnt always fun. Don't trick yourself into thinking slow=boring or fast=fun. In a way it's a lot like developing taste for diferent foods as you grow up. The more you taste "different" or more complex foods, the more you will like them and won't want to go back to eating those "twinkies" you used to like.

Post by **Sylvus** » January 14, 2005, 12:45 pm

Finally got around to watching it last night and I thought it was great. I laughed quite a bit and was generally entertained, and not at all bored, by the whole thing.

The characters were brilliant. From the effeminate nerd-turned-gangsta Kip (that song he sang after the credits was pretty damn funny), to Uncle Rico the get-rich-quick former football player still living in 1982, to Napolean and his love of ninjas, "ligers" and unicorns, every character was quirky and off-the-wall and hilarious. I wasn't laughing out loud every 5 seconds, but I was definitely smiling the whole way through.

"Back in '82 I could throw a pigskin a quarter mile"

"Vote for me and I'll make your wildest dreams come true"

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » January 14, 2005, 1:03 pm

Napoleon's mexican friend Pedro is still my favorite of the film. Expressionless throughout the movie, he was still the coolest of the lot, letting Napoleon dance with his date, not being afraid to wear a tupe, and giving an honest speech for president. (sans the all your dreams comment : )

Napoleon: Pedro offers you his protection

Napoleon Dynamite: [referring to the dance] Who are you gonna ask?
Pedro: That girl over there.
Napoleon Dynamite: Summer Wheatly? How the heck are you gonna do that?
Pedro: Build her a cake or something.

nobody · Post by **nobody** » January 14, 2005, 2:47 pm

Winnow wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:Watched this with my girlfriend, another friend, and my cousin last night. We all want the 2 hours we spent watching it back. thats about all I have to say.
Napoleon Dynamite isn't a Friday night movie to watch with your GF and other friends. It's a Tuesday night movie to watch when you're sick, have the runs and have a lots to do at work the next day. You'll enjoy it more then, not with people around on a Friday night.

I mean, would you watch The English Patient with your GF and friends on a Friday Night when you're all fired up about the weekend? Nay!

Reviewers may have to start categorizing movies for days of the week.

this is exactly what i did, watched it in bed on a tuesday at home sick with my gf (now my ex) who was kind enough to keep me company.

i thought it was ok but my fav thing about the movie was the quote's which are fun to repeat.

ie: kid on bus: what are you doing today napolean?

napolean: WHATEVER I WANT! GOSH!

and if anyone has ever been to idaho, it really is stuck in the 80's

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » January 14, 2005, 3:27 pm

nobody wrote:and if anyone has ever been to idaho, it really is stuck in the 80's

They are that far? I thougth the 50'es

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » January 15, 2005, 5:40 am

A bit scatterbrained, but I really enjoyed it!

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » January 15, 2005, 5:49 am

Did anyone else think that Kip looked almost exactly like the guy in Reno 911 that plays the serial killer? (Truckee River Strangler or someshit)

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » April 24, 2005, 5:26 pm

Finally watched it today. Was pretty good in my opinion. Not a lot to say about it that others haven't said. Mainly put off watching it due to some of the overhype marketing that was out for awhile.

8/10

Xzion · Post by **Xzion** » April 24, 2005, 10:16 pm

hmmm very controvsial movie, no intent on seeing this seemingly pos john huges-esque movie but it looks like i have to now, because all i hear was "godamn did it suck" "godamn, that movie was hilarious" "godamn you have to see that" "that movie was godamn terrible"

Zamtuk · Post by **Zamtuk** » April 25, 2005, 5:45 am

you wouldnt like it

Deward · Post by **Deward** » April 25, 2005, 10:36 am

I've said this before but this is one of those movies you will either hate or love. I loved it because it reminded me of my high schools in the late 80s so I could almost relate to several of the characters. When discussing this movie with my wife, we figured the people who hated this movie really had no way to relate to any of the characters.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » September 25, 2005, 8:24 am

Saw it last night finally (ran on the Movie Network up here so thankfully I didn't have to pay for it at least.)

There werea few scenes here and there that were decent but overall nothing spectacular.

The dancing scene at the end saved the flick from being a complete waste of time.

Fairweather Pure · September 25, 2005, 10:48 am

Did anyone else think that Kip looked almost exactly like the guy in Reno 911 that plays the serial killer? (Truckee River Strangler or someshit)

It is the same guy.

Burke · Post by **Burke** » September 26, 2005, 9:39 am

Not the same guy.
Craig on Reno 911 is this guy:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1178424/

Kip on Napoleon Dynamite is this guy:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1088052/