Napoleon Dynamite | | Cast : | Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Efren Ramirez | | Director : | Jared Hess | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | , 2004 | | DVD Released Date : | December 21, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 30, 2005 | | Summary | 3 stars might be over doing it | Content
 | This movie is JUST ok. Not amazing. Not brilliant. This does NOT speak for my generation. There are some parts that are funny, but what is the deal with the sensationalism surrounding this flick? I can tell you what...Hot Topic is making bank off of it. I wrote this review more as a plea. PLEASE do not quote this movie. I will have a hemorrhage if I hear another person quote this.
Also, if you are a teen watching this and thinking how great Napoleon is, just remember you have like 10 of these kids wandering around your school and you probably pantsed them at one point or something.
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| Rating | | | Date | August 30, 2005 | | Summary | Explode With Laughter!! | Content
| Having no expectations I was pleasantly surprised by the power of this little film about nerds in search of a dream.
Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) is the high school nerd who gets pushed around and taunted by the cool kids. He befriends a new kid Pedro Sanchez (Efren Ramirez) and together they form a union that takes them into the political arena, running for school president against the most popular girl, Summer Wheatly (Haylie Duff). But Napoleon must also deal with his missing Grandmother (Sandy Martin), his nerdier brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) and his haphazardly enterprising Uncle Rico (Jon Gries). With a subdued laugh a minute Napoleon's life is revealed with a bang.
This little film may seem rather dull at first but once the Quaalude induced dark humor of the title character makes his point you will beg for more. Jon Heder is absolutely convincing as the buck toothed, pale and athletically inept Dynamite, just looking at him doing nothing will begin the giggles! Along with Aaron Ruell and Jon Gries you can't ask for a better comedic team to marvel at. Gries gets the gist of the cool nerd down, spending most of his time trying to be attractive but falling far short while Ruell is at an even tie with Heder for who plays the perfect outcast. Under all the humor of course lies the dark life of someone who doesn't "fit-in" and in a casual way the filmmakers divulge this side of life without making it so harsh as to make a definite statement, although the point is made within the blast that is Napoleon. Make sure to stay until the credits are run for a short hint about the outcome of all the character's lives. This movie is simply a blast!
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| Rating | | | Date | August 29, 2005 | | Summary | Is it the worst movie ever made, or the best? | Content
| It is hard to determine whether this is a great movie that captures the mind set of small town USA, or just an absurd collection of random scenes. The first time I watched it, I fell asleep and was less than impressed with watching some complete loser try and survive high school. The second time I watched it - thanks to my wife who is from small town Idaho and loves the movie - I was crying with laughter.
I guess this film is a cult classic. It will not appeal to a large audience; in fact many people will probably consider it the worst movie ever made. If you "get it" though, it gets funnier every time you watch it. Like Napoleon himself who says after watching his Uncle's homemade football video; "This is like the worst video ever made", to which his brother replies; "Like anyone could possibly know that".
There are several scenes that are simply too funny for words. His job moving chickens, and getting paid in change at the equivalent of about a dollar an hour, or any scene with his older brother in it, are both painful and hilarious.
Does anyone really live this way? I guess so, but I think the bigger draw here is that on some level we all feel like Napoleon; trying to fit in but never quite being there, annoyed at the state of life around us, and thinking we are "more skilled" than we probably are.
I think you will either love it or hate it, but probably not in between. I recommend the film if you are a fan of off beat satire and humor. Consider it the bizarro world, male, rural Idaho geek version of "Sixteen Candles" or any of the other 1980's John Hughes films.
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| Rating | | | Date | August 29, 2005 | | Summary | GOSH.....WHAT A GREAT MOVIE! | Content
| THIS MOVIE WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST MOVIES I'VE EVER SEEN. I WOULD HAVE TO CONSIDER IT MY 4TH FAVORITE MOVIE (BEHIND SCARFACE, PULP FICTION, AND EUROTRIP). ALL THE CHARACTERS ARE SO HILARIOUS. NAPOLEON, THE GUY WHO HAS NO IDEA HOW NERDY HE IS, PEDRO, WHO CAN'T SAY ANYTHING MORE THEN ONE WORD WITH NO FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, KIP, THE GUY WHO TURNS FROM A NERD TO GANGSTER. THE LIST GOES ON AND ON. BASICALLY THE MOVIE IS JUST SHOWING THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON AS HE LIVES IN A SMALL TOWN IN IDAHO. AND THEN THEIR WAS SO MANY GREAT LINES. I WON'T SAY THEM BECAUSE YOU ALL KNOW THEM. WELL I GUESS I'M GOING TO GO NOW BECAUSE I'M TRAINING TO BECOME A CAGE FIGHTER. LOL
PEACE OUT YA'LL
~~~GREGO~~~ |
| Rating | | | Date | August 28, 2005 | | Summary | Pointless but a funny good time. | Content
| I never really expected to like this film. But after seeing it on Cinamax, I was surprised that I loved it. The movie is pretty pointless but it's still pretty funny and often even heart-felt. Roger Ebert claimed that the movie made no attempt to make Napoleon likeable. Well that's totally wrong. He can be a jerk but he also does some good things in the movie. When a kid gets bullied and picked on in school, he offers him protection from his friend Padro's big cousins. When Padro is running for president and doesn't know he's supposed to do a dance number. Napoleon dances for the audience instead. So what's not likeable about that. If he wasn't likeable then why would so many people love this movie and love the character.
What makes the movie pointless is that it just ends basically and basically just lives with no plot. His annoying uncle moves in after Napoleon's Grandma has an accident. He hands out flyers to women telling them he can help them get bigger boobs. Which makes people laugh at Napoleon more than they do already. So he wants to get rid of his uncle but he won't leave. Does his uncle ever actually leave ? I'm not even sure. But I can forgive a movie this fun and a hilarious for not having a plot. All the characters are original and funny and they're well played by the actors as well. The best scene is when Napoleon and his brother think they actually own a time machine that will send them back to the past. They just casually try it out like owning a time machine would be normal. Well either that is the best scene or when their uncle throws a rock at Napoleon's head to show how good his arm is lol. |
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