Rating: 
Summary: Surprised me
Review: For whatever reason, I'd sort of gotten it into my head that this flick would be kind of male, Mormon spin on Welcome to the Dollhouse. Which was a very good movie indeed that I never, ever want to see again. So I guess you could say I was a little wary, coming into this thing. I mean, revisiting the joys of being a high school outcast isn't neccessarily the most fun way to spend an evening.
Ten minutes in, I realized that, wherever my preconceptions about this movie came from, they were just flat out wrong. Yes, Napoleon is quite the outcast. He looks like a Dan Clowes drawing come to horrible life, talks like a precocious 11-year old, and is mean to a *llama* (or is it an alpaca?) for God's sake. But he's oblivious, just totally oblivious, and therein lies part of his charm. Yes, he's definitely at the bottom of the food chain, but he's so weirdly blase about it all that, by the tenth time he gets slammed into a locker, I developed this weird solidarity with the guy. Not pity, more a strange admiration.
Which pulled me through the first half of the movie - admittedly a bit meandering, though held up by Napoleon's odd little tics and statements (and the actor protraying Napoleaon? He's just flat out amazing at getting all those odd, quirky mannerisms down), the laid back Pedro (who cocks his head in the most hilariously deadpan fashion), basically all the characters. Because all of them, not just Napoleon, are pretty marginalized figures and they're all, at least outwardly, kind of accepting of it all. Which makes watching them a strangely empowering experience.
And then, maybe halfway in, this movie just transforms itself into something powerful and amazing. There's touches, perhaps, of the old magical realism. If I hadn't been so pulled in by the characters, I can see how, at this point, I would have had a hard time suspending disbelief. But I was so engaged by this point that I *wanted* to believe, and that turned this whole flick into something kind of redemptive, something very very different than what I'd expected.
This movie is very much NOT about making fun of/feeling sorry for this weird looking/acting guy. That alone would be impressive - just pulling off a sympathetic character study of an uber-outcast without resorting to making fun of him and/or pitying him. Doing that PLUS pulling off what was pulled off by this movie's end is, if I may be hyperbolic, staggering.
Rating: 
Summary: If watching paint dry is funny, this is hysterical!!!
Review: 4 out of 5 stars with close to 700 reviews? What is wrong here? Are we rejoicing because we finally see somebody who is just a little dumber than our (obviously) dumb selves, or is it the relief that comes from knowing that our moronic lifestyle (be it past or present) is in fact a widespread phenomena? It's amazing how nothing amazes us anymore.(sic) Oh, wait! But it's not true! Here is a completely cretinous movie, with no plot, beginning or ending - which manages to evoke feelings of admiration even jealousy. "Wow, this movie is so dumb it's almost great, even I could've made it! How come I didn't think of it first?" I wholeheartedly recommend this movie! Let's watch it and recommend it and wonder why does the rest of the world think that we are oh ... so stupid.
Rating: 
Summary: Dynamite not a dud, but not a blast either...
Review: Every Generation has film character icons that are uniquely their own. One generation embraces it and the previous or next generation will have nothing to do with it -whether it is James Dean's Rebel JIM STARK or John Wayne's ROOSTER COGBURN. With my generation, he was FERRIS BUELLER. The most recent MTV generation of 2004 on has NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE, a story of a nerd beyond all nerds.
To be fair, I did laugh a couple times, but that is not possible until you allow yourself into that world. That is difficult to do as the Dynamite world is not a nice place to be. Almost everything revolves around hair and food. In fact those 2 elements trump all else in defining this film.
One reason the story may be so attractive to today's younger viewers is that NAPOLEAN succeeds in the film with very little effort. He doesn't have to work very hard which would be a secret goal for every generation. Who wouldn't rally want things to come a lot easier.
The DVD transfer is good and the disc offers both a widescreen and pan and scan version for those who hate letterboxing. The soundtrack is pretty eclectic, bouncing between generations to come up with the many anthems. It makes sense that the film is released by MTV pictures... which may also account for the films popularity.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it
Review: I can't believe all of the reviewers who are calling people who like this film "stupid" and begging us to not waste our money. First of all, people can RENT the movie and check it out for themselves, it's about $3 at the video store. Secondly, from my experience, I've actually found that the people I know who liked this movie are much more analytical and clever than the people who hated it. The people who hate this movie are quite simple minded and boring-the type that need to see blood, sex, and guns firing for them to be able to enjoy a movie. The reason why this movie is so popular, is because most of us are sick of that genre of movies. I'm to the point where I pretty much only rent Indie films because Hollywood movies are so completely soul-less and predictable. Check this one out with an open mind, get lost in Napoleon's world, and laugh your $%# off!
Rating:
Summary: An independent film you don't have to cut any slack
Review: I love independent films, but the truth is that some of them you have to cut a tiny bit of slack due to their lack of resources. But not NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. Seeing this was one of the most delightful, unexpected pleasures that I have had in a movie in a long, long time. Most high school comedies dealing with school nerds are a bit of a cheat, because the nerds are never really as nerdy as the ones we all knew or (or perhaps were) in high school. My favorite TV show is BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, but I could never really buy the ultra-cute Alyson Hannigan as a school nerd. But not so Napoleon Dynamite, his friend Pedro, or Deb, the reserved and shy girl he has a crush on.No mention is made of Napoleon's name. Any Elvis Costello fan knows that in the 1980s he declared that he would no longer be known as Elvis Costello, but instead as Napoleon Dynamite, under which name he released what may have been his last great album, BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE. The producers have independently declared that they were unaware of that and chose the name without reference to Elvis Costello. This is, of course, utterly absurd, about as believable as someone making a movie with the lead character named Anna Karenina but claiming to be ignorant that Tolstoy had a character by that name. The movie depicts the private hell that is the life of Napoleon Dynamite, a hopelessly inept misfit at Preston High School in Idaho, apparently without any friends at all until he stumbles upon a new Hispanic student Pedro, who apparently is incapable of speaking any word with more than one syllable or of smiling (until the very end of the film). Napoleon makes nerds look cool. School is such hell for Napoleon that it seems perfectly normal for one kid as he is walking down the hall to body slam him up against his locker. It isn't just that he is clueless, he is cursed; he not only thinks it is OK to stuff tater tots into his pocket, unwrapped, for snacking on later, it is inevitable that another kid will crush them in his pocket when he refuses to share. If Napoleon's life is awful at school, it is as bad at home. We are clueless as to the whereabouts or fate of his parents, but his slacker and equally nerdy brother provides neither companionships nor solace, and when his grandmother injures herself in a ATV sand dune accident, his Uncle Rico, a fortyish Peter Pan so desperately yearning for 1982 that he orders a home made time travel machine over the Internet, who is as pathetic in his own way as either Napoleon or his brother Kip. Plot is not really important in the film; the process of Napoleon's life is. This could easily have been a terrible film, but director Jered Hess (born, by the way, in Preston, Idaho), who co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Jerusha, displays throughout a deft touch at keeping things interesting and funny instead of merely silly. The actors are all excellent, though for the most part near unknowns. I recognized only two performers, one being Diedrich Bader, who has been in a number of roles over the years, perhaps more memorably in OFFICE SPACE as the protagonist's next door neighbor, with whom he would have conversations through the wall. Here he has a hysterical stint as an absurd martial arts instructor. I also knew Tina Majorino, who has been in a number of films over the years, primarily as a child. She does a great job as Deb, though her role (as is Napoleon's) is a bit of a cheat on the audience. They make her up to be as unattractive as possible, when she is, in fact, quite a cutie, as the improved hair-do at the end of the film proves. The cheat with Napoleon is the fact that he . . . well, I won't spoil things. Let's just say that by the end of the film he isn't the helpless nerd we imagine. I especially enjoyed Efren Ramirez as the monosyllabic Pedro. He underplays his role to the point of parody. I do highly recommend this movie. NAPOLEON DYNAMITE is a thoroughly unique, fun, and funny film, that isn't quite like anything else I've seen. One might say that it is not unlike a male-oriented version of WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE set in rural Idaho.
Rating:
Summary: your sandy hair floats in the air...
Review: I picked up a copy of this movie basically because I had a gift certificate to cash in and I had seen it advertised when it was playing at my city's trendier venues. There was definitely a deliberate quirkiness to the characters that seemed a bit formulaic in the indie/cult genre and was rather annoying at first. Creating characters so cartoonishly geek ridden and over the top for its own sake is simply not enough to carry a movie. I just hope the next generation of such films doesn't resort merely to funky hair, tacky clothes, and a spazoid demeanor and merely ride those JC Penny coattails. That being said, I have to admit Aaron Ruell's Kip character really grew on me like a matted down fungus. I can't get his lame poetry, weak nasal speech, and bad posture out of my head. I actually worked with someone who was eerily similar and planned to buy a missile silo so, in that sense, his character was believable. Also, kudos to Tina Majorino for taking a break from the pratfalls of the child actress to come back with a valiant effort as a relatively invisible high school student.
As for the plot, hmmmm. What actually happened? Napolean gets Pedro elected class president, wins the cute wallflower, and his brother Kip, transformed into a hip hop philosopher, leaves town with his internet babe LaFawnduh. Even Uncle Rico is joined by some oddly intrigued cameo babe while videotaping himself throwing the pigskin in a field. There were no real unconventional surprises or groundbreaking plot twists, but in all this movie was amusing enough on the merits of its quirkiness.
Rating:
Summary: Gosh! I love this movie!
Review: I thought this movie was the greatest! I'm not mormon...but hey they beat Hollywood any day making a GREAT movie! Its life how it happens & shows how the "geeks" do excel in life. I loved no sex--no swearing! Need more movies like this. Loved the characters...they were perfect. I'm telling EVERYONE about this movie!
Rating:
Summary: It's Napoleon's World...
Review: It's Napoleon's world and we're just living in it. From the brilliant opening credits by the legendary 70-year-old title designer Pedro Ferro ("Dr. Strangelove, Stop Making Sense, Men in Black") to the ending disco beat of "The Promise" by 'When in Rome', Jared Hess constructs a true-to-life vision of his hometown Preston, Idaho that had me rolling in on the floor, falling in love with characters that I would never go near in real life. Jon Heder (who is clearly too old to play the title character) lets nothing stand in his way of creating the ultimate nerd. With Pedro at his side (Efren Ramirez) the two get mocked, humiliated and asswhupped until the final amazing cathartic ending that shows the small joys of friendship and affection. Jon Gries (from 'Get Shorty') as Uncle Rico is a scream as over the hill jock and coniving tupperware salesman. DVD transfer is quite good and the deleted scenes are awesome. Commentary by the director and Heder however make you realize how young these guys are. I knew something was up when Dennis Quaid showed up on the Daily Show wearing a "Vote 4 Pedro" t-shirt. Let Napoleon take over the world.
Rating:
Summary: Napoleon Dynamite Best Film of The Year
Review: Jon Heder was astonashing in this movie since he portrayed a nerdy, momma's-boy, teen with a mean, but also funny side to him. He had to put up with his brother, Kip played by Aaron Ruell and his low-life, sleezy Uncle Rico played by Jon Gries. It was great because it showed the uprise of a nothing and was instantly turned into a something when his friend Pedro Sanchez, played by Efren Ramirez needed him the most. ***** for me!
Rating:
Summary: the best movie
Review: napoleon dynamite is the best movie ever! it is so funny! the funniest thing would have to be when he dances. i was lauging really hard. a lot of people in my class says the quotes..my math teacher even watched it! but she left just 2 minutes during the movie. but i all i have to say is, this movie is awesome and hilarious!
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