Napoleon Dynamite
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Movie Reviews of Napoleon Dynamite
Movie Review: Funniest thing I've seen in years
Summary: 5 Stars
As a college student, going to the movies is a little above my price range, but I am surrounded by people who can get anything off the Internet in a matter of hours. A friend of mine gave us a housewarming gift this semester: our very own copy of Napoleon Dynamite. He had downloaded it before it had even come out in major theaters here. None of us had seen it before, but over the months to follow we became intimately familiar with every line and character. There's no other way to put it - this movie is brilliant. It's the kind of movie you can watch over and over again. In fact, you have to. It creeps up on you. The first time you watch it it's pretty funny, but you don't think it's anything special. You go about your life. But over the next couple of days you find yourself saying strange things that you've never said before... Things like "I wish you would get out of my life and SHUT UP!" and "That's true, that's true." and "How much you want to bet I could throw a pigskin over them mountains?" Everyone frustrating in your life is easily brushed off with a "GOSH! What an IDIOT!" No one knows what you're talking about, but you know that someday they'll all understand.
The soundtrack is also amazing. Many songs I've known for years and loved on their own merit -- Most notably Jamiroquai's "Canned Heat," have taken on new meaning. Before, the song made me have to get up and dance whenever I heard it. It still does, but now it makes me laugh also. This movie is so amazing that I intend on purchasing a copy of the DVD -- or at least getting my parents to buy it for me for Christmas! While that may not seem like a big deal to many of you readers, let me tell you that for a college student, with limited funds but unlimited ability to get any form of media off the internet or college network, it is.
There's really no way to describe the actual content of this movie. Suffice it to say that it's set in an ambiguous time period (Sometime between the 80s and the present) with characters of ambiguous ages (Napoleon could be in middle school, or he could be a high school senior. It's believable either way). Each and every character is absolutely priceless, including the periphery characters like the ubiquitous public school jock, the little boy on the bus who asks "What are you going to do today, Napoleon?" and good old Lyle. I've said enough. See it. Even if you don't find it funny, it's a world that you would be sad to miss out on.
Movie Review: Hunting wolverines in Alaska
Summary: 5 Stars
From the instant he unpacked his action-figure wrapped in twine from out of his Trapper Keeper and threw it out the bus window to dangle along for the ride, I knew I was going to like Napoleon Dynamite.
I rented this movie at home and watched it with my old and haggard and saddle-bag-thighed ex-wife, who was also poor in her dealings with money. She laughed, but AT Napoleon, in a kind of dumb-founded way that was always wondering what he was going to do next. I laughed too, but because I've always rooted for the misfit, for the underdog, for the loner. For the secret, naive-moron that we all are deep-down. Whether it was drawing expertly-shaded pictures of the beautiful Trisha or giving a report on the exploits of our "underwater ally" (Nessie), I felt like I endured a million hours of junior high and high school with him sitting in the back of the class.
I'm a professional firefighter, and I brought the DVD into work the next day. Before we watched it, I was concerned that it would have too much "dork appeal" for a bunch of alpha-male men-of action. But it soon dawned on me, as the room exploded in laughter again and again, that Napoleon was not so much a dork as he was a little boy who never really grew up. And almost every man can remember what it was like to be 8 years old.
The smarmy "Summer Wheatley" and her unctuous boyfriend looked like real people I went to school with. That guy could've been a blonde version of Sherwin Adams from my class of 1993. It was not difficult to want to see them fall from grace, especially at the hands of the dynamic and well-coiffed Pedro.
The dance scene climax gave me chills to watch, because it reminds us that even the awkward, even the graceless, even the silly or stupid or ugly can do something well. Can do something to admire, even to the point of being envious of it.
This is a sweet, funny, unconventional film made by unorthodox people who poured their brains and heart into it. You will laugh your head off at this movie, or it will miss you completely. Like "Bottle Rocket", you cannot explain what is funny about it. Kudos to Jack White for allowing them the use of the White Stripes song "I think we're going to be friends".
Oh, keep watching after the credits, there's about 5 additional minutes of movie left. And one of the funniest parts of the movie: Kip's song.
Movie Review: Freakin' Awesome Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This is probably one of the best comedies to come out in recent years. It isn't your conventional comedy though. Most of the characters in the movie are extremely strange and are social outcasts. The humor is mostly deadpan instead of charasmatic and wacky. It is probably the most popular among teens even though most teens probably don't relate with Napoleon or anyone else in the movie. It's a very different kind of movie which probably helps contribute to its popularity.
The movie really doesn't have a story. It's basically just about Napoleons everyday life. Napoleon Dynamite is an outcast. Most nerds usually have other nerdy friends but Napoleon doesn't even have those until a new Hispanic student named Pedro arrives. He also becomes friends with a girl named Deb. His life becomes even more miserable with the arrival of his Uncle Rico who constantly screws up things for Napoleon. He stays with Napoleon and his thirtysomething year old brother Kip while their grandma recovers from and accident at the sand dunes.
Napoleon Dynamite is played by Jon Heder, who turns in one the best comedic performances of all time. He makes Napoleon depressed, nerdy and very unlikable. Hes not the kind of person you would wanna hang out with but somehow you root for him throughout the movie. There is something appealing about him thats hard to put a finger on. Hes a unique, memorable, and very quotable character that's not easy to forget.
Aaron Ruell plays Napoleons even nerdier brother Kip. He's not as relaxed as Napoleon and he spends all day chating online with his internet girlfriend when hes not helping Uncle Rico sell tupperware. Efren Ramirez plays Pedro. He always has a blank look on his face and is even more out of it than Napoleon. Jon Gries plays Uncle Rico. Hes probably the most annoying character in the movie. Hes constantly looking for ways to make money and wishes he could relive his college football days. Tina Majorino plays Deb, Napoleon's potential girlfriend. She looks nerdy in the movie but is actually very cute in real life. All in all the whole cast does excellent work making the characters what they need to be for the movie to work.
There is nothing really offensive in the movie to it's probably ok to let your kids see it.
It's a unique movie that, like Napoleon himself, you won't soon forget.
Movie Review: Movie of the Year
Summary: 5 Stars
This isn't a movie to over-intellectualize or read into. This is a movie to enjoy.
Napoleon Dynamite is about a high school student who is the geek of all geeks. Breaking with Hollywood tradition, this Napoleon isn't appealing because he's misunderstood, or because his heart of gold is continually tramped on by school bullies. The whole appeal of Napoleon is that he's completely and utterly pathetic.
His interests range from nun-chucks to the Loch Ness Monster to drawing bad pictures. He is intimidated by the school bullies, but cruel to those who won't retaliate against him. He is completely self-centered, and his self-serving ulterior motives are completely transparent.
Napoleon lives in his rural Idaho home with his dramatically older, and seemingly mentally handicapped, brother Kip, who spends all day chatting on the internet to women. Usually, they are cared for by their grandmother, but she has been called away unexpectedly, and so they are supervised by their uncle, who is constantly reliving his non-glory days on the high school football team and trying to sell tupperware or other things to the local housewives.
There's not much of a plot to this movie; it's mostly just a string of intensely hilarious scenes which feature Napoleon or the quirky members of his growing world. Toward the end, a plot evolves out of a race for school president between Summer, the popular girl, and Napoleon's only friend (and seemingly the only Mexican student).
The 11th hour vindication seems like a cheat, but at least Napoleon isn't carried away on the shoulders on a wave of newfound popularity. Instead, he finds someone to play tetherball with, and this quiet triumph is a good place to end it.
This movie will stick in your mind, and Napoleon will stay with you in the same way that the Billy Bob Thornton character in Sling Blade does. He is so bizarre, and yet so like someone you went to high school with, that he is impossible to forget.
Most of all, the inventive and hilarious character-driven jokes will crack you up. If you're going to rent one movie this year, make it this one. We all need a good laugh.
The DVD itself is kind of sparsely featured, although it does have a few extra glimpses of Napoleon, which is all you can ask for.
Movie Review: Do the chickens have large talons?
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not going to write a book here but I'll put in my two sense. I'll be the first to admit that the Napoleon Dynamite quoting craze is getting a bit ridiculous, but why not, there are more classic quotes in this movie then one mind could possibly think of. I've read alot of the negative reviews for this movie and I totally understand most of them. ND is not for everyone. Especially if you need comedy shoved down your throat. It moves quite slow and has no real plot at all but taht is also what makes this movie great. Its like no other comedy that has ever come out.
The characters first of all is what makes this movie great. All i was thinking the first time i saw this movie was Where in the hell did they find the actors to play these characters? Every character is so funny in their own way it's hard to choose a favorite. My personal favorite is Lyle, the old Idaho farmer. The script of this movie and the way the lines are delivered from the actors is also esquisite. This movie are contains alot of physical comedy taht makes it great. Deb runnign across the yard, Uncle rico making videos of himself, napoleon all sweaty drinking the energy drink, napoleon taking the VOTE FOR SUMMER button and chucking it down the hall, the principal bobbing his head during Summer's skit, the stupid look on coolguy Don's face the whole movie, ND flapping his hands during the Happy Hands Club presentation etc. the list goes on and on. I also love how the story all pulls together in the end with napoleon learning to dance then using his "skills" to help Pedro win the election and then Napoleon finally finding someone to play tetherball with him. And the dance scene i think will go down in history as an alltime classic scene. What alos made that scene enjoyable is if a nerd like ND would have danced like that at my high school we would have given him the same standing ovation.
The music in the movie also pulls it together quite well. The cyndi lauper song at the school dance scene is awesome and so is the acoustic song after the ND dance scene. My favorite though is the song played at the end when ND and Deb are playing tetherball. Kip's song after the credits is awesome Too.
All in all Napoleon Dynamite really is a hero taht is hard not to fall in love with.
"You got like three feet of air that time."