Napoleon Dynamite

[Farrah Whitworth-Rahn]

Can someone please explain to me the appeal of this movie?

I don't get it.

Thanks in advance.

[st.cronin]

Sorry, can't help. I refuse to see it.

[Desmond]

Wasn't as horrid as I had feared, but not nearly as good as everything I had heard. It was just, there.

[Klinglerware]

It's probably a generational thing. I thought the movie was okay but didn't think it was that great, as did most of my friends that are of the same age as me. Most people college aged and younger seem to love it. Perhaps, time and hipness has now passed Generation X by.

[Poli]

Do the chickens have large talons?

[path12]

I liked it, and I'm in between the boomers and Gen X. But I'm not sure if I can explain why adequately. Suffice it to say I'm a fan of absurdity.

[QuikSand]

Seems to me that humor of the absurd is pretty personal. I wasn't wowed by the movie when I watched it, but I did find some things to be pretty funny, and a fair number of them really did stick with me, so I guess I'd consider myself a fan, to some degree.

[ISiddiqui]

It was an ok movie. Very absurd and kind of a geek's revenge type of story. Though I can see how people may have hated it (thinking WTF?!). Oh, and it's incredibly quotable.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I like it quite a bit. I thought it was really funny and it is, indeed, incredibly quotable. I can see where people don't like it, but, oh well...

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Farrah Whitworth-Rahn

Can someone please explain to me the appeal of this movie?

I don't get it.

Thanks in advance.

There is no story. It had funny parts but it was overall pretty dumb.

[wishbone]

The movie has a part where an old farmer shoots a cow in the head from 2 feet away with a shotgun in front of a bus load of children.

Really the movie is a collection of ridiculous skits loosely tied together. Is it an oscar winner? No. Is it better than "Dude, Where's My Car"? Yes.

[Lorena]

How can you not see it? GOSH!!

[MikeVick7]

You have to force yourself to watch it a 2nd and 3rd time for it to really sink in. The 1st time I watched it, it sucked. But it gets funnier the more times you watch it.

[Lorena]

I'm 31 and Antmeister is 34 and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Who knows, its a hit or miss-type of movie I guess

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

I'm 31 and Antmeister is 34 and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Who knows, its a hit or miss-type of movie I guess

I'm 31 as well and also thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the majority of comedies are hit or miss, this one more than most since it's more than a little... odd. Humor is just so incredibly subjective.

[BrianD]

It seemed like the kind of movie that would be greatly helped by pot.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by BrianD

It seemed like the kind of movie that would be greatly helped by pot.

No, that's 40 year old virgin.

[Farrah Whitworth-Rahn]

I've seen it twice now, but I just don't get it. Should I get drunk and try it again? Would it make more sense?

[Silver Owl]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I like it quite a bit. I thought it was really funny and it is, indeed, incredibly quotable. I can see where people don't like it, but, oh well...

I agree, I thought it was funny in a "Dumb and Dumber" kind of way.

[ThunderingHERD]

Terrible, terrible movie.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Farrah Whitworth-Rahn

Can someone please explain to me the appeal of this movie?

I don't get it.

Thanks in advance.

Old fart.

[Farrah Whitworth-Rahn]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Old fart.

Ugh.

Tell me about it.

[jackyl]

Originally Posted by BrianD

It seemed like the kind of movie that would be greatly helped by pot.

Yes.

Originally Posted by Farrah Whitworth-Rahn

I've seen it twice now, but I just don't get it. Should I get drunk and try it again? Would it make more sense?

Yes.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Farrah Whitworth-Rahn

I've seen it twice now, but I just don't get it. Should I get drunk and try it again? Would it make more sense?

Just like with every comedy, either the humor makes you laugh or it doesn't. All comedies are hit or miss. In fact, most movies are. It has quite of bit of flat-out weird humor in it. Some people see something and go "WTF?" and are confused. Others see something and go "WTF?" and can't stop laughing.

I don't think it's possible to explain humor and why one person finds something funny and someone else does not. It either makes you laugh or it doesn't, and it can't be explained.

I, for one, loved this movie and quote it frequently.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Farrah Whitworth-Rahn

Ugh.

Tell me about it.

Rumor has it that this is the wine that the She-Rahn got drunk off of.

[Lorena]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Just like with every comedy, either the humor makes you laugh or it doesn't. All comedies are hit or miss. In fact, most movies are. It has quite of bit of flat-out weird humor in it. Some people see something and go "WTF?" and are confused. Others see something and go "WTF?" and can't stop laughing.

I don't think it's possible to explain humor and why one person finds something funny and someone else does not. It either makes you laugh or it doesn't, and it can't be explained.

I, for one, loved this movie and quote it frequently.

Beautifully explained! I was one of the WTF people that couldn't stop laughing. As a matter-of-fact, I'm watching again tonight... thanks for bringing it up Farrah! After a few shots, I'm sure I'll enjoy it more... don't forget the crystals.

[Lorena]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Rumor has it that this is the wine that the She-Rahn got drunk off of.

Uhh... can you make the image a little larger Skydog? I couldn't see it.

[Ben E Lou]

There. Smaller. I just wanted to get it up quickly.

[ThunderingHERD]

It's been a while since I watched it--I just remember it being a miserable experience. An unfunny, meanspirited farce shot like a Wes Anderson movie. I checked some reviews to refresh my memory:

Originally Posted by Variety

"Napoleon Dynamite" represents the definition of the comedy of condescension and ridicule. There are lots of laughs for those who enjoy the sight of bottom dwellers doing stupid things that make them look even more idiotic.

Originally Posted by LA Times

The movie possesses a smugness that is as irritating as Napoleon himself. It feels so self-satisfied in its attempt to create a portrait of a lovable loser — infusing him with quirky qualities meant to be endearing — but in reality, the movie plays like a revisionist goof, lumping together broad archetypes for cheap laughs while pretending to be the ultimate underdog movie.

Hess is not a misanthrope, he simply wants it both ways. He wants to slam Napoleon into the locker for laughs, but he also wants to pick him up, dust him off and give him a feel-good ending that doesn't ring true.

Originally Posted by The Onion

An episodic revue of calculated whimsy and artificial awkwardness, Napoleon Dynamite has one trick: It puts a cartoonish misfit character in a potentially embarrassing situation, then waits for the inevitable...

The parade of misfits over a bottomless pit of humiliation suggests that Hess has spent time with the works of Todd Solondz. The formal compositions, out-of-time production design, and attempts at wistfulness suggest that he's familiar with Wes Anderson. But the sweetness that the film manages seems like an afterthought, an attempt to take the edge off the cruelty. Napoleon Dynamite only thinks its heart is in the right place.

Originally Posted by Roger Ebert

There is a kind of studied stupidity that sometimes passes as humor, and Jared Hess' "Napoleon Dynamite" pushes it as far as it can go.

...

We can laugh at comedies like this for two reasons: Because we feel superior to the characters, or because we pity or like them. I do not much like laughing down at people, which is why the comedies of Adam Sandler make me squirmy (most people, I know, laugh because they like him). In the case of Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), I certainly don't like him, but then the movie makes no attempt to make him likable. Truth is, it doesn't even try to be a comedy. It tells his story and we are supposed to laugh because we find humor the movie pretends it doesn't know about.


...

I'm told the movie was greeted at Sundance with lots of laughter, but then Sundance audiences are concerned with being cool, and to sit through this film in depressed silence would not be cool, however urgently it might be appropriate.

Yeh, that's the movie I remember.

[wishbone]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

It's been a while since I watched it--I just remember it being a miserable experience. An unfunny, meanspirited farce shot like a Wes Anderson movie. I checked some reviews to refresh my memory:

Yeh, that's the movie I remember.

My brother did not like the movie for a lot of the reasons mentioned in those reviews and it hit really close to home for him. In fact, Napoleon and my brother have almost identical artistic styles and content. One of the reasons I like the movie is that it makes me think of my brother.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

It's been a while since I watched it--I just remember it being a miserable experience. An unfunny, meanspirited farce shot like a Wes Anderson movie.

That's how I felt about, say, "Something About Mary."

And, for what it's worth, it has a 70% "fresh" rating over at rottentomatoes: 100 fresh, 43 rotten.

[Sweed]

My son, who is a junior in college, came home with it from the video store last summer and told my wife, daughter, and I that we had to watch this movie (he had already seen it) because Napolean Dynamite acted just like a kid that graduated with my son that everyone called Red. Now my whole family knows Red and to say the least he's a bit of a charachter, so we watched the movie.

So the movie starts and out comes Naploean and we are all snickering because he does resemble Red a great deal in looks and mannerisms. Then Napolean speaks and and we are rolling on the floor laughing, tears are coming to our eyes. The speach pattern and the words Napolean uses are so similar to Red that it is scary. The next hour and a half were spent laughing our asses off and at the same time being floored at the similarity between Napolean and Red.

So, yes I really did love the movie. But both my wife and I wondered if we would have liked it so much if we didn't know Red? I don't think either one of us really knows for sure since it's impossible to consider it without thinking of Red.

edit:
Just for clarity after reading some of the negative reviews that were posted while I was replying, Red is considered a friend of the family and is really well liked by most people that know him. We certainly were not laughing down at him, hell he even likes the movie.

[ThunderingHERD]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

That's how I felt about, say, "Something About Mary."

And, for what it's worth, it has a 70% "fresh" rating over at rottentomatoes: 100 fresh, 43 rotten.

My point wasn't that all the critics hated it, I was just pulling some quotes that decribed the movie as I remembered it. My respect for a person's taste takes a nosedive if they find Napoleon Dynamite to be even tolerable.

[DaddyTorgo]

never saw this movie when it came out or anything. and now at this point it's like i don't want to see it, just so i can be the oner person in america who has never seen it. ROCK ON!

[cuervo72]

I'm trying that with Pulp Fiction. Um, and this movie too. Hrm, and about 1,000 other movies I haven't seen...

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

My respect for a person's taste takes a nosedive if they find Napoleon Dynamite to be even tolerable.

Huh. Well, fair dues to you. I guess I feel the same way about folks who dare to think the Star Wars "prequels" are as good as or better than the Original Trilogy.

You know who you are.

[CraigSca]

I'm 36 and I liked it a lot. As far as the people who say the whole movie sold out because MTV gave it backing, the heck with them.

Any movie that has Tater Tots in it is a winner in my book. Especially if they refer to them as "tots".

[jackyl]

Dunno how many of you Napoleon fans have seen his commercials for the Utah State Fair, co-starring Pedro:

http://jakehilton.com/videos/vid_pl...tream=napoleon1

http://jakehilton.com/videos/vid_pl...tream=napoleon2

http://jakehilton.com/videos/vid_pl...tream=napoleon3

[terpkristin]

I'm watching it again tonight Farrah!
With alcohol.
But I own the movie. I can't explain why I like it, but I do.

Then again, I'm 26 so in some ways closer to the younger gen that seems to like it...

/tk

[Farrah Whitworth-Rahn]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

With alcohol.

Thread required.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

just so i can be the oner person in america who has never seen it. ROCK ON!

Bet I hold out longer than you do.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

I'm watching it again tonight Farrah!
With alcohol.
But I own the movie. I can't explain why I like it, but I do.

Then again, I'm 26 so in some ways closer to the younger gen that seems to like it...

/tk

ok, tk. You've finally given me the motivation to watch it. I bought it on DVD a while back, but never have sat down to watch it. It's midnight here in Texas, and I've got a 6 pack of Shiner Bock put away, so I guess now is as good a time as any to watch it.

[korme]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

It's been a while since I watched it--I just remember it being a miserable experience. An unfunny, meanspirited farce shot like a Wes Anderson movie. I checked some reviews to refresh my memory



Yeh, that's the movie I remember.

Quoting Roger Ebert gives you no credibility to me. He only likes movies that have a nice moral of the story (read Blow's review). Of course he wouldn't like this movie. And to justify a movie's appeal by using 'professional' reviews, come on, no one cares.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by MikeVick7

You have to force yourself to watch it a 2nd and 3rd time for it to really sink in. The 1st time I watched it, it sucked. But it gets funnier the more times you watch it.

I think this is true. Mrs. Eaglesfan made me watch it not once, but twice. The 2nd time it was funnier for some reason. She had a friend who had her watch it twice, and she now counts it as one of her favorite comedies.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

There was no alcohol involved the first time I watched it, but I did have a drink or two the second time, however, I don't think Mrs. Eaglesfan did. Perhaps, that had something to do with it. Shrug. I'm 31 in a few days and she is 27 FWIW.

[ThunderingHERD]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

Quoting Roger Ebert gives you no credibility to me. He only likes movies that have a nice moral of the story (read Blow's review). Of course he wouldn't like this movie. And to justify a movie's appeal by using 'professional' reviews, come on, no one cares.

I didn't quote anyone to give myself credibility, I presented quotes that represented what I felt about the movie.

As for your whole Ebert/moral angle, I'm not sure how you mean the review of Blow to illustrate that at all. Checking it just now, I see he gave it 2 & 1/2 stars. I seem to recall liking it more than that, but reading his review I see nothing that relates to morals at all. In fact, if I remember the movie correctly(it's been a while, I might not), the protagonist's story ends tragically--in jail, with delusions of his family visiting him. I guess if you want to tag on a cliched moral to that story it would be that crime doesn't pay... the same moral you could vapidly tag on to another movie that Ebert references in the review you cite--Scarface--which he gave four stars at the time of release and has more recently selected for his "Great Movies" series.

But, please, allow me to step outside the bounds of frathouse cannes for a moment and present another example: Todd Solondz. Having been referenced in several reviews of Napoleon Dynamite (including Ebert's), he immediately pops to mind. Solondz makes some of the most nihilistic, moralless films that you will ever see (I dont' care for them, BTW), yet what does Ebert say? A quick search reveals two 4 star ratings and two 3 & 1/2 star ratings.

[Lorena]

So did anyone watch it? I was so tired as soon as I laid down, I clonked. I'll give it a try tomorrow with some cheap wine I bought today.

[Tekneek]

It wasn't so good. It only really connected with us because the idiot my sister-in-law married reminds us very much of the "Uncle Rico" character.

Funnier than the movie are references to the movie that turn up here and there. I've seen "Vote for Pedro" shirts in surprising places, and there is a goalie in the NHL with Napoleon Dynamite on the back of his mask.

[Karlifornia]

Originally Posted by BrianD

It seemed like the kind of movie that would be greatly helped by pot.

Uh, what movie isn't greatly helped by pot? Comedies are funnier, dramas are sadder, scary movies are scarier. That's really what pot is here for. To make movies better. Hell, it's the only reason why Slackers is a classic among my friends & myself.


ThunderingHERD: I sort of get your comparison of N.P. (sorry, it's late and Im lazy, so I will use many acronyms) and Todd Solondz, but I think that Solondz' humor is so black that Napoleon Dynamite looks like the Care Bears.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

So did anyone watch it? I was so tired as soon as I laid down, I clonked. I'll give it a try tomorrow with some cheap wine I bought today.

Yep, I made it through the movie. It was ok, but it didn't match the expectations I had with all of the chatter about the movie. Maybe if I watch it again I'll pickup things I missed, and have an EaglesFan type reaction.