Have any of you seen Napoleon Dynamite?

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I don't trust critics, and I'm going to see this tonight with my cousins (who are 10 and 12 yrs old.) Will I enjoy this or should I plan to nap during it?

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

is this the one with the two baby tigers?

― kephm, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

It's about Jon.

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

like everything else these days.

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

it's The Spitfire Grill for the Rushmore set, avoid avoid avoid.

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

like everything else these days.

covered in delicious melted cheese?

― Kingfish of Burma (Kingfish), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Welcome to the Dollhouse meets FUBAR?

― Huk-El (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

It's pretty funny. I don't usually enjoy "self-consciously quirky '00s indie films," but I liked this one - probably because it's not very self-important. There are some less-than-great aspects, but on the whole I enjoyed the characters and schtick. It would make a good TV series.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

the guy kinda looks like he was drawn by Dan Clowes.

― Huk-El (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Farewell My Concubine meets A Night At The Roxbury.

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Caligula meets Smokey & the Bandit

― Huk-El (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

so what you're trying to say is, my cousins will really like it but I might think it's dumb?

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

The trailer makes my skin crawl.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

See, i haven't seen a trailor for it, and I really don't know anything about it. The IMDB set seems fairly divided, some loving it and many hating it.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/napoleon_dynamite.html

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

on dialup :(

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:13 (twenty-one years ago)

You will be high, so you may enjoy it.

― deanomgwtf!!!p%3Fmsgid%3D4581997 (deangulberry), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

the guy kinda looks like he was drawn by Dan Clowes.

Oh yeah. Weird. Totally OTM.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Imagine Todd Solondz neutered for TRL consumption.

(and I am just basing my view on the trailer, I couldn't bring myself to see it)

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Imagine Todd Solondz neutered for TRL consumption.

This could easily be a good thing. Have you seen Happiness? It could stand some neutering.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Then you're just left with the freak show and none of the creepiness that makes Solondz occasionally interesting.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm kinda leery about seeing a film named after one of elvis costello's pseudonyms, but the reviews are good & friends who have seen it say that it's really good. so maybe i will see it after all.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 00:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't end up seeing it. It was full, so we saw The Terminal instead. I don't recommend any of you see that. It was not boring and absurd (which may have been its most redeeming quality?) and meandering and had a LAME ENDING.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)

From what I heard Napoleon Dynamite sounded good, but after watching that trailer, it looks like a total shitbomb.

― Serya (Z_Ayres), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

also, that bit in the trailer where he says "Dang, you ever take it on any sweet jumps?" makes me think of the way the characters in Achewood talk, which is only a good thing within the context of Achewood.

― Serya (Z_Ayres), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 00:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I AM SO NOT AFRAID OF THE COPS RIGHT NOW.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 00:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Thought it was very bad. About the quality of mediocre television show. Weak characters. Annoying characatures. Annoying direction. Few redeeming moments. If you like movies about nerds see American Splendor. It's way way better. Napolean Dynamite = DUD.

― Gilles Meloche (Gilles Meloche), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 04:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Ask Mandee she saw it. I'd guess it's more Wes Andersonian than Solondzian no ?

What I already intensely dislike about this film is the inescapable MTV ad campaign beating you over the head about its studied coolness - irt doesn't even open nationwide for another 4 weeks, so the assult has only begun. Or maybe just because I hated Tenenbaums, and this seems to evoke that for whatever reason... and HAHA it's in the YELLOW/MIXED zone at Metacritic - > http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/napoleondynamite/

― Vic (Vic), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 04:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Tenenbaums was not genius, but way better than this shit. No doubt about it.

― Gilles Meloche (Gilles Meloche), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 05:48 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

this was actually pretty funny, but became less funny once the plot kicked in. the first half hour had me rolling though.

― kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 18 July 2004 06:42 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought this stunk

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 18 July 2004 13:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"Napoleon Dynamite": The most controversial film since the Passion of the Christ!

― kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 18 July 2004 13:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, the first 30 mins was GREBT. Then the plot came in and it was less so. I enjoyed it! Napoleon had the MOVES, too.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Thursday, 22 July 2004 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

the race politics in this movie were very queasy, among other things, but i thought the physical comedy was good.

― g--ff (gcannon), Thursday, 22 July 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Whatever. You all need to lighten up. *snaps fingers* It's too easy a target. I thought it was very enjoyable although, yes, very light.

"the race politics in this movie were very queasy"
and for obvious reasons, which made it even better

― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 23 July 2004 00:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually feel more compelled now to call it the best. movie. EVER.

― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 23 July 2004 02:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Looks pretty bad to me, and a friend of mine walked out of it, describing it as "genuine mean spiritedness disguised as irony. And not funny." Saw an interview with the director, and made a snap judgement based on his appearance. "Frat daddy," I decided. I kept waiting for him to say, "My dad owns a dealership."

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 23 July 2004 04:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Looks pretty bad to me, and a friend of mine walked out of it, describing it as "genuine mean spiritedness disguised as irony. And not funny"

are you sure they weren't talking about ILX??

on a serious note that is exactly how i felt about "being john malkovich", but not at all how i felt about "rushmore". am i to believe that this movie is more similar to malkovich than rushmore??

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 23 July 2004 04:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought it was hilarious, though agreed that the first 30 minutes are the best. I think I've met too many Napoleon-types IRL. The subplots with his brother and uncle (?) were the only parts I didn't like. Interesting in that they make you sympathize with ND even though he's very unlikable.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Friday, 23 July 2004 13:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually feel more compelled now to call it the best. movie. EVER.
-- Francis Watlington (peppermintsmok...), July 23rd, 2004.

That was a silly reference to the movie for those who didn't catch it. I really don't think it's the greatest movie EVAH, but I do agree with Vinnie in that Napoleon's not really a likeable character, yet you can't help but relating to him on some understated level. Man, I know that sounded like a crock, but for real...

"are you sure they weren't talking about ILX??"

Haha!

"on a serious note that is exactly how i felt about "being john malkovich", but not at all how i felt about "rushmore". am i to believe that this movie is more similar to malkovich than rushmore??"

The movie's more like Rushmore, although not to the extreme of which you are thinking.

― Goo Goo G'Joob (Francis Watlington), Friday, 23 July 2004 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

but doods, that one guy threw a cooked steak at a guy on a bicycle.

amazing.

― ddb (ddb), Friday, 23 July 2004 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

it really felt like a total w. anderson ripoff, with really badly-drawn characters instead of good ones.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 23 July 2004 16:34 (twenty-one years ago)

My computer now says "TINA, come get some HAM" when you make an error.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Saturday, 24 July 2004 00:12 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought it was actually really funny though perhaps lacked substance. i remember saying things like, "you're such a frickin IDIOT" in that exact tone of voice at some point in the early 90's so y'know, that resonated. and i liked the liger.

― j c (j c), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

It had some golden moments even if it was rambling. "I caught you a delicious bass" == losing my shit entirely.

― Dale the Panopticalist (cprek), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

My initial thought was "Rushmore" using earl 90's kitsch instead of 70's. A lot of parts hit really close to home, like all the cool t-shirts with horses on them, clinging to trapper keepers and finding a dance tape at the thrift store.

It did seem a bit pointless. But it was cute. The ending felt a bit anticlimactic tho -- i thought they should have built up more emotional momentum.

― Adam Bruneau, Thursday, 5 August 2004 05:35 (twenty-one years ago)

x post (way, way up)

a neutered Todd Solonz would be an amazing gift to the world. Haven't seen Welcome to the Dollhouse but watching Happiness made me realize just how sick I was of semi-talented independent films telling us that "the American dream" and the suburban family were empty gilded husks paraded before the masses in order to lull them into a soulless conformity which in fact masked deep individualistic quirks...manifested mostly by weird sexual fetishes, pedophilia, or filming plastic bags in the wind. Yes, I get it.

Fuck, at least American Beauty was funny. Happiness was more like a drinking game - I swear the goddamn housewife must have said "I'm so happy to be a housewife!" about five times.

― Slim Pickens (Slim Pickens), Thursday, 5 August 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"I caught you a delicious bass" == losing my shit entirely.

That was my favorite line. That, plus, "Tina! Come get some HAM!"

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Thursday, 5 August 2004 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Tina, come get some ham and But my lips hurt real BAD! have entered into every day vernacular around my house.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Friday, 6 August 2004 04:14 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

ARRRRGH! SO BAD! SO, SO UNBELIEVABLY BAD!

they should have done a short of him dancing and left it at that.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

the dance scene was the worst part of the movie!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

My lips hurt SO bad!

― Dale the Panopticalist (cprek), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought it was a cute little movie. The character is fleshed out so quickly that it's highly subjectively pleasurable to watch him react to things.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

he made my skin crawl

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

the first half hour is still really funny to me. I would like this whole thing more if it were a collection of unrelated five minute bits on a DVD with no plot.

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

When I saw this, I was thinking it might become something of an ILX touchstone, due to various ILXtroversial aspects - its "popist" bent; the '80s nostalgia; the calculated look-and-feel relation to other '90s/'00s indie films; the "hip black woman romances nerdy white guy" trope; probably something you could say in relation to Vice magazine; etc.

Of course, no reason why anyone should really care.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

(I have just been informed that there may in fact be discussion like this on the "Wes Anderson rip-off" thread.)

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

napoleon's character is quickly fleshed into loathsome.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"I've been talking to women on the internet all day."

― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm really surprised this movie is eliciting such strong reactions here. It's a little story about a Butthead style nerd who's convinced of his own superiority and surrounded by benign freaks. Could you expand on your loath?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

"you know what would be really funny? if we brought in some minorities, like a sex-obsessed black woman with a silly name and a mexican kid with cholo relatives!"

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah, see, that's what I was waiting for!

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

i found the character really unsympathetically drawn. he's a jerk, his family are jerks, and most significantly they're boring jerks. a lot of quick meaningless things floating around to signify kookiness don't equal a good script.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

the first half hour is still really funny to me. I would like this whole thing more if it were a collection of unrelated five minute bits on a DVD with no plot.

-- kyle (akmonda...), August 25th, 2004 2:25 PM. (akmonday) (later) - big ditto to this.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

the characters are TERRIBLY drawn! not just unsympathetically! i mean they're mostly one-joke characters whose shitty jokes are repeated over and over (like the uncle)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

also, the smugness factor is through the roof. with the exception of pedro and deb it seemed that no one could get over how clever the whole thing was, which affected the performances. it felt like they were playing to each other, in honor of their excellent in-joke.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah it was pretty proud of itself

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

one thing i liked and maybe this is 'verisimilitude' or something since it's set in idaho but i liked how all the cool hot kids weren't actually that cool or hot.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

dude that was hilary duff's sister!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

exactly! like you know summer or whatever wouldn'tve lasted five minutes in mean girls!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

LOHAN FOREVER!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

threads like this make me feel less guilty for never going to see any movies.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

The smugness didn't really bother me, considering that the "joke" was fairly funny, and the self-consciousness was part of it, anyway. It's like having some hipster people you know putting on a comedy routine or something. Admittedly, not something that sounds up my alley, but I enjoyed the movie and its schtick more than most "funny" movies I see nowadays.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

it was funnier than dodgeball!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes it was!

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

It's like having some hipster people you know putting on a comedy routine or something.

hmm. yeah. see, i can go to the bar for this if i feel like it and not waste valuable moviegoing time.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

no way, dodgeball was way funnier

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

o come on

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

it was! ben stiller was far funnier than he had any right to be in that movie

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Next you can argue which was funnier, Terms of Endearment or Kramer vs. Kramer.

― n.a. (Nick A.), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

slocki you need to see heavyweights stat

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

shit man why have i never heard of that movie before?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

he made my skin crawl
OTM, but I've only seen the trailer (specifically because of this).

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

dodgeball had its moments.

i don't think i want to see napoleon dynamite.

who is hillary duff's sister? hillary duff has an annoying voice.

― amateur!!st, Wednesday, 25 August 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

hayley duff!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 19:06 (twenty-one years ago)

This movie was hilarious. It was friggin awesome. I didn't care about the lack of plot and flat jokes such as the cholos mentioned above. Just as long as he kept saying lines like this:

"Can you get your stuff out of my locker? I don't have room for my numchucks. [sic]"

"You friggin' idiot."

― Dale the Panopticalist (cprek), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

it is an awesome thing that someone can be named hayley duff

― amateur!!st, Wednesday, 25 August 2004 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

The casting was a stroke of g, you have to admit. The brother was great.
http://einsiders.com/features/columns/images/napoleondynamite.jpg

― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

CASTING DIRECTOR: Well, the only one left waiting to audition is some guy who looks like a cross between Erlend Oye and Jake Busey.

DIRECTOR: Say no more!!

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I still haven't seen the movie but everytime Napolean Dyno... is on Best Week Ever I start blushing.

ihttp://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/2526/Events/2526/JohnHeder_Micks_3194132_400.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Heder,%20Jon

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

shit...

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I just realized that the uncle was Lazlo Hollyfeld from "Real Genius".

The least he could have done for the role was learn how to throw a football correctly, though.

― kickitcricket (kickitcricket), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

It would run out and see this movie right now if teh uncle was living in Napolean Dynomite's closet.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

"it" being me of course.

Mitch Taylor: Did you know there's a guy living in our closet?
Chris Knight: You've seen him, too?
Mitch Taylor: Who is he?
Chris Knight: Hollyfeld.
Mitch Taylor: Why does he keep going into our closet?
Chris Knight: Why do you keep going into our closet?
Mitch Taylor: To get my clothes, but that's not why he goes in there.
Chris Knight: Of course not, he's twice your size. Your clothes would never fit him.
Mitch Taylor: Yeah?
Chris Knight: Think before you ask these questions, Mitch. Twenty points higher than me, thinks a big guy like that can wear his clothes?

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

The least he could have done for the role was learn how to throw a football correctly, though.

Equally guilty of what I'm about to say but....do you think indie kids know how to throw a football and/or would notice if he was doing it right?

― Slim Pickens (Slim Pickens), Thursday, 26 August 2004 03:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Last night we went out to see Vanity Fair, but the ticket line was so long we wouldn't have got in before it started so we saw this instead. I found it terribly endearing. I think maybe I was that guy in high school. Yeah, it was *stupid*, but it was the *fun* kind of stupid.

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Sunday, 5 September 2004 17:48 (twenty-one years ago)

the "ughhh" and "gohhhsh" and "that's what i'm talkin about" are now firmly in our lexicon...

― g--ff (gcannon), Sunday, 5 September 2004 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Some aspiring fake ass indie filmaker realized people would pay to see Rushmore minus the humanity and crafted dumb jokes about non-fashionable poor people. I never wanted to see this film and I'm definitely not now and here's why: All of the students have returned to the college town I live in and in the past 3 days, four different frat dudes passing me on the street have informed me that I resemble the title character of this film, much to their own amusement.
I don't mind saying that I wish harm on the director of Napolean Dynamite. Dare I say I wish death to him, death to his wife, and death to his child.

― herbert hebert (herbert hebert), Monday, 6 September 2004 04:10 (twenty-one years ago)

touchy

― adam west (adamwest), Monday, 6 September 2004 04:53 (twenty-one years ago)

oh and "tina! come get some ham!" too, i've heard that a bunch of times.

― g--ff (gcannon), Monday, 6 September 2004 05:38 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

lauren otm. what a shitty movie.

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Thursday, 18 November 2004 08:38 (twenty years ago)

I loved it. Maybe it helps if you've spent time in a rural area.

― Bryan (Bryan), Thursday, 18 November 2004 08:43 (twenty years ago)

i've spent plenty of time in rural areas. didn't help AT ALL.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 18 November 2004 11:14 (twenty years ago)

I said maybe. I'm not saying it's the movie to end all movies. It just made me laugh very hard.

― Bryan (Bryan), Thursday, 18 November 2004 11:17 (twenty years ago)

Agreed re: terrible script, terrible direction, terrible acting, terrible race politics. But, despite the warmed-over comedic ideas, the filmmakers' (or one or two actors maybe) had a pretty good grasp on comedic timing. There were a handful of scenes that were much funnier than they should've been.

― Colin Beckett, Sunday, 21 November 2004 04:01 (twenty years ago)

made by byu mormons. i sort of know the main actor (j0n h3d3r) and the director (jar3d h3ss) was in one of my classes. haven't seen the movie though

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Sunday, 21 November 2004 05:41 (twenty years ago)

On the one hand, I found it difficult to like the main character, as not only was he socially inept - which I could live with - he had no manners and was rude. Also, it's a little bit too close to laughing at retarded kids.

On the other hand, PLACE THE T-HANDLE BETWEEN YOUR LEGS AFTER SETTING THE DATE AND POWER TO THE DESIRED TIME. Ha ha ha, you could see it coming a mile off and it made the cinema laugh like a Daily Show audience.

Man, I've gotta try selling those on Ebay.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Friday, 3 December 2004 05:10 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

"Looks pretty bad to me, and a friend of mine walked out of it"

ive never walked out of a film before, walked out of this one 30 mins in. The worst film i have ever seen, i think. The cinema was full of people guffawing and clapping at the shittest, most one-dimensional jokes ever. maybe its just islington, but it freaked me out that people could be so fuckin weird as to find this slightly funny. i think i might have smirked at one point. the steak throwing shit was fucking lame too.

WTF??? seriously, that was an 1.5 hrs of my life wasted. fuck you, napoleon dynamite. i hope yr low budget creators end up working at walmart for the rest of their lives or some shit.

― ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 23:49 (twenty years ago)

1.5 hours? i thought you left after 30 mns

― Andrew (enneff), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 23:55 (twenty years ago)

he was pretty funny.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 23:56 (twenty years ago)

ok now i REALLY want to see it...

― Frankenstein On Ice (blueski), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 23:58 (twenty years ago)

I actually really enjoyed this film, even though it didn't really have much of anything going on in it.

― Andrew (enneff), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 23:58 (twenty years ago)

I love the visceral reactions to it! It's just kinda low-key goofy.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 23:59 (twenty years ago)

It's just a movie, jeez. Methinks the mockery hits a little too close to the home of various fun-haters.

― I'm serious ... Ti-i-i-i-im (deangulberry), Thursday, 23 December 2004 00:05 (twenty years ago)

Came out on DVD in the USA yesterday.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 23 December 2004 00:10 (twenty years ago)

This film is funny and now I like it more after reading the arguments against it.

― Ally C (Ally C), Thursday, 23 December 2004 00:14 (twenty years ago)

I'm turned off by its studied middle-browness. Quirky, but completely inoffensive in order to get a PG-13 rating and run up a nice box office appealing largely to people who would shun the same thing in a pop package. It's the twentysomething version of all the lame movies marketed to upper-middle class middle-aged people (The Door in the Floor, The Clearing, etc.).

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Thursday, 23 December 2004 00:44 (twenty years ago)

Way to over-intellectualise an amusing film, milo.

― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 23 December 2004 00:48 (twenty years ago)

"Quirky, but completely inoffensive..." might be due to the Mormon background and not quite some clever marketing strategy.

― I'm serious ... Ti-i-i-i-im (deangulberry), Thursday, 23 December 2004 00:52 (twenty years ago)

It's just a movie, jeez. Methinks the mockery hits a little too close to the home of various fun-haters.

otm. I'm fully well aware why I wanted to go running out of the theatre screaming. Haven't had that strong of a visceral reaction to a film since that gawdawful harmony korine flick. Huomour is only funny if you can identify with it but not identify too much.

― mouse (mouse), Thursday, 23 December 2004 01:11 (twenty years ago)

right on, ambrose. yes, it's just a movie but it's also total piece of shit.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 23 December 2004 10:00 (twenty years ago)

have you seen titanic?

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 23 December 2004 13:50 (twenty years ago)

are they similar?

― Frankenstein On Ice (blueski), Thursday, 23 December 2004 14:01 (twenty years ago)

titanic was less irritating, to me.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 23 December 2004 14:13 (twenty years ago)

"My RJG Will Go On"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 23 December 2004 14:30 (twenty years ago)

http://www.movie-winners.com/posters/pix/leoandfriend.jpg

― Leon the Fratboy (Ex Leon), Thursday, 23 December 2004 14:43 (twenty years ago)

Folks tend to get on Napoleon Dynamite's case because it has this indie air about it, whereas it's cool to like Harold and Kumar because it doesn't give the impression of aspiring to anything. Really, I put them in the same category though -- silly and even mildly uplifiting movies with a lot of good laughs and not attempting to say anything more.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 23 December 2004 15:50 (twenty years ago)

it's out, now.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 23 December 2004 16:13 (twenty years ago)

every time i see that guy's leering freckled mug, i want to smash something.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 23 December 2004 16:15 (twenty years ago)

Did Napoleon Dynamite ride a cheetah? I think not.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Thursday, 23 December 2004 16:43 (twenty years ago)

it's very long, isn't it?

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 23 December 2004 16:47 (twenty years ago)

RJG says, according to gossip, that I remind him of Napoleon Dynamite.

I shouldn't be bringing this up.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Thursday, 23 December 2004 16:57 (twenty years ago)

it's quite sad, at the end.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 23 December 2004 18:25 (twenty years ago)

The main character looks exactly like Les from Vic Reeves' Big Night Out, only with hair.

I thought the reversing over the tupperware bit was quite funny.

― Ferg, Ah (Ferg), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 02:33 (twenty years ago)

funny, that you should mention vic reeves.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 02:38 (twenty years ago)

i looked forward to seeing it and ended up hating it. the cheap, easy, and incessant abuse of everyone in the movie gets old very quickly. the best parts of the movie were the opening credits and napoleon danicng at the end. in between you had bile.

― metfigga (metfigga), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 04:22 (twenty years ago)

I thought it was great fun and not spiteful at all. So many great little visual details and it really captured the magic and angst of adolescence. Easily the best movie about high school that I saw this year.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:02 (twenty years ago)

I ended up kinda liking it, I wasn't really expecting to. It grew on me. It's essentially an art movie, because it's a surrealist piece where the characters aren't just exaggerations of real people (like most movies), but exaggerations of exaggerations of exaggerations of real people, a cinematic reflection of teenagers in TV shows who are in turn reflections of teenagers in old movies who are in turn reflections of teenagers from the 1940s. So the bile and hatred of the characters that everyone else is so concerned about didn't bother me because the characters are so obviously characters, they're even less than 2-dimensional, they're like half-dimensional.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:08 (twenty years ago)

I'm dumbfounded by all this talk of bile. This movie had so much less bile than the usual teen comedy. There is no character in this movie that you don't root for at least a little bit. Maybe they look funny and act strange, but I never get the feeling that the film-makers are trying to get me to hate any of them - unlike the way most teen movies have to create a loathsome foil to the hero. This movie was remarkably bile-free.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:15 (twenty years ago)

WTF. Everything everyone seems to hate about this movie with such passion, I think it's more like things they hate about THEMSELVES.

HOLD ON, I FORGOT THE CRYSTALS.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:16 (twenty years ago)

This movie DID have a loathsome foil to the hero - Don, the teenage crewcutted bully who appears to be about 40 years old.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:17 (twenty years ago)

How was he loathsome?! I thought he was portrayed fairly sympathetically. Like when he gives the Summer for President button to Napoleon, who somewhat inexplicably throws it on the ground, he just kind of shakes his head in a bemused fashion - that's not the behavior of a loathsome villain. I mean there were a few bullies who banged people into lockers, but you never even saw their faces, they were such minor characters. I would hardly call that bile.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:19 (twenty years ago)

From the noize board, so I have to reply to it here:

THE UNCLE IS LAZLO HOLLYFELD FROM REAL GENIUS.
THAT IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW.

-- cutty (holle...), December 28th, 2004 9:10 AM. (mcutt)

HOLY SHIT HOW DID I NOT REALIZE THIS?!?!?! This instantly makes this movie about 800 times better.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:20 (twenty years ago)

o., that's what I'm talking about the characters being exaggerations of exaggerations: the bully isn't really shown doing anything loathsome, but he's a bully TYPE, and so we must loath him.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:26 (twenty years ago)

I see what you're saying about him being the bully type - but I think it's significant that the film never gives us compelling reasons to loathe him - it's more like the bullies and the jocks are just a necessary part of the high school ecosystem - just like Napoleon and the other nerds - and the movie takes pretty much a "live and let live" attitude towards every part of that ecosystem - which is about as far from bile as you can get.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:45 (twenty years ago)

and yet i wanted to give every character in the movie such a smack

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:47 (twenty years ago)

WTF. Everything everyone seems to hate about this movie with such passion, I think it's more like things they hate about THEMSELVES

i don't think that i'm smug, racist, and boring but then again self-knowledge is difficult, isn't it?

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 17:34 (twenty years ago)

I can understand the racist thing, but I honestly cannot find anything at all smug about this film. It's like, so many people hate it for things they find implied, when really it seems like they themselves are making the implications, where the movie is really totally simple and retarded, ie I think y'all are reading WAAAAAAAAAAY too much into a film with dialogue like "TINA come get some HAM" wherein "Tina" is a pet llama.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 17:57 (twenty years ago)

I guess I'm just having trouble figuring out how anyone can drum up such ire for a film which so little effort was put into.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 17:59 (twenty years ago)

I agree that it's a very blank movie, and I think that people project something onto it, but not necessarily themselves. But the widely differing opinions are, I think, evidence that this movie is so empty and vague that paradoxically people can see lots of different things in it. Which probably is not a good thing from an artistic standpoint.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:03 (twenty years ago)

I didn't see the movie so much as racist as racially awkward. Like whatever racism there was, consciously or (more likely) unconciously, wasn't malicious but just, I don't know, general ignorance. Which probably isn't an excuse. But the LaFawnduh stuff didn't bother me, since it's the brother who ends up looking ridiculous, not LaFawnduh. Pedro was a little more worrisome to me.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:13 (twenty years ago)

I don't think Pedro was so problematic as his "cousins with the phat hook-ups".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:14 (twenty years ago)

If anything, I thought it was remarkably racial-awkwardness-free for a film made by MORMONS. And yes I know that sentence implies that I think MORMONS ARE RACISTS.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:15 (twenty years ago)

At least it didn't take place in an imaginary Mormon kingdom of Nothing But Whitey.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:15 (twenty years ago)

I realize now that my posting to this thread might be unfairly influenced by the quadruple shot of espresso I just done drank.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:16 (twenty years ago)

You don't think a Mexican character who talks like Speedy Gonzales' lazy cousin is worrisome?

Eh, I don't really want to talk about this. Can we just talk about how awesome Real Genius is?

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:16 (twenty years ago)

Uh, well, like, I know Mexican people who do talk like that, though.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:18 (twenty years ago)

I like that part in Real Genius where Madmartigan tells some girl that eating cheeseburgers can cause her breasts to become huge and then he's like oh my god I'm too late!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:21 (twenty years ago)

er, whatever Val Kimler's character was called in that

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:22 (twenty years ago)

I should just go home now.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:23 (twenty years ago)

I don't think the portrayal of Pedro was racist. He might have done a couple of dumb things - but so did everyone else in this movie. Not to get on a high horse, but I think the movie had the courage to deal openly with the realities of immigrant assimilation and cultural differences. Sometimes when people first come to this country, they have an accent and dress differently. I don't think portraying that reality is racist. The fact that Pedro might have difficulty fitting in to the white-bread, provincial milieu of Buttfuck, Idaho should come as no surprise to anyone. As a recent immigrant, he has an excuse. What's Napoleon's excuse for being such a misfit? He doesn't have one. That's part of the irony of the situation.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 18:49 (twenty years ago)

Nickalicious, you are cracking my shit up today.

Maybe I'm biased because Nickalish came over and watched it with me 'n Dale Panopticalist, but I agree with pretty much everything he's saying: I know more Mexicans and Mexican-Americans that sound like Pedro than don't; I think people are hating on a movie that's simply not supposed to be that dense; etc. Some people who liked this move have suggested that maybe people identify a little too closely with the dorkiness and are therefor uncomfortable with it. I happen to think the people who don't like it are bothered because it reminds them of the people they used to make fun of in high school. I didn't look like Napoleon in high school, but I acted like and made fun of the same things — but that made it funnier than me.

I think it's hilarious that people who hate on "Napoleon Dynamite" tend to think 'Garden State" is so awesome, considering that movie is painfully inauthentic and carries the message, "Hey, people on antidepressants are total zombies who don't enjoy life and need to go off of their meds WITHOUT MEDICAL SUPERVISION in order to be 'real.'"

"It's the twentysomething version of all the lame movies marketed to upper-middle class middle-aged people (The Door in the Floor, The Clearing, etc.)."

I am totally not understanding this interpretation.

― sugarpants (sugarpants), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 19:24 (twenty years ago)

"...and that made it funnier TO me."

!@#$%^&

― sugarpants (sugarpants), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 19:25 (twenty years ago)

To be fair, I thought Garden State was way, WAY shittier than Napolean Dynamite.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Isn't The Clearing about some dude being chased through the woods? Robert Redford, maybe? How is this similar to Napoleon? I'm getting more confused the longer I think about it?

Also: "I see you're drinking 1 percent milk. Is that because you think you're fat? Because you're not. You could drink whole if you wanted."

― sugarpants (sugarpants), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 19:28 (twenty years ago)

I am totally not understanding this interpretation.

It's not about plot similiarity but why the film was created and who it was marketed to. "I'm turned off by its studied middle-browness. Quirky, but completely inoffensive in order to get a PG-13 rating and run up a nice box office appealing largely to people who would shun the same thing in a pop package."

ps Garden State sucked a fat one too. But at least it had Natalie Portman.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 21:23 (twenty years ago)

OK, I'm going to get totally mocked for this, but the girl in N.D. was WAY cuter and WAY WAY less annoying than Natalie Portman, and yeah, she kinda reminded me of the girl from Real Genius.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 21:42 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, Natalie Portman. Ugh. "I have a seizure disorder! My bosses make me wear a helmet to work! And I talk fast! I am, like, so QUIRKY!"

I guess I should take this to a "Garden State" thread. My bad.

― sugarpants (sugarpants), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 22:03 (twenty years ago)

saw it surrounded in the theater by teens (who were loudly enjoying all of it, to my annoyance [because i hate fun]) and i left feeling like a bitter old man. i almost hated them (the kids) for liking the character. i know they're surrounded by complete and utter geeks all the time who dress, live and act like napolean. only real life geeks don't DO anything. and certainly aren't entertaining in a funny or endearing way. not that the movie's attempting any sort of realness, but still...

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 22:15 (twenty years ago)

To be fair, I thought Garden State was way, WAY shittier than Napolean Dynamite.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooootm.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 23:10 (twenty years ago)

ok so this is a lame teen movie, thats all. no big deal, but as this thread demonstrates, the markets are different for the US and tyhe UK. in the UK, this is a hipster 20 somthing film. number of teens in audience = 0. so its dud on those terms. on the terms of it being a standard shit-for-brains pointelssness-fest.

but seriously, if u want to make a stupiud dumb ass movie, there are standards, people! anyone seen Scary Movie?
thats like, 100099999% funnnier than napoleon dynamite

i didnt see sex lives of the potato men but im willing to bet that that is on a par with this too.

― ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 02:03 (twenty years ago)

the "comedy" in the film is meant to be generated by us laughing at the plight of each ridiculed character. it was relentless, uninspired, and easy.

as many of you are surprised at how many people here are "bashing" the movie, i'm equally surprised at how many are coming to this films defense. i'm not reading anything into the movie or making any sort of projections based on my experiences in high school.

and for the record, garden state blows as well.

― metfigga (metfigga), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 05:11 (twenty years ago)

I can categorically confirm that all the movies under discussion on this thread (except for Real Genius) suck ass, because I am completely unbiased, having not seen any of them (except for Real Genius)

― You've Got to Pick Up Every Stitch (tracerhand), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 06:30 (twenty years ago)

The movie didn't do much for me (I was surprised at how un-moved I was by the climactic "Canned Heat" boogie dance -- I wasn't sure why either, I wasn't expecting a good dance, I wasn't expecting a bad dance...)

But I will say that Heder pretty much nailed his part. I think we've all known those cagey-guarded nerds aware of their own lack of social integration and who've developed an overcompensating defense reflex, substituting back-of-the-throat attitude to stave off becoming the butt of a joke. ("Napolean, what are you doing later?" "What-ever I FEEL like! Gosh!")

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 06:34 (twenty years ago)

but seriously, if u want to make a stupiud dumb ass movie, there are standards, people! anyone seen Scary Movie? thats like, 100099999% funnnier than napoleon dynamite

OK, now that's scary.

― sugarpants (sugarpants), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 14:21 (twenty years ago)

Scary 'cause it's true.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 23:57 (twenty years ago)

loved it. the story was fairly unnecessary but the characters more than made up for it. so, so many wonderful moments and lines. i agree it'd make a great tv series. and the final dance scene...wow! schweet.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 7 January 2005 12:02 (twenty years ago)

i liked it. no plot whatsoever, but decent. i like pedro's wig

― Big Baby Bingo (Chris V), Friday, 7 January 2005 12:31 (twenty years ago)

I thought it was going to be horrible, but when I finally saw it it turned out to be kind of harmless.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Friday, 7 January 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

This movie was also better than Steve fucking Zissou.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 7 January 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

Tom, Did you not like The Life Aquatic? I thought it was bizarro.

I did like Napoleon Dynamite, but I liked it better when it was over and Nick started talking like the main character.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 7 January 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

I was so, so disappointed with TLAWSZ I was getting vocally irate about it as soon as the credits started rolling. I Heart Huckabees and Napoleon Dynamite I had lower expectations for, but was really pleasantly surprised. And in both cases I felt like there was, you know, a POINT, with a PAYOFF, at the END, but my possibly unorthodox concepts of what those three words should mean in regards to a screenplay were nowhere to be found in Wes Anderson Land this year. Maybe END. I mean we did get to leave the theater.

As it is it's nice to know I won't have to pay Criterion Collection prices on the two DVDs I'm going to buy from 2004.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 7 January 2005 15:38 (twenty years ago)

I saw Napolean and Garden State back-to-back, and ND, while not great, tramples all over Garden State's cliche-ridden, half-baked pretentiousness

― Space Is the Place (Space Is the Place), Friday, 7 January 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

napoleon dynamite was just plain bad. it's like dumb humor for retarded martians (which, being that i'm from earth, is why i prefer harold & kumar, as someone had griped upthread [not re: me, just generally]).
this movie vaguely reminded me of rubin & ed, but napoleon is no crispin glover.

and also, to make my opinion worthless, i hated garden state the first time i saw it... my girlfriend bought it, i watched it again, and mostly enjoyed it.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Friday, 7 January 2005 18:10 (twenty years ago)

i'm really surprised so many people went for that dancing scene... it seemed like such a cheap payoff to me

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 7 January 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

the whole movie was cheap!

for me, that sequence was all about the realization that heder is actually a pretty gifted physical actor. up until that point, i was thinking maybe he was a wooden dork in real life too.

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 7 January 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

I was fucking enthralled. How is it cheap to you?

― TOMBOT, Friday, 7 January 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

Enthralled by the dancing payoff, not the whole movie.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 7 January 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

the only part I really enjoyed is when Napoleon calls home and interupts Kip from shredding a huge block of cheddar cheese on his plate of pale tortilla chips.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

I once knew a woman who had been a comic book store owner in Santa Barbara who told me a LOT of her friends had disliked the movie Clerks because the jokes they saw in it seemed cheap and stupid to them - she also quoted one of them saying "Nobody actually talks like that!" which I found INCOMPREHENSIBLE at the time.

I kind of think the same might be true of ND. Or a lot of movies in a similar vein, frankly. Not saying ND is on par with Clerks, but oh nevermind.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 7 January 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

clerks stinks

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

this movie cracked me up.

― Kim (Kim), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 03:45 (twenty years ago)

Watched this the other night and I laughed my ass off.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 04:10 (twenty years ago)

its practically my favorite animal.

World's Smallest Cat!

fucking hilarious.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

total dud. i'm honestly bewildered that anyone disagrees with that assessment.

― carly, Wednesday, 26 January 2005 04:38 (twenty years ago)

Anyone who ever lived in small town America in the eighties is going to find a lot to crack up at in this film. If you are not an American or have only ever lived in a big city, I could see how it would seem either meanspirited (which I actually think it is pretty far from) and/or bewildering (which it is obv.) I avoided seeing it for eons, but watched it last night and was just laffing like crazy. The complete deadpannesss of it really makes the movie.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 04:42 (twenty years ago)

You may be right. I did live in a small town in America in the 80s and I also laughed my ass off.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:55 (twenty years ago)

I hated it. To anyone who says "oh, but you never knew this guy I went to school with..." I say fine, but this guy went to school with YOU, not a whole school full of guys like HIM, so where were YOU in this film? It's one giant sledgehammer of a film with no subtlety whatsoever and yes, one big cheap payoff. And I know that's the point, but it made me hate it even more. I've never known a film to be more Marmite.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:59 (twenty years ago)

Marmite can double as rhyming slang, if you wish.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:59 (twenty years ago)

This is coming to me via Netflix tomorrow. I wasn't all that interested in the movie when it first came out, but all of this contentiousness has made me eager to see what all the fuss is about.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:00 (twenty years ago)

one thing I did like in this film: at the points in the story when it looked like napoleon would be able to learn something from what had just gone on and y'know advance as a person, grow, learn, all that stuff they do in the usual high school, nerd dramas, triumph, lose, whatever, at these points, it seemed, to me, napoleon just met them with a pause. all those points where he could have taken off he just didn't. was pretty cool.

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:01 (twenty years ago)

also the dance scene was done way better in freaks & geeks, with more funny but I guess less 'moral' payoff and was done elsewhere (I can't remember exactly where) with more panache.

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:02 (twenty years ago)

where were YOU in team america, madchen?

would it have made it better?

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

I, grew up, in, a Canadian City and, knew no, one like this in highschool, but still total,ly loved, this movie.

joke ruining 2xpost

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:11 (twenty years ago)

I was the kid in Paris with the ice cream, RJG.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:14 (twenty years ago)

I will let you know if you made it better, if I ever see it.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:16 (twenty years ago)

kim jong-lucy

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

How can I be ronery with you guys cracking me up all the time?

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:27 (twenty years ago)

I just watched this the other night. It's puzzling. Kids and teens came into my store over xmas absolutely desperate to buy this... one day we got 30 copies and sold them all by closing.

I was expecting a total laugh riot, and it wasn't like that at all. There were funny moments, but mostly it was a quiet movie that had an unusually no-frills portrayal of teenagers. The ending was very nice, too. The bile this movie inspires is unfathomable to me.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 00:09 (twenty years ago)

it's better than Anchorman, certainly

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

Ally & I were discussing WTF how Anchorman is SO FUNNY making jokes about retards and hispanics (btw san diego 1970s = no blacks whatsoever?) but the race politics of THIS movie are "queasy". ILX, adhere to one principle or something.

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 1 February 2005 00:22 (twenty years ago)

And almost anything is better than Clerks.

― Ally C (Ally C), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 00:24 (twenty years ago)

i liked it a lot, though i didn't laugh at much of it. i was enthralled because ND was so much like the older brother of my best friend since preschool, the resemblance (physical, vocal, attitude, everything) was impressive. it didn't actually cross my mind until reading this thread that it might be making fun of ND, i thought it was just a well-done portrait.

― Maria (Maria), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 01:30 (twenty years ago)

napoleon dynamite is the new chappelle's show---amusing, extremely inconsistent, and way over quoted by unfunny white people

― juiceboxxx (juiceboxxx), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 01:44 (twenty years ago)

And almost anything is better than Clerks.

Except, of course, Harold and Maude

― Aaron A., Tuesday, 1 February 2005 01:47 (twenty years ago)

btw san diego 1970s = no blacks whatsoever?

They were cut. Literally. There's a whole subplot featuring a lot of black people that you can see in the film they made entirely out of offcuts, Wake Up Ron Burgundy.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 02:05 (twenty years ago)

napoleon dynamite is the new chappelle's show---amusing, extremely inconsistent, and way over quoted by unfunny white people

Hah!

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 02:05 (twenty years ago)

This movie is one of those 'bunch of stuff that happened' films.

Though, "Pedro offers his protection" is a good line.

― Jimmy Mod always makes friends with women before bedding them down (ModJ), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 02:33 (twenty years ago)

I saw this recently, after being practically ordered to do so by the eighth graders I was teaching. I thought it was a little bit funny -- as some folks said above, there are some great scenes -- but not really good or shitty either way. The most interesting thing about it is that it's the rage among the 13-year olds.

I think viewing it as directed at an adult audience is misguided; it's clearly made for kids, and shows the flaws and charms of that.

― Hurlothrumbo (hurlothrumbo), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 04:42 (twenty years ago)

it's clearly made for kids

Whaaaaaaat?

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 04:46 (twenty years ago)

well, I guess what I mean is there's no character development, all the characters are broadly caricatured, and the humor is really juvenile. In addition, the sympathetic characters are kids, and the targets of derision are adults -- or at least that's how it plays to me.

None of this means I didn't enjoy it -- I don't mean it's not for anyone except kids; I just think it seems like a movie intended primarily for an audience maybe 12-17, and the rest of us are gravy.

― Hurlothrumbo (hurlothrumbo), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 05:01 (twenty years ago)

no character development

You don't think there was any character development in Napoleon learning how to dance? It was some kind of development, you've got to admit. Rhythm development, maybe.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 05:04 (twenty years ago)

heh. fair enough. I liked the dancing, too.

― Hurlothrumbo (hurlothrumbo), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 05:09 (twenty years ago)

I rented this film but it won't play on my computer. (Yes, yes, I know, I should get an actual DVD player, shhhh.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 05:15 (twenty years ago)

Not as good as Ferris buellers day off.
btw dont sleep on "revenge of the nerds" or "the burbs"
Will

― willdabeast, Tuesday, 1 February 2005 14:54 (twenty years ago)

It's definitely better than The Burbs.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

I was left with an overwhelming feeling of 'eh'. There were funny parts, yeah, but .. eh.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

I laughed like a drain and found it quite touching. On a purely emotional level, it sold me. And that's good enough for me.

The casting of Napoleon was genius too.

― Crackity (Crackity Jones), Monday, 21 February 2005 12:07 (twenty years ago)

I watched this again last week and enjoyed it much more the second time. One thing though - where the fuck did that scene at the end after the credits come from? With Kip's wedding and his song and NAPOLEON APPEARING OVER THE HILLTOP ON A WILD STALLION! Was that in the original cinema release? If so, genius. It was better than anything in the film proper.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 21 February 2005 12:33 (twenty years ago)

I think it was added, after, and cost more, to make, than the whole of the original film or something.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 21 February 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

this movie was terrible and everyone that told me to see it was clearly insane and/or watching a different movie (presumably one that had a plot, characters, cleverly scripted jokes, and an emotional core). It's totally flat - a one-dimensional caricature by MTV and some Mormons in which they attempt to distill the 'essence' of much smarter, more challenging films (Solondz, Wes Anderson, Freaks n Geeks, etc.) into some sort of watered-down muck. REMIND ME NEVER TO WATCH A MOVIE MADE BY MTV EVER AGAIN.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:04 (twenty years ago)

word

― ()ops (()()ps), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

I'm embarrassed, for you, shakey mo collier.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:58 (twenty years ago)

don't worry, that isn't really necessary.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 00:00 (twenty years ago)

WTF. Everything everyone seems to hate about this movie with such passion, I think it's more like things they hate about THEMSELVES.

I happen to think the people who don't like it are bothered because it reminds them of the people they used to make fun of in high school.

No. It was just. not. funny. And tiresome.

― ()ops (()()ps), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 00:45 (twenty years ago)

"tina come get some ham" is the only funny thing in the entire movie, I now think.

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 00:48 (twenty years ago)

I stand by my original assessment.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 00:50 (twenty years ago)

beyond any sort of "political" criticisms of the film and its POV, I just think it was a shittily made movie. It's visual cues were all poorly copied from other, better movies, the pacing was completely wrong and stilted, badly constructed dialogue, one-dimensional acting, stiff editing, no sense of how to move a plot along, etc. It was like a really really bad SNL sketch stretched to an hour and a half.

"I happen to think the people who don't like it are bothered because it reminds them of the people they used to make fun of in high school."

as for this ass-backwards comment - *I* was the one getting made fun of and beaten up in high school, so FUCK YOU.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

Two local Clear Channel stations (alt-rock and top-40) have been running Napoleon-themed contests (turn geeks into studs send them to Padre Island, I think) with loads of dialogue. I hate my generation, this movie and Clear Channel. In that order.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:30 (twenty years ago)

arrrgh such an unholy marriage of shittiness...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:32 (twenty years ago)

Napoleon Dyanamite soundboard!

(quite a few of these actually)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:38 (twenty years ago)

omg this movie is so much better than anything wes anderson has done (since rushmore)

― charleston charge (chaki), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:59 (twenty years ago)

I agree w/ Alex's initial assessment as well. I lurve it.

― deej., Wednesday, 16 March 2005 05:34 (twenty years ago)

(And I was born in Chicago, grew up in a very very small town, moved back to Chicago at ten.)

― deej., Wednesday, 16 March 2005 05:34 (twenty years ago)

I think the general love *and* hate for the movie is amusing to watch. I honestly have no interest in the film but this thread is a microcosm of interesting reactions. And all I ever think about when I hear someone mention it (a slew of friends of mine are all gaga over it now) is, "One of Elvis Costello's odder ideas."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 05:46 (twenty years ago)

the only thing that makes me want to hate this movie is that the girl who said I just HAD to see it told me and my friend we must have a crap sense of humor for not finding it funny. (i did find a few parts mildly amusing. the whole thing is funnier in concept than as executed. 10 mins of it would've been plenty)

― ()ops (()()ps), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

I dislike it only cuz nothing happens until 50 minutes into the movie!

― Remy (null) (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 08:40 (twenty years ago)

something happened? i think i started making out by then.

― ()ops (()()ps), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 08:48 (twenty years ago)

making out that you aren't a dickhead?

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:25 (twenty years ago)

I thought it was great. Especially the part where he correctly identifies the problems with a variety of tampered-with milks.

― The Horse of Babylon (the pirate king), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:57 (twenty years ago)

that's nice Ned. I find the unpredictable yet ultimately pointless antics of mere mortals amusing as well, though perhaps for different reasons.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 14:48 (twenty years ago)

Yay!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 14:50 (twenty years ago)

hey RJG, what crawled up your ass and spawned a colony of toolishness?

― ()ops (()()ps), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 18:59 (twenty years ago)

Ned, why no interest in this film?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:08 (twenty years ago)

the guy who plays napoleon dynamite came to 'speak' on campus recently and everyone was all 'omg omg are you going to see him? are you going to see him? i can't wait i can't wait' and i was 'you realize he's just an actor, right?'.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:09 (twenty years ago)

there aren't any elves in it spencer

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:09 (twenty years ago)

people are stupid newsflash

x-post

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

"just an actor"

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

Like Ned, why would you see Anchorman and not this?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

like Spencer, I'm curious as to how Ned can be interested in the hubbub surrounding the film, but not the film itself. (I myself confess that I was pretty much strong-armed into watching it)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

Oh I can understand that, I'm just curious as I think Ned might actually like this one.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

if the hubbub around this film is interesting, i'll eat my foot

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

I admit that part of my vitriol towards this "phenomenon" is totally rockist in origin - ie, the film is not "authentic" and comes from sources I inherently am suspicious/disrespectful of (MTV and Mormons). On the other hand, I would happily overlook those associations if the film was actually any good - but it isn't.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

mtv made election too

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

yes but that film is actually good (well directed, well acted, deftly scripted - even the totally obvious Pepsi product placement is integrated into the story in kind of a funny/clever way).

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

the funny thing about Pepsi in Election is that it's used to emphasize what a loser/eternally-second-place type Broderick's character is (ie, he doesn't choose the All American #1 Coke) - the product placement insults the product and works in the context of the character.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

blount's POINT was that election is good

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

Didn't MTV buy both of these after they were finished?

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

MTV's also responsible for the greatest sports movie ever - Varsity Blues

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

I'd rather watch more Napoleon Dynamite outtakes than Election.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

Milo's OTM with both of those posts! I think the only movies whose production MTV has funded, as opposed to already-made-films-it-distributed, were Varsity Blues and that one about the guy named Joe with the cockroaches.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

http://www3.state.id.us/oasis/HCR029.html

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Thursday, 21 April 2005 03:26 (twenty years ago)

34 WHEREAS, Pedro's efforts to bake a cake for Summer illustrate the positive
35 connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships; and
36 WHEREAS, Kip's relationship with LaFawnduh is a tribute to e-commerce and
37 Idaho's technology-driven industry; and

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Thursday, 21 April 2005 03:27 (twenty years ago)

OMG!

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 21 April 2005 04:08 (twenty years ago)

I thought this movie was pretty bad. I don't understand how people can complain about SNL movies and then go around quoting this one.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 21 April 2005 06:31 (twenty years ago)

welcome to the dollhouse.

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 21 April 2005 10:45 (twenty years ago)

Idaho isn't really that pathetic is it?

― diedre mousedropping (Dave225), Thursday, 21 April 2005 12:12 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

ooh, 'quirky'.

― N_RQ, Monday, 23 May 2005 09:19 (twenty years ago)

I thought it was a poor film.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Monday, 23 May 2005 09:38 (twenty years ago)

I found it to be just a relentless sequence of scenarios that made the viewer go "What the FUCK?!" (whether that's positive or negative depends on your point-of-view.

Personally, I think nickalicious has been OTM through this entire thread.

― Ian Riese-Moraine is on toffuti break! (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 23 May 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

Such a truly cruel film.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 23 May 2005 15:45 (twenty years ago)

sheesh. if you come into this film with no real expectations, it turns out pretty well, if a little underwhelming. i do think that the filmmakers really cared about the characters, and it shows by the end of the movie. and yes, i do think most of us knew of/were parts of these chraracters at some point in middle or high school, for what it's worth.

― lemin (lemin), Monday, 23 May 2005 16:31 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I didn't really have any expectation. Actually, I thought I'd dislike it.

― Ian Riese-Moraine is on toffuti break! (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 23 May 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

I saw it the other week. I had to put subtitles on, way too much mumbling. I thought it was okay, it was a little too disjointed to be really great. Not LOL funny either.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 23 May 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

I DID have no expectations, excepting a good friend telling me she liked it. I thought it was relentlessly mean, (poorly) calculating and cynical as fuck.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 23 May 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

I don't see any of those qualities.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 23 May 2005 17:11 (twenty years ago)

Eye of the beholder and all that, I guess.
I _did_ grow up with those guys (and probably WAS one of those guys) but I hated it nonetheless.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 23 May 2005 17:14 (twenty years ago)

I agree with Alex. I didn't have many laff-out-loud moments, but by the time it was over, I was ready to see it again. Or, more in keeping with its ethos, to let it just keep going (nowhere in particular).

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

Everyone and everything in this movie were, more or less, alien to me. I enjoyed it though, baffling as it was.
The scenery is incredible, I loved all those shots of the prairie and so forth, and the real sense of a shimmering, numbing heat. Napoleon and Pedro in particular seemed to be completely stupyfied by the heat alone.

Strange film.

― David Merryweather (DavidM), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 11:31 (twenty years ago)

from the onion:

Entire Napoleon Dynamite Plot Pieced Together Through Friends' Quotes

AUSTIN, TX—Although he has never seen the 2004 indie hit Napoleon Dynamite, Michael Osman, 23, has cobbled together its entire plot via his friends' endless quoting of the film. "Well, Napoleon's brother said, 'Don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day,' and then got a visit from his Internet girlfriend," Osman said. "Then Napoleon told his Uncle Rico that he could make 120 bucks 'in like five seconds,' and went to work on a chicken farm. Then Napoleon gave Trisha a drawing, said, 'It took me like three hours to finish the shading on your upper lip,' and asked her to the dance." Osman added that he has a pretty good idea what a liger looks like.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 2 June 2005 10:14 (twenty years ago)

i thought this pwned. i laughed a lot. esp@ delicious bass.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 2 June 2005 10:29 (twenty years ago)

how is this movie at all indie?

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 2 June 2005 11:45 (twenty years ago)

BAD HAIR

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 2 June 2005 12:09 (twenty years ago)

though it sometimes leaves me just confused i often find that feeling out of sync with the audience, when i do, clarifies my reaction to a movie. at 'life aquatic' my companion and i seemed to find a lot more of the jokes funny than the rest of the audience. at 'monster-in-law', surely the least funny movie pretending to be a comedy i have seen in ages, a couple of couples (i think they were middle-aged gay men, if that says anything at all - i mention that because one review i read intimated that perhaps gay men were the intended ideal audience, and that's the only way i've been able to make sense of why anyone with any familiarity with the conventions of current romantic comedies and thus having the expectations that the outlines supplied by formulas be filled in with jokes, that is, who?, might take the movie to be funny rather than empty and needlessly cruel) laughed demonstratively at everything that might be taken as a joke, whether it actually contained one or not.

so, at 'napoleon dynamite' i started out thinking well of the movie, laughing some, but what put me off was seeing how much funnier the audience - in large part - seemed to find it. and what they found funny where i was less moved tended to be the easy gags directed at napoleon or any other character on the basis of little more comical than their being awkward losers.

at moments i thought it struck a tragic note just because of what eric (?) noted above in the thread - that part of napoleon's character (you could see it in the girl's, too, though hers was more conventionally manifested via the 'nerdy girl who knows what people think of her' tropes, i think, as opposed to something more inherent in napoleon setting him apart) involved a studious lack of awareness of what people thought of him, and overcompensation, precisely as a reaction to people thinking so poorly of him. if i recall correctly there are a couple moments, maybe no more than reaction shots, where it's implied that his obliviousness is a defense; you see him falter, affected slightly.

this is not to say that what put me off was that people failed to see this tragic note. nor that it redeems the character of napoleon. as people have noted, he's a jerk at times. (one wonders what choice life has given him so far.) but i think it at least puts in a different light many of the things that some people seem to have liked about the movie. there were some good jokes, and apart from some exaggerated absurdities and such for the purposes of making a movie, i thought it captured (comically, which isn't to say with laughing) the manner, the physiognomy, of a certain exemplar of the loser (and his social proximates - they're never really alone) with uncanny, uncomfortable accuracy. but upon finding that many in the audience seemed to have no problem taking that portrayal as a laff riot i felt a little bit more miserable about humanity, about what human beings can do to one another and not even know it. and by saying that i'm not identifying with napoleon, thinking, hey he's just like me when i was in high school, or feeling guilty and thinking, hey i totally made fun of that guy in high school. like most people i know who weren't callously and openly cruel to such easy targets at that age, i had as little to do with the school losers as possible, kept to my own life by the contempt automatically required of me.

i wonder whether anyone else experienced what seemed to me to be the especially agressive marketing campaign for the dvd release. no doubt as part of their followup to its surprise success (?), someone connected with the movie paid for person-to-person advertising / canvassing. i was hit at least three different times in the fall by someone in public distributing cardstock ads for the forthcoming (then out?) dvd, once in a coffeeshop where after hitting maybe a dozen people in less than a minute the person was asked to leave by the barista.

i'm sure this is not the first movie for which that marketing strategy has been chosen, but it's the only time i've experienced it, and for me it confirmed some of my suspicions about the dispositions of the movie's audience (because of the relative breadth of viewer the promoters apparently expected to be able to draw interest from, not because of the aggressiveness of the canvassing).

― Josh (Josh), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:33 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

Bought this the other day and I've watched it like twice now. All I can say is gosh, shut up already. This film is like totally sweet!

Seriously though, I was laughing, often crying with laughter at this movie. It manages to sum up my character during the first awkward years of secondary school so well for me. Being funny-looking and getting beaten up for doing stupid geeky things that kept me entertained. It's a beautiful, funny bit of comedy.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

wow i didn't see that josh post. well done.

― g e o f f (gcannon), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

i have only ever heard this movie quoted, in public, by kids (either college or hs, i can't tell anymore) who are definitely not the school's losers. but then i never see actual losers out, they tend to be quieter, and while normal kids are pretty standardized, true hopeless cases are sui generis.

the only thing i like about this movie anymore is that it's rural without being all country-orientalist about it.

― g e o f f (gcannon), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

I think it's great although I didn't really laugh
that much. I find it a little odd that people seem to
consider this surreal or cartoonish because it
struck me as way more true to life than nearly
any other teen movie, to the point of being almost
painfully uncomfortable to watch. In a sense,
teenagers are loathsome that way, the
'cool' and 'uncool' ones. Like blount said, the 'cool'
ones aren't really all that cool or hot. Neither
are they Carrie-style demonic a lot of the time. Summer and her boyfriend came off as relatively normal to me. 'Bullying' (and maybe the harshest variety) often just consists of
contemptuous indifference, and 'geeks' usually are a little
obnoxious and hard-to-root-for. Napoleon
Dynamite looks a bit like an indie rocker but he isn't cute or charming even in the way of the dude from Rushmore. He's genuinely uncharismatic, clumsy, inarticulate, rude, dishonest, not that talented, defensive and belligerent without much to back it up, and a little boring. And he doesn't care that much. I could identify with him and relate to why people would want to make a target of him
at the same time. Most of those qualities aren't terrible crimes or anything. He wants to be liked but not enough to want to change himself that much. And why should he? At the same time, why should anyone like him for who he is? What incentive would Summer have to play tetherball with some guy who can barely find the ball and doesn't even make much in the way of conversation? The friendships he does form are fairly empty, based on little more than shared rejection. He doesn't do a great dance or a horrible dance at the end. He does a dance. It is beautifully anticlimactic. He wins 'glory' for his friend, possibly just on the basis of novelty. He doesn't get the girl at the end - he gets a tetherball game that he looks like he's losing.

― Sundar (sundar), Thursday, 16 June 2005 22:53 (twenty years ago)

this movie was so painfully obvious, empty, and just plain badly made that I fell asleep during large chunks of it. A "privelege" previously reserved only for such mindnumbing crapsterpieces as "Almost Famous" and "The Up Side of Anger".

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 16 June 2005 22:57 (twenty years ago)

I really didn't like Life Aquatic FWIW.

― Sundar (sundar), Thursday, 16 June 2005 23:04 (twenty years ago)

I liked Life Aquatic more the second time (a phenomenon true of most of Wes Anderson's stuff, I've found). Too much Bowie though.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 16 June 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

wow i didn't see that josh post. well done.

Yeah, I didn't see it either. Great post.

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Thursday, 16 June 2005 23:18 (twenty years ago)

http://g.myspace.com/00038/06/17/38727160_l.gif http://g.myspace.com/00038/06/17/38727160_l.gif http://g.myspace.com/00038/06/17/38727160_l.gif http://g.myspace.com/00038/06/17/38727160_l.gif http://g.myspace.com/00038/06/17/38727160_l.gif http://g.myspace.com/00038/06/17/38727160_l.gif http://g.myspace.com/00038/06/17/38727160_l.gif http://g.myspace.com/00038/06/17/38727160_l.gif http://g.myspace.com/00038/06/17/38727160_l.gif http://g.myspace.com/00038/06/17/38727160_l.gif

― animated gifs, Thursday, 16 June 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

Josh's post is well written and has some points, but still... I don't see much in the way of cruel or painful teen interaction in this movie at all. In fact, it seems innocent and mild compared to other movies (say, Dazed and Confused), or to real life. It doesn't exactly roll off Napoleon's back, but he knows enough not to let rejection by the "cooler" kids rule his life, and goes about his business. Basically, Nickalicious OTM:

WTF. Everything everyone seems to hate about this movie with such passion, I think it's more like things they hate about THEMSELVES.
...
I honestly cannot find anything at all smug about this film. It's like, so many people hate it for things they find implied, when really it seems like they themselves are making the implications, where the movie is really totally simple and retarded, ie I think y'all are reading WAAAAAAAAAAY too much into a film with dialogue like "TINA come get some HAM" wherein "Tina" is a pet llama.

(Also, Sundar, how can this possibly be interpreted that he doesn't get the girl? And he's totally crushing her in the one tetherball point that they play.)

― wetmink (wetmink), Friday, 17 June 2005 01:27 (twenty years ago)

I just watched it once and it was a little while ago but I didn't see that she was giving or even suggesting anything more than friendship at the end. It's left open whether or not something will develop. So I might have expressed myself poorly when I said he doesn't 'get' her - maybe he will. But by the same token AFAICT you can't say that he does. I think that assuming that is projection from other teen movies. It's not a romantic Hollywood ending.

Maybe he was winning at tetherball. I don't think I've even played anyway.

― Sundar (sundar), Friday, 17 June 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

josh's post is otm.

― N_rQ, Friday, 17 June 2005 07:39 (twenty years ago)

There is a deleted scene that I wish they'd left in whereby Napoleon and Pedro are playing kickball at school against Summer and her boyfriend. The whole scene makes the Napoleon character that much clearer. He accidentally-on-purpose whacks the kickball in Summer's face then gets in a silly argument with her jock boyfriend before giving him a girly slap and running away. In a way it's horrible and awkward but the guy is an angry, overgrown, misunderstood teen and it's all done in a really stupid way - it's perfect.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 17 June 2005 09:11 (twenty years ago)

i don't think that scene would change my opinion of the film. i was a pretty gawky teen, and i loved 'rushmore' (more now than ever, i think), but this film didn't ring true, it just seemed like an ersatz "indie" film for "indie" people. its attitude towards everyone in it was plain misanthropic.

― N_RQ, Friday, 17 June 2005 09:22 (twenty years ago)

I agree. I thought it was like a vapid John Waters imitation, without genuine characters or dialogue.

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Friday, 17 June 2005 11:04 (twenty years ago)

I remember being about 13 and cycling passed one of the more popular girls at school in town and for no reason just sticking my tongue out defiantly at her and then pedalling away. She wasn't particularly cool, but at school she ruled the roost and would tease me for fun in tutor groups. Something so pathetic as doing this kind of sums up my social awkwardness and it rang true with the kickball scene and the badge-throwing scenes particularly, this kind of geeky, cowardly revenge.

And I disagree that this film is indie for indie's sake, I just don't get that at all. I also disagree that it's cliched. In fact it avoids a lot of teen-com cliches. The geeks don't pull the jock girls, they don't win any fights, they don't suddenly becoming beautiful butterflies. It is however a feelgood movie. The geeks don't even fall in love or anything because geeks aren't necessarily too concerned with love - Pedro and Napoleon just aren't that fussed. Debbie is just the beginning of something I guess. I know when I was 13 I was interested in girls but knew I was too shy and awkward to be able to make the effort to actively try getting a girlfriend.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 17 June 2005 11:05 (twenty years ago)

this is what i mean by it being ersatz indie. omg! dys! the geeks DON'T pull the hott girls. see those conventions being challenged! gimme 'bring it on' any day.

― N_RQ, Friday, 17 June 2005 11:14 (twenty years ago)

Aw c'mon, so what DO you want then? You're just getting pop-ist now.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:16 (twenty years ago)

This movie is so much better than Rushmore.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:20 (twenty years ago)

it just seemed like an ersatz "indie" film for "indie" people.

actually, judging from the folks who wind up worshipping this flick, it seems more like an ersatz indie film for damn near everybody else, mostly those who don't get that Wes Anderson guy's stuff.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

no it isn't. it's a poor imitation of rushmore.

kingfish otm, it's just ersatz whatever it is.

― N_RQ, Friday, 17 June 2005 14:22 (twenty years ago)

I ain't seen Rushmore. I find it strange that all the haters seem to be comparing ND to other films or watching it on some kind of cultural level. The writing is FUNNY, the acting is hilarious, it's essentially a slapstick romp on a budget not some great barometer of indie-ness.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

"no it isn't. it's a poor imitation of rushmore."

If by "poor imitation" you mean it has nothing to do with it, I agree completely.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:24 (twenty years ago)

Yea, and soooo much better than Election. xpost

― DAEREST V1CE MAGAZINE!!!!! (ex machina), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that's me (someone who doesn't get Anderson). See, I found Life Aquatic smug, condescending, and just plain dull. (Enjoyed Rushmore but I can't imagine that anyone could think ND is more cliched than that one. It was beautifully made though. Tennenbaums was all right, mostly because of the cast.)

3xpost

― Sundar (sundar), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:29 (twenty years ago)

(xpost)OTM.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:29 (twenty years ago)

The writing is FUNNY, the acting is hilarious, it's essentially a slapstick romp on a budget not some great barometer of indie-ness.

well no the writing isn't funny, and the acting isn't hilarious. but it is clearly going for indie cachet, i would have throught that obvious. as for 'on a budget': certainly not on a marketing and promotion budget.

it's a bit like 'rushmore' in that it's a quirky 'indie' film about a misfit american schoolkid who has trouble with jocks and eventually half-succeeds. that's a close enough fit for me. 'election' micturates on this film.

― N_RQ, Friday, 17 June 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

i guess the funniness is subjective, but anyway i hardly laughed at all. the lines all seemed to have been written so that people would quote them.

― N_RQ, Friday, 17 June 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

i have to admit i wouldnt mind this movie so much if high school kids and/or frat boys weren't so in love with it

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

What are you guys doing hanging around high school kids and frat boys anyway?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

Doesn't Mandee have younger sisters?

― DAEREST V1CE MAGAZINE!!!!! (ex machina), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:44 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe I still haven't seen this. By all accounts it SHOULD be my favorite movie ever.

I was a huge dork in HS.

― giboyeux (skowly), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:48 (twenty years ago)

Yeh, I don't know anyone who quotes this.

It's about as indie as Beavis and Butthead, and even so, so what? Maybe I've had my head in the sand but I didn't see much more marketing than any other film out in the last year.
For me the acting is perfect - just the way the guy runs, I dunno it's obvious but very well observed. And more silly, subtle things like eating bloody steak whilst standing up made me giggle. And yes, it's quotable, but that's humour isn't it? You're very hard to please.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:49 (twenty years ago)

"Doesn't Mandee have younger sisters?"

Is that everyone on this thread's excuse? I swear I had no idea this movie was a cultural touchstone that people were quoting like crazy until I read it here.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:51 (twenty years ago)

Bbbbbbut it was marketed by MTV!

xpost

Alex, how old are you?

― DAEREST V1CE MAGAZINE!!!!! (ex machina), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

Haha ancient.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

one thing i didn't get is: when is the film set? i thought it was the '80s right up to the jamiroquai scene. the only other clue is the internets.

i am no hard-to-please, i just like movies that make me laugh and don't suck and maybe, if they're real good, provide some kind of insight into at least one facet of existence, however obliquely.

― N_RQ, Friday, 17 June 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

Have you gone to a mall recently? Every single store has Napoleon t-shirts and unlicensed knock off shirts. A campus bar here in town has a Napoleon Dynamite night where people dress up as characters.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah there are so many films about small town kids in Idaho. Fuck the multiplex is over-flowing with them.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:54 (twenty years ago)

I swear I had no idea this movie was a cultural touchstone that people were quoting like crazy until I read it here.

Myspace made it all too clear to me.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:54 (twenty years ago)

i hang around the skate park a lot, trolling for a highschool boyfriend

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

There are no malls in SF, but I was in a Hot Topic recently (don't ask) and I did see all the "Vote For Pedro" t-shirts. And I saw that David Banner was wearing one in his most recent video.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

Have you gone to a mall recently? Every single store has Napoleon t-shirts and unlicensed knock off shirts. A campus bar here in town has a Napoleon Dynamite night where people dress up as characters.

Really? Woah? Pretty much the only time I've seen anything about this film was on ILX tbh. Then again I'm in England so I don't generally visit malls. Still, I treat it like King of the Hill or South Park - they're popular, they're goofy, students wear the wigs and baseball caps but it doesn't put me off watching it.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

"Myspace made it all too clear to me."

Did Cosley quote it or something?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

Oh no, the kids like it, OH NO!

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:01 (twenty years ago)

alex why are you acting like, angry?

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:02 (twenty years ago)

King of the Hill inspires fandom??

― DAEREST V1CE MAGAZINE!!!!! (ex machina), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:05 (twenty years ago)

I quote the "milk going bad" thing all the time.

― It's a Mad Mad Mad city (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:08 (twenty years ago)

I like Wes Anderson too (well, not so much "Bottle Rocket" -but "Rushmore" and "Tenenbaums" - haven't seen "Life Aquatic" yet) and I guess there are some similarities - they're all zany, oddball comedies with quirky characters - but I wouldn't consider "Napoleon" especially derivative of Anderson. It has a style and wit of its own. I think it owes as much to David Letterman as it does to Anderson, in terms of the deadpan absurdist gags - like someone throwing a steak and knocking a guy's glasses off while he's riding a bike.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

haven't seen "Life Aquatic" yet

I would say you could wait on that.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

Wait forever, in fact.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, o.nate, I loved Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and the Royal Tenenbaums but seriously Life Aquatic was soooooo disappointing.

also o.nate is pretty much OTM.

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

Thanks for the advice. Don't worry - I'm not in any rush to see it (Life Aquatic).

When I think of all the quirky characters in a movie like "Tenenbaums" and compare them to the ones in "Napoleon", it seems to me that the ones in "Napoleon" actually seem more like real people. I mean, Anderson likes to use a big cast that cover a wide range of personalities, but his characters can seem a little one-dimensional: for instance, you might have the neurotic high-strung professional (Ben Stiller), the loveable roguish dad (Gene Hackman), the depressed self-hating beauty (Gwyneth Paltrow), the reckless drug addict (Owen Wilson), and so on. Each one is pretty easy to reduce to a short phrase from a script treatment somewhere. I think that by sticking to a narrower paletter (social misfits) "Napoleon" actually gets deeper into its characters (esp, the character of Napoleon himself) than "Tenenbaums" does - though it might not have the flash and dazzle of the big big-name cast.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:33 (twenty years ago)

I thought Life Aquatic was pretty good.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:45 (twenty years ago)

There are no malls in SF

dude there are like, TWO malls in SF; Stonestown and, maybe, SF Center

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:46 (twenty years ago)

Stonestown is def mallish, but its a decidedly weird one (half the stores and the movie theater are disconnected from the main part--also most people take the bus to get there.) That was where I went to the Hot Topic though, so I guess it counts. SF Center is a mall, but if there is Napoleon Dynamite related merch and frat kids and high schoolers quoting it there, I'd be shocked.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:53 (twenty years ago)

o.nate's last post v v OTM.

― Sundar (sundar), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:54 (twenty years ago)

provide some kind of insight into at least one facet of existence, however obliquely

People who say they would like to get this out of MOTION PICTURES should just go get drastically high and watch "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" followed by "Sum Of All Fears" followed by "Black Hawk Down" so they can see how all life hangs by a thread, sword of damocles catastophe bang whimper etcetera. WHOOAAAAAAA. WHOOOAAAAAAAA. DUDE.

Also I am really seriously starting to feel a degree of pity for the closet misanthropes who find this movie "cruel" and don't have any explanations that don't just come across as "I refuse to take this boojie male guilt-complex chip off my shoulder"

MA-YA HEEE
MA-YA HOOO
etc.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 17 June 2005 15:54 (twenty years ago)

"death becomes her" was pretty funny, huh?

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:59 (twenty years ago)

sometimes i'm happy that i live in such social/cultural isolation because i dont have good things like ND ruined by high school kids and frat boys.

Dark Side of the Moon still sucks though.

― AaronK (AaronK), Friday, 17 June 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

Who gives a shit

(lots of xposts)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 17 June 2005 16:18 (twenty years ago)

I mean, sorry. But this movie just seemed like an after-school special to me, I had no idea it could inspire passionate defenses and takedowns. I guess if it cd inspire a post like josh's up there, it's done something good, though.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 17 June 2005 16:58 (twenty years ago)

There are no malls in SF
dude there are like, TWO malls in SF; Stonestown and, maybe, SF Center

and the Metreon is definitely a mall, though a fairly unique one.

― wetmink (wetmink), Saturday, 18 June 2005 00:25 (twenty years ago)

The trailer reminds me more of Todd Solondz than Wes Anderson. Anderson's all about the whimsy, I don't get 'whimsy' from this at all. Todd Solondz for people who can't handle rape and child molestation comedy.

(which should not be read as an endorsement of Solondz at all, Happiness and Storytelling were pretty awful in their own way)

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Saturday, 18 June 2005 00:40 (twenty years ago)

I just watched this movie and it was beyond awesome.

Peace out.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Saturday, 18 June 2005 01:32 (twenty years ago)

WHAT A SURPRISE

― TEH GHOST OF ILXBOT, Saturday, 18 June 2005 04:54 (twenty years ago)

i saw this film last night

i liked it!

the thing i like most was the colourscheme. im surprised there is no mention of this, i thought it was beautifully shot. at first i thought it was set in 1975. then there was some 80s music so i thought it was set in the early 80s but that the characters were small town throwbacks, and were still dressed like it was the 70s. then i realised people were going on the internet and it must be set in the present. then i wondered if it was sort of meant to look like lots of eras at once, a sort of timeless idaho, where things never change. i did wonder, there didn't seem to be many obviously modern things in the film

then i remembered it was comedy, and i laughed at some things, even though i dont really like comedies very much

i thought the clothes were good too, i liked the brown suit a lot, as you can imagine, but, just in general, i liked the look of many of the characters, even thought they probably just look like most of the clothes in urban outfitters

i quite like urban outfitters though, especially those heather tshirts, you know, the plain ones, with the different colored band at the top, ringer tees? i wear them all the time. very 1975.

1975 is comforting in a way, and i think that brings me back to the colouring in the film, a sort of super8nostalgia, but for then, but for...?

i didnt really notice the plot. i didnt think the plot was particularly central to proceedings anyway, thats ok!

what did you think of the fact that the 'awkward' characters always stood stiff, and straight on facing camera. was that overdone? we already knew they were awkward. i didnt think it was overdone, not really, except in the promdance scene where ND dances with that girl, that was too much

im not sure about this character development thing upthread, i dont think it matters whether characters develop. people dont develop, in real life, im not sure characters should either

it made me want to see idaho

― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 11:25 (twenty years ago)

gareth otm.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 11:59 (twenty years ago)

Gareth completely OTM.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

ten months pass...

OMG, this thread is insane! some serious projection going on. or something. anyway, i just wanted to mention that part where napoleon says that his uncle's video is the worst video ever made and kip sez something like: "now,there's no way to know if that's true". hahaha, that part is funny.it's such a throwaway line. how come nobody mentions the time machine talk between kip and his uncle? it was weird and kind of inspired! people who thought this movie was mean are just crazy.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:09 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't seen this

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:17 (nineteen years ago)

I thought you should know

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:17 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks for weighing in.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:18 (nineteen years ago)

Just answering the question

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:20 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't seen it either. :D

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:20 (nineteen years ago)

my mother and i came across napolean dynamite SOCKS the other day. we bought a pair for my sister with DANG!!!! all over them because her (very southern) students say that all the time (not as a nap dyn ref but because they are southern and (probably) not allowed to say "damn!").

― tehresa (tehresa), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:22 (nineteen years ago)

ahhh merchandising!

― tehresa (tehresa), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:23 (nineteen years ago)

Cruel and gimmicky and aging poorly. Five years from Austin Power-dom.
Also "dang" < "cocksucker", no matter how you slice it.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:49 (nineteen years ago)

Interesting, since I caught the last half hour of this on HBO not long ago. It seemed very sweet and actually better and much less souless than Wes Anderson's recent work; advertisements totally reeked of the mean spirited, knock-off Anderson vibe though. Glad to see the film itself is quite different. What I saw was enough for me to regret having wished death on the director and his immediate family somewhere upthread.

I think several weeks of being told by drunk frat boys as I walked home at night that I resemble the Super Nerd icon of an obnoxious fad greatly inspired my unnecessary rage.

― theodore (herbert hebert), Monday, 8 May 2006 05:25 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

I still say I liked it (though haven't seen it again since then). Good silly fun. Too bad about the urban outfitters tees and talking dolls and all.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 25 May 2006 03:45 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

finally got to watch this at the weekend. um I like it.

i might watch it again tonight

― Ste, Monday, 3 September 2007 10:31 (eighteen years ago)

It's a great film, inspirational even.

― moley, Monday, 3 September 2007 10:52 (eighteen years ago)

this movie is garbage

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 September 2007 11:03 (eighteen years ago)

Looks pretty bad to me, and a friend of mine walked out of it, describing it as "genuine mean spiritedness disguised as irony. And not funny"

From very near the beginning of the thread, and exactly how I felt when I saw it on TV the other week. I lasted about 45 minutes before turning off.

― aldo, Monday, 3 September 2007 11:28 (eighteen years ago)

i still like it. it has nice colours, particularly the blue and the greyish green.

i like sentimental films sometimes

― Filey Camp, Monday, 3 September 2007 11:58 (eighteen years ago)

I watched this on DVD a few months ago. Every character had the mindset of an eleven year old, regardless of the age they were supposed to be. And it was consistent about this; it didn't succumb to the temptation to derive its humor from any other source. The tone was remarkably even and contained. I liked that. It gave the film a kind of innocent charm, but as movies go it was a very slight - barely able to stand up in a breeze.

― Aimless, Monday, 3 September 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

tracer otm

― Jena, Monday, 3 September 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

i heard spike lee is directing the sequel

― gershy, Monday, 3 September 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

the only funny bit is "tina, get your ham"

― akm, Monday, 3 September 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

I've never liked this or thought it was funny. My guy absolutely loves it. That pretty much sums up our relationship.

― Ms Misery, Monday, 3 September 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

TEN FUNNY NAPOLEON DYNAMITE LINES:
1. "This is pretty much the worst video ever made." "Know what Napoleon? You can LEAVE!"
2. "Ow! Jeeeeez!"
3. "Welcome to D-Qwon's Dance Grooves. Are you ready to get your groove on?" "Yes."
4. "It's a piece o' crap! It doesn't work!"
5. "What the flip was Grandma doing at the sand dunes?"
6. "Dang! You got shocks, pegs... lucky!"
7. "Yessssssss."
8. "I like your sleeves. They're real big."
9. "I'm not gonne use hers, you sicko!" "Ugh! Idiot!"
10. "Sure the world wide web is great..."

― Mr. Snrub, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 03:23 (eighteen years ago)

The music was shitty.

― W4LTER, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 03:37 (eighteen years ago)

ive never met anyone in real life who doesnt think this movie is hysterical. have any of you? i doubt it.

except the guy who had the friend walk out of it, he doesnt count.

― deeznuts, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 04:28 (eighteen years ago)

I've never met anyone in real life who talked about this movie at all, thank god.

― marmotwolof, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 04:53 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah maybe but living under a rock has it's own drawbacks.

― Kerm, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 05:00 (eighteen years ago)

can anyone help me find my apostrophe? i know i left it around here somewhere.

― Kerm, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 05:01 (eighteen years ago)

tracer otm

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 09:01 (eighteen years ago)

u dont like friendly things?

― Filey Camp, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 09:55 (eighteen years ago)

i don't think it's friendly, i think it's mean-spirited. pas de lols also. i think it's an indie attempt at a proper funny snl-type movie.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 09:56 (eighteen years ago)

is this the one with the two baby tigers?

-- kephm, Tuesday, June 29, 2004 7:54 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

^^^ this seriously cracks me up in a "is this the movie about babies that are geniuses?" way.

― Alex in Baltimore, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:09 (eighteen years ago)

whats snl?

― Filey Camp, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago)

saturday night live

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:27 (eighteen years ago)

ohhh

that makes sense. thats not available over here though is it?

― Filey Camp, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago)

mercifully

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:46 (eighteen years ago)

imagine little britain with lower production values

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:47 (eighteen years ago)

well i havent actually seen little britain.

napoleon dynamite had good production values though?

― Filey Camp, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:50 (eighteen years ago)

this movie is awful.

you all should see "eagle vs shark" tho to see what horrific damage it has wrought.

― s1ocki, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:51 (eighteen years ago)

the show snl doesn't air in the uk (well it does now, on itv4, very very late but only recently), but snl is behind a lot of movies, and it's useful shorthand for a certain kind of comedy film.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 14:01 (eighteen years ago)

this movie is horrible

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

The meat-throwing seen is the only thing that remains memorable.

― humansuit, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

scene

― humansuit, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

I think this movie pumped a little energy back into Jamiroquai's sales.

― Abbott, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 19:31 (eighteen years ago)

I played a Napolean Dynamite drinking game once. It made the movie pleasant enough. Or the movie made the drinking pleasant enough. I have a lot of private, boring hypotheses about the director & his religion.

― Abbott, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 19:32 (eighteen years ago)

you should have seen the one about the two baby tigers instead. it's really good.

― bell_labs, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 19:33 (eighteen years ago)

LOL I love this baby tiger thing. And it was really good. Wasn't that called Harold and Kumar?

― humansuit, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 19:34 (eighteen years ago)

Secondhand Lions?

― Abbott, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 19:34 (eighteen years ago)

i loved that tiger film.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 19:35 (eighteen years ago)

two brothers

― bell_labs, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 19:36 (eighteen years ago)

O yeah Two Brothers. That's the one were the baby tiger throws some meat at his brother.

― humansuit, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 19:37 (eighteen years ago)

I have a lot of private, boring hypotheses about the director & his religion.

do tell

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 19:42 (eighteen years ago)

the movie was called Napoleon And Dynamite The Baby Tigers To Go White Castle, btw

― Alex in Baltimore, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 20:34 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

What in the world

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 October 2010 20:35 (fifteen years ago)

A little late?

― I will always think of you, while (quite) fondly, myself (Evan), Tuesday, 12 October 2010 00:43 (fifteen years ago)

i like this write-up: http://www.avclub.com/articles/fox-orders-animated-versions-of-napoleon-dynamite,46241/

― Jaw dropping, thong dropping monster (kingfish), Tuesday, 12 October 2010 00:55 (fifteen years ago)

I might enjoy it if it were about 19-year-old Napoleon on his mission, driving his patient and well-meaning mission companions crazy. I'd enjoy a sitcom about some poorly matched Mormon missionaries, anyway.

― The Ten Things I Hate About Commandments (Abbbottt), Tuesday, 12 October 2010 01:27 (fifteen years ago)

That actually sounds like exactly the sort of thing I'd willingly, listlessly watch saturday after saturday as an eight-year-old, drunk on honey-nut-cheerio milk.

― buju_stanton (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 12 October 2010 03:28 (fifteen years ago)

seven years pass...

It actually seems remarkable how the only component of this nearly ubiquitous movie that has lasted is... jamiroquai. A lot of the talent are still working but I think the most prominent is the actress who played Deb?

Anyway, it was on TV today and I realized nobody thinks about this movie anymore, except if that jamiroquai song comes on some place you're in and you think, oh right, this was in that movie.

― El Tomboto, Sunday, 13 May 2018 18:55 (seven years ago)

always hated this movie but weirdly just saw four dorky looking white guys in their early 20s all wearing VOTE FOR PEDRO T-shirts getting out of car yesterday so I guess it still has it's fans.

― methanietanner, Sunday, 13 May 2018 19:09 (seven years ago)

i have expunged it from my memory

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 13 May 2018 19:18 (seven years ago)

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