Saw Napoleon Dynamite today and I wish I would had seen it earlier. This is really an exceptional piece of quirky humor. It’s hard to categorize but geekworld meets oddworld meets wannabe ninja hits the major themes. How often do you get to see a movie about Idaho life? You can’t help but shake your head in odd laughter and disbelief as these unknown actors hit the most subtle perfect character with perfection. A couple of scenes made me spontaneously laugh out loud, there are a million great lines to quote from the movie. They have captured the essence of geeks, nerds, oddities, school dance awkward moments and the movie is full of 80′s references. The most interesting thing is the exclusive use of 80′s style props even though it takes place today. Stranger than strange but a comic masterpiece of in depth oddity.
The opening credits are the most interesting and original I’ve seen for a while. It doesn’t take the big bucks to make an interesting movie or title sequence.
Spoiler Alert
Napoleon Dynamite is a delusional high school nerd who lives in his own fantasy world in a small town in Idaho. He seemed to have all of the traditional elements of a “geeky” character, enjoyed drawing scenes from fantasy novels, having odd family members, wearing bizzare glasses and of course no female contact whatsoever. He has no conception of just how much of a nerd he is. In fact, he actually thinks he is normal and at times even cool. Though he has a blank expression most of the time (his mouth only closes when eating), Napoleon is not totally devoid of brains, as events prove. He is so out of touch that in many cases the bullies and jocks don’t know what to make of him, of course this doesn’t stop him from being randomly slammed into lockers.
Then one day, he meets a new kid named Pedro and starts hanging with him. Napoleon’s managing the campaign for student body president of his only friend, the slow-talking, slow-thinking Mexican immigrant Pedro. Pedro, like Napoleon, is so non-expressive he barely moves his mouth when he talks, but he is the only kid in school with a mustache, which is credentials enough for tossing his hat in the ring. Being Pedro’s campaign manager taps into reserves of action and determination not much used in Napoleon’s life to this point, and it climaxes in a rousing display of talent and creativity that is so wildly out of left field that it’s as if another character has been introduced, as if John Travolta has done a walk-in and taken over Napoleon’s body. There’s also something of a romantic thread, involving Deb, a girl who undergoes a similar personality transplant during the course of the movie.
I loved the scene when Napoleon and Pedro are putting up the election posters, The A-team theme was used in it. OMG that brings back memories! Excellent!
Some favourite lines from the movie:
Classmate: Hey Napoleon… tell us again about how you spent your summer vacation.
Napoleon: I ALREADY TOLD YOU!! I SPENT IT HUNTING WOLVERINES IN ALSAKA..!!
Classmate: DID YOU KILL ANY.. ?
Napoleon: YEAH…LIKE 50
Classmate: What kind of gun did you use?
Napoleon: WE USED A 12 GAUGE SHOTGUN..
Napoleon: THEY WERE ATTACKING MY COUSIN…GAWD
Napoleon: My old girlfriend from Oklahoma was gonna fly out for the dance but she couldn’t cause she’s doing some modeling right now.
Pedro: Is she hot?
Napoleon: See for yourself.
[hands him Deb's glamor shot sample]
Pedro: Wow.
Napoleon: Yeah, I took her to the mall to get some glamor shots for her birthday one year.
Pedro: I like her bangs.
Napoleon: Me too.
Highly recommended. It’s quirky and real and ridiculous all at the same time. Reminded me of another quirky movies like “Welcome to the Dollhouse” and “Royal Tenenbaums”. If you like these kinds of movies, chances are you’ll like Napoleon Dynamite; if not, you probably won’t.
On a side note, The A-Team Theme: “If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.”
song removed.
I like this film as well, especially when he danced to the Jamiriquoi song, in real life that takes real courage to do, and he did it without thinking about it, that’s my favourite part of the movie (also the funny bits as well).
Athough Napoleon may look uncool at first glance, he is in fact a very cool person. He does things in his own way. He believes in what he’s doing and tries hard to do it.
Have you watched Ghost World? If you like Napolean Dynamite, you will probably like Ghost World too.
Saw Napoleon Dynamite today and I wish I would had seen it earlier. This is really an exceptional piece of quirky humor. It’s hard to categorize but geekworld meets oddworld meets wannabe ninja hits the major themes. How often do you get to see a movie about Idaho life? You can’t help but shake your head in odd laughter and disbelief as these unknown actors hit the most subtle perfect character with perfection. A couple of scenes made me spontaneously laugh out loud, there are a million great lines to quote from the movie. They have captured the essence of geeks, nerds, oddities, school dance awkward moments and the movie is full of 80′s references. The most interesting thing is the exclusive use of 80′s style props even though it takes place today. Stranger than strange but a comic masterpiece of in depth oddity.
00:08 on May 2nd, 2005
I like this film as well, especially when he danced to the Jamiriquoi song, in real life that takes real courage to do, and he did it without thinking about it, that’s my favourite part of the movie (also the funny bits as well).
00:19 on May 2nd, 2005
Yeah, he’s got mad skill dancing to Canned Heat.
01:19 on May 20th, 2005
I enjoyed this film very much.
Athough Napoleon may look uncool at first glance, he is in fact a very cool person. He does things in his own way. He believes in what he’s doing and tries hard to do it.
Have you watched Ghost World? If you like Napolean Dynamite, you will probably like Ghost World too.
01:33 on May 20th, 2005
Thanks for your comment. I liked Ghost World too. Yeah Napoleon looks geeky but in fact he is really cool.