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Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

Average rating

(60%)

Starring:	Jon Heder \| Jon Gries \| Aaron Ruell \| Efren Ramirez \| Tina Majorino
Director:	Jared Hess
Studio:	PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time:	86 mins
Genres:	Comedy \| Drama
Languages:	English
Dubbed:	German, Spanish
Hearing-impaired:	English
Subtitles:	Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish
Released:	April 25, 2005

An alienated teen decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small town high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.

Screenshots

Rating of 3 stars out of 5

Like the central character's bizarre name, there's something self-consciously quirky about this whimsical tale of a super-nerd's small-town life. Apparently set in the present day, but with a distinctive, time-warp look that recalls the style-challenged 1980s, this episodic comedy follows the eponymous Napoleon (Jon Heder), a blank-faced teen with carrot-coloured hair and seriously underdeveloped interpersonal skills, as he tries to help equally nerdish best friend Pedro (Efren Ramirez) win the school elections. Heder's performance is entertainingly eccentric, while the supporting characters — a computer-geek older brother and an ageing jock uncle, who's still stuck in 1982, the year his high-school football career was abruptly curtailed — are amusing enough though a tad one-dimensional. Nevertheless, there are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, an uplifting ending and the limited horizons of young people in small-town America are perceptively conveyed, not least by the impressive Idaho vistas.

Highest rated reviews

61 out of 64 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 4.0 stars
Be careful.

Jim78 from from Tooting, 5th June, 2005

I say 'be careful', because i don't think this film is for everyone. My parents only managed 30 mins before they turned it off. For me though this is a great comedy film, with strong character acting made easier with sharp dialogue. For anyone who saw this at the cinema, there is a bonus scene at the end, which adds very little except another comedy scetch. This is a film for the X generation, so if you think Jim Davidson is a comedy genious, then do not watch this film. If you like indie films like Clerks, or Ghost World, then I highly recomend this to you.

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33 out of 48 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
Sweet! I had a killer time watchin' it!

Dan Jacobs from Cheltenham, UK, 4th July, 2005

Dang! This was good! Very funny, but the kind of humour that may not appeal to all audiences. It's not in your face comedy, there are no jokes (why do people think there has to be jokes to make them laugh?). It's observational - you're watching these peoples lives and the way they go about them. Napoleon's voice alone cracks me up, let alone the stuff he comes out with - he's always so serious (he doesn't smile once) yet says the funniest things ('are you guys havin a killer time?'). Uncle Rico is great (throwin' that steak heheh), Kip chattin to his online babes (allll day), Pedro likes to build cakes... If you need a comedy to be obviously funny don't watch this movie, watch it if you appreciate 'real' comedy moments whereby your laughing at things that happen in a persons everyday life. It's got a slow (but enjoyable) pace, it's subtle, it's fun and overall I loved it!

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21 out of 29 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3.0 stars
Revenge of the nerds.

Adam25 from West Yorkshire, 1st May, 2005

Featuring a cast of virtual unknowns, this delightfully entertaining curio stands as a call to arms for nerds everywhere.

Although Napoleon lends his name to the film title, his is not the only story. Older brother Kip is 31, still wears shorts and long socks and builds his days around internet chat rooms, Uncle Rico remains in deniable about a football career he was never going to have, while love interest Debs is a painfully shy, budding photographer, who feels a connection with fellow outsider Napoleon.

These characters have real compassion for each other, and part of the films charm is their total inability to express that adequately, but as the film shows, love, friendship and defiance does ultimately win out in the end. Napoleon takes a fellow misfit (school new boy, Pedro) and puts his neck on the line campaigning against the stereotypical school sweetheart to try and get him elected as student president. Kip’s chat room obsession finally pays dividends ‘big time’, while Debs finds the friendships that she always craved.

The sledgehammer humour may not appeal to all, although for those who do enjoy it there is plenty to amuse. Nearly all of the jokes come at the expense of the nerds themselves, but the films strengths lie in fact that these characters, Uncle Rico excepted, are under no illusions that they are anything else.

A defiant statement for the nerds and geeks, but a richly entertaining film for all.

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Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

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