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BackInTheUSSR
Jun 22, 2004

1.5 HR/9
ACE
Loved it more than anything I've seen this year and it makes me sad that so many people hate this as much as they do.

555/5

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i_am_the_hydra
Feb 1, 2001
Watched it last night, found it amusing at best, funny sometimes. The previews were better than the actual film for me. But that's just one guy's opinion...

It wasn't a total loss of a movie -- it was acted well enough, and the ending was pretty neat. But the journey to get there just was marginal at best. The whole teen awkwardness thing has been done so many times before, and done better, and the humor got pretty stale pretty quick (oh boy I bet Napoleon is going to say something predictably ridiculous... oh look at that I was right. Oh boy I bet something unpleasant is going to happen... oh look at that I was right). In the end my overwhelming feeling was, "gosh, I really hated it when I ran for vice president of my class in elementary school, that was so stupid, why didn't I realize then that everybody hated me and it was just going to be embarrassing and pointless?" Which is fine reflection, I suppose, but in the end if that's all a purported comedy can do for me, then I consider it a failure.

2.5/5

i_am_the_hydra fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Oct 4, 2004

McGann
May 19, 2003

Get up you son of a bitch! 'Cause Mickey loves you!

It was bad, but not bad enough to make me walk out. I only laughed once, and I don't even remember what part that is now.

It seemed to have no point, no plot, and no conclusion to said plot. That would have been excused if it was funny at all.

I know I am going against the grain here, but I guess I just can't relate to the characters, as they only served to make me mad.

1.5/5

admiraldennis
Jul 22, 2003

I am the stone that builder refused
I am the visual
The inspiration
That made lady sing the blues
This movie had no plot. It was completely pointless. And that's why it was awesome.

4.5/5 for hilarious one-liners, awesome soundtrack, and pulling off an entertaining plotless movie wonderfully without being too long or boring.

dyne
May 9, 2003
[blank]
I watched this yesterday. There were a couple of funny parts, but most of it was unoriginal, unfunny crap. The only part I really enjoyed was the Napoleon dance sequence at the end

1/5

Braglor
Oct 12, 2004

This movie was unique in its own way. Great dialogues, interesting characters and well, a kinda funny plot. In the end it's was the different dialogues that got to me. It's a good independent movie.

4/5

Piney
Oct 14, 2003
This is a most brilliant movie, and one of the very few where this kind of humour works.

JakeFilms
Oct 15, 2004
Self-realization. I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, when he said, "I drank what?"
Anyone seen Paluca ?
a 9 minute short, was just curious if it was put on a DVD compilation with other shorts
IMDB

Ape Agitator
Feb 19, 2004

Soylent Green is Monkeys
College Slice
A real misfire for me. Very few of the gags worked for me, so I barely got much higher than a chuckle throughout. Didn't really like or care for the characters either.

The thing is that I can see a lot of care went into making the film, but their attempt at making their lead loser fun to watch just just felt like it was trying too hard to stretch a weak joke to a long length. I think the best description I can give it was that it's like countless SNL skits which are barely funny but get way too much airtime.

1.5/5

Sir Victory
Apr 26, 2003
One of the most brilliant character studies ever done in a film. Fantastic acting and a geniusly subtle script. Lots of people won't like it; they won't get it. This gets a 5 for being an awesome movie, and an extra .5 for choice of Napoleon's shirts (the horses shirt, the wolf shirt, both brilliant.)

genocidesucks
Feb 17, 2004

by radium
This movie is horrible. This could very well be a portrait of a lot of people in the world. Mostly people in america. This movie is very unfunny.

1/5, can you give a zero?

New Yorp New Yorp
Jul 18, 2003

Only in Kenya.
Pillbug
I don't know, I didn't like this movie. None of the characters were particularly engaging or interesting and there was no particular plot.

There were a few funny moments, but nothing that really made it memorable or worth watching.

1/5

exp0n
Oct 17, 2004

roll the tapes
.

exp0n fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Jan 1, 2014

Ah Pook
Aug 23, 2003

Mildly entertaining, although most of the jokes are just "Oh jeez Napoleon is weird isn't that crazy look how weird he is!", which gets stale pretty quickly, at least for me. I honestly think a most episodes of The Daily Show are funnier than this movie, but of course that's a different humor.

1/5

Hot Dog Day #55
May 22, 2003

The noblest of all dogs is the hot-dog; it feeds the hand that bites it.
I didn't find it funny. Yes, Napoleon and his family aren't normal. Oh look a mexican with a wig...

I guess I didn't get it?

1/5

Zenny
Jul 4, 2003

Hmm. Something's Not Right Here.
I thought that the plot was very underdeveloped and left a lot unanswered. The way Napoleon talked got extremely old after a while. That said, the movie was moderately funny and I enjoyed a couple parts of the movie.

2/5: A little below average.

Cramato
Jul 9, 2002

Beware the curse!
I haven't heard the word "bodaggit" in 20 years. 5/5.

ejay
Sep 30, 2004
ejay
it takes a certain sense of humor to understand a lot of the comedy in this movie. it's not something that older people, or people that just dont get stupid humor would most likely enjoy. if you are into seeing someone getting hit in the face with a steak, while riding a bike then this is definately the flick for you.
5/5

TjyvTompa
Jun 1, 2001

im gay
Complete and utterly worthless!
Napoleon is a completely unlikeable character and the entire movie is just a string of "hilarious" scenes put together. Maybe you can enjoy this movie if you are 8 years old.
0.5/5.5

IvanTheLlama
Apr 20, 2003

America's Most Trusted Communist.

quote:

Dza came out of the closet to say:
I heard so many good things about this movie that I decided to check it out. That was my first mistake. Afer the first 20 minutes, I was hoping it was a joke or that it would at LEAST get better! Nope. My gf and I discussed not watching it after the first half hour, but stuck it out to see if there was a defining moment in the film which made everyone love it. That moment never came.

Boring boring characters. From generic nerd guy to stereotypical foreign guy... even the drat uncle guy was just an Al Bundy clone. Crappy plot that easily could have been an episode of the Wonder Years, the movie finished w/o wrapping up plot lines, etc.

I'm in the doghouse for having my girlfriend watch this movie. I am no longer able to select what we watch. HOW CAN PEOPLE LIKE THIS MOVIE?!

1/5 for the worst movie I have seen in years. It would have been less, but the A-Team theme bumped the vote up a notch.


I cannot agree with you more. I watched it with my girlfriend, as we both had been berrated with "OMG IT IS THE FUNNIEST MOVIE IN THE HISTORY OF TIME IT WILL MAKE YOUR BRAIN EXPLODE WITH LAUGHTER." No. It is a horrid and booring waste of time that we eventually had to stop watching. Napoleon's character is quite possibly one of the most annoying individuals on the planet. He mumbled and tried far too hard to be a "emo nerd." OH WAIT THAT IS FUNNY RIGHT?!?! LOL! The movie went nowhere and had one of the most uninspiring and flat plots ever, BUT HE HAS A LLAMA AND THERE ARE MEXICAN GANGSTERS IN A LOW RIDER LOL AM I RIGHT!!?! The dysjoint nature of each little skit was kinda cool, but not. It just made the movie jerky and akward. He likes to draw animals, so he draws some creepy ugly picture of a girl but she still has to go to the dance with him! SO FUNNY! It has some memorable lines, but it didnt make me laugh once.

0.5/5

Unrecovery
May 8, 2003
1.5/5 I give it 1.5 points because i did enjoy Napoleon during the VERY beginning of the movie. "What are you doing today Napolean?"..."Whatever I FEEL like, GOSH!". Eccentric teenagers who didn't have a normal upbringing in a normal town are amusing at first....

Then the characters, sorroundings and plot became horribly depressing, unoriginal, and unimaginable. I'm going to save the election by dancing to Jamiroquai? I met a black chick in a chatroom and now i'm an original gangster? I'm 70 years old and lead a secret double life of ridinig an ORV in the sand dunes? I spend every second of every day thinking about a 20 year old football game? Hardcore chicano's straight off the steets of L.A. bumping their low-rider through the wheat fields?

Does this constitute potential reality in the mid-west or wherever this was filmed? Because this movie seems like it was conjured from the imagination of a disillusioned kid at a German highschool who had watched too many episodes of Jerry Springer.

Unrecovery fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Nov 11, 2004

VincesUndies
Jul 18, 2002

Vince McMahon's Underpants
What a crap movie. I kept waiting for it to pick up and it never did. Napoleon looks like he has to take a poo poo constantly throughout the movie and still no plot ever evolves. How anyone could like this is beyond me. I usually find highly-rated goon flicks are great, but you guys are way off on this one.

aeqxitas
Nov 15, 2004
definitely gets a 5/5

freaking hilarious, i can't wait till it comes out on dvd

Snigz
Sep 11, 2001
pornographic film extra
Finally watched this, and I've got to admit that I was really disappointed.

It's not awful by any means, but from all the hype I was expecting something extravagantly hilarious... What I got from Napoleon Dynamite was a few good laughs and a bit of yawning.

It also ruined Canned Heat for me, forever.


3 - Okay film

Wolfsheim
Dec 23, 2003

and god is on your side
dividing sparrows from the nightingales
Though most of my sentiments have already been said in this thread, hell, why not?

I thought it had several funny lines and scenes, and I don't think it's terribly important whether or not something happened, but the characters themselves got very redundant by the midpoint of the film, and the movie itself seems to be suffering from this burning desire to not be an indie film, but be as much like other hit indie films as it possibly can be.

Plus Napoleon dancing was one of the most cliche 'wacky' and trite parts of the entire movie. The people giving the movie credit for not being your typical vulgar/profane teen movies obviously missed the fact that "unlikely character does wacky dance" is a staple of unfunny teen comedies and was an almost embarrassing climax for the movie.

2.5 - some funny parts but tries too hard to be 'different'

TheAngry One
Aug 8, 2003

I'd swim through a river of shit with my mouth open to suck the dick of last bloke that fucked Natalie Portman
Well I read the first page of reviews, and had to afford myself a chuckle. It makes me laugh when people have to really hate a movie because it isn't like all the others; "It had no plot" "why didn't they explain where his name from" etc etc. Not all films have to have a plot people! This film was funny all the way through (I really won't be able to listen to Jamiroquai again without thinking of that dance!).
It's just about to be released here in the UK and I hope that plenty of people go to see it, because it really is brilliant.

4/5

The Pussy Boss
Nov 2, 2004

Director to actors: "OK people, my concept for this film is: keep your face numb and speak like you have Downs syndrome! Yeah! That'll be artistic! Oh and take some Valium too, and remember that all Midwesterners are inbred halfwits."

I laughed AT this move a lot, but never with it. .5/5

xdrquinnx
May 5, 2002

All quirk and no substance. The characters were irritating and unlikeable and the plot was non-existent until the last 30 minutes of the movie. It felt like a horrible rip-off of Rushmore, minus everything that was good about Rushmore.

1/5.

delaphi
Oct 30, 2004

by Ozma
certainly one of the more funny movies I have seen this year - Anyone can relate Napolean to someone they went to high school with

smackfu
Jun 7, 2004

I am willing to forgive everything in a comedy if it makes me laugh. This one didn't, so I forgive nothing.

2/5.

Jibs
Jan 8, 2004

Ok. So I'm late on this but I just have to comment.

Did anybody else find the cinematography extraordinarily beautiful? I thought the frame was always so well composed. The colors were so strong and simple. It was really an important part of the experience for me.

The movie, in my viewing of it, did have a plot: misunderstood boy meets girl. Whether you find this classic or derivative is your business.

The dancing scene may not be a new idea, but it's something closely tied to the hopes of most teenagers. I found the scene deeply moving, mostly because somebody who is perceived by his schoolmates and the movie's audience up to this point as so awkward, is suddenly seen by both groups as full of grace and beauty.

The main criticism I have is a slightly weak and premature ending, which I think is why there is an epilogue. The epilogue, then, comes across as a cute apology for not having been able to end the movie properly.

4.5/5

If Wes Anderson makes better movies, must you insist on hating this? "Gosh."

Jibs fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Dec 12, 2004

Clownhunter
Jun 16, 2002

by Eris Is Goddess
This movie did a great job at portraying a real life nerd and the kind of kids he hung out with (I think we all knew a kid like Pedro or Napoleon). Nothing was exaggerated, it just had a very "real" feeling to it. There were a few over the top and cliched parts, like when Napoleon's brother becomes all thuged out after meeting his online girlfriend and the Rex Kwan Doe part was a bit cheesey (but still pretty funny). And I think it was good thing that Napoleon wasn't a totally likable character--hes a bitter dork, but the movie doesn't force him into any huge life changing epiphanies--he just keeps on doing his thing.

The visual humor was great. The expression on Napoleon's and Pedro's faces was priceless.

And the whole little hick town setting was done perfectly and anybody who spent a good amount of time in a western rural town can testify to this.

4.5/5

CommunistWalrus
Dec 1, 2003

by Lowtax
I laughed three or four times in this movie, once when the van got hit with the steak and the uncle screamed like a girl and then at the scenes associated with Napoleon's drawings. The rest of the time I felt like I was on the verge of laughing but the joke never came.

1/5

quazi
Apr 19, 2002

data control
It's one of those movies that's funny not because the jokes/situations themselves are truly funny, but because it makes you wonder how it got put to film in the first place.

2/5

osi
Dec 20, 2004
Magical Mistress.
Not a review.

Somebody fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Dec 21, 2004

Brendell
Jan 14, 2003

Oh, I'm sorry...did I break your concentration?
I'd been hearing about this movie for ages from all my friends, but for some reason I never saw it in the theatre. Rented it today when it was released on DVD, and I was highly disappointed.

Someone earlier compared it to Seinfeld in that it is funny because nothing happens. I never really liked Seinfeld (I guess I like some thought and reason behind the structure of what I watch), so I guess it follows that I didn't like this movie.

The only character in the movie that shows any sort of emotion while acting is Uncle Rico, but he has this serious creepy thing going on. Everyone else just looks they are reading their lines from off camera in a monotone. Guess what, actor people? That's not acting.

I understand what the director was trying to do with this movie. He was trying to showcase the character of a loser geek in high school and his crazy and zany exploits of super lameness. And he succeeded masterfully. The problem is, that goal was stupid.

Yes, high school was awkward. People were losers. Especially the entire cast of this movie. I'm not entirely sure why people would want to reminisce about that time in life, especially not through the eyes of the least cool person.

Boring characters. Boring location (for gently caress's sake, Idaho?). Boring dialogue. Boring cinematography. Boring acting (Pedro was loving awful).

And what was with Summer's boyfriend? He looked like he was thirty.

.5/5

Knight
Dec 23, 2000

SPACE-A-HOLIC
Taco Defender
I'm surprised MTV Films paid for this movie, because it has almost nothing that their audience of 14 to 19 year old Punk'd-watching bastards would find funny. You can further see how this is a select kind of humor in this thread, where it went from the highest praise in the beginning to "worst movie ever" when everyone else picked it up. No stars, no guest appearances by actors from 80s television shows to appear hip, no white people rapping, no punchline. I remember someone asking if Napoleon was a Saturday Night Live character and I had to laugh for a good five minutes because he would be the least succesful character of all time, right next to The Sweaty Guy with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

That being said, I loved it. A majority of the jokes are in Napoleon's speech, delivery, and movement (I love when he runs), the lack of enthusiasm or facial expressions from everyone else, and the running gag in the set and props about how far the midwest is behind the rest of the country. The performances of all the characters were fantastic. For example, here are a few lines from the movie:

quote:

Kip: Napoleon, don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know that I'm training to be a cage fighter.
Napoleon Dynamite: Since when, Kip? You have the worst reflexes of all time.
Someone was quoting these online before I had seen the movie and, I'm sure like you, I couldn't see the hilarity of these. The first bit is a little humorous and then it sinks into nothingness.

These are my favorite lines in the movie. When I see it I have to rewind it and watch it again because I laugh through 2/3rds of it. The casual pride of Kip in his lispy delivery of his lines and the nerd rage of his mouthbreathing brother floor me.

This is absolutely worth a rental for how well it succeeds with its target audience, but if someone doesn't find anything about Napoleon funny by the time he finishes his current event (5 minutes in), they have to give up. There will be about three laughs in the entirety of the movie for them, most likely involving slapstick meat-tossing and other loud and obvious "LOUD NOISE, RELEASE LAUGHTER NOW" moments. Then they'll be on the internet calling everyone an art house psuedointellectual because they laughed at a comedy. We can do without the inferiority complexes.

I've watched this four times and it gets funnier with each viewing.

Personal - 5.5/5
Technical - 3.5/5
Rating - 4.5/5

Knight fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Dec 22, 2004

corlicht
Sep 30, 2004
I thought the characters were great. Somehow the filmmaker was able to make a hilarious movie without any dick jokes, fart jokes, or even cussing.

4.5/5

xan!
Aug 17, 2004

by elpintogrande
Sat down, waited for funny, and got tired of waiting.

Voted 0.

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unlawfulsoup
May 12, 2001

Welcome home boys!

quote:

locdogg came out of the closet to say:
0.5/5
Napoleon Dynamite is to movies what Hot Topic is to clothes.

Best review line I could find.

I thought this film was pretty bad. Ford and others have outlined a number of reasons in good detail. The film had a few good moments (very few) but was grossly overrated. I even got one of my friends to admit he often laughed because "everyone else was". I'm no Anderson fan in general, but at least his films bring more to the table.

1.5/5

unlawfulsoup fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Feb 17, 2006

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