Napoleon Dynamite

[elfin_odalisque]

Haven't seen it.
But Carson's a genius.
And super-sexy too.

Yes yes yes!! Can I kiss the convex swells?

 

[Penelope Street]

It also has the kind of humor I particularly like: the comedy of the everyday weirdness of people. It's the same kind of humor you see in Christopher Guest movies like "Best In Show" and "Waiting for Guffman," observational humor.

I thought 'Best in Show' was a riot. The one about the folk musicians was good too although the name escapes me just now. I get the impression we both liked Napoleon's story for the same reasons, the difference being the degree to which it touched us. Thanks for reminding me about 'Waiting for Guffman', I'm going to quit wasting time on this board and go add it to our movie queue.

Fwiw, We've three teenage girls in our house. Two of them happen to be closer to forty than fourteen, but none are all that concerned with being popular.

 

[Kassiana]

Um ... what's Napoleon DyMamite?

 

[carsonshepherd]

Um ... what's Napoleon DyMamite?

shuddup, i had a 6 pack last night

 

[Quiet_Cool]

take ofs "Passion of the Christ" and instead watch "Last Temptation of Christ" if you haven't.

"Last Temptation of Christ"...?

It was number 6, right after "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" and the original "Planet of the Apes."

Get your paws off me, you damned dirty apes...

*hee-hee*

my daughter's boyfriend manages a local video store...
he put passion of the christ in the comedy section.
genius.

Vella, it's unkind to make Mel Gibson cry...

Q_C

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I thought 'Best in Show' was a riot. The one about the folk musicians was good too although the name escapes me just now. I get the impression we both liked Napoleon's story for the same reasons, the difference being the degree to which it touched us. Thanks for reminding me about 'Waiting for Guffman', I'm going to quit wasting time on this board and go add it to our movie queue.

Fwiw, We've three teenage girls in our house. Two of them happen to be closer to forty than fourteen, but none are all that concerned with being popular.

"A Mighty Wind" is the folk music movie.

"There's a mighty wind a-blown... It's blowin' you and me!"

Also has that great line, "You've got to admire model trains. That's what gave them the idea for the big ones."

 

[variable Xy]

The scene with Uncle Rico's and Kip's lame time machine shouldn't be so funny, but ouch, it is

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The scene with Uncle Rico's and Kip's lame time machine shouldn't be so funny, but ouch, it is

Yeah. I loved the Dymo press-on labels: "On", "Off", "Year."

 

[Kassiana]

I found Last Temptation quite disappointing and misogynistic. No interest in watching Christ-beating for hours, either, so I doubt I'll be watching Passion.

I do still want to find a Jesus wind-chime, though. A few years ago they had one for Easter in our local grocery store. Most blasphemous "Christian" item I've ever seen, far beyond the chocolate crosses. Little Jesus figurines hanging down, hitting metal bars to make the chimes...my husband and I would hit it every time we walked by so we could say we were beating up Jesus.

Yes, I'm going to hell, but at least I'm laughing on the way.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

I found Last Temptation quite disappointing and misogynistic. No interest in watching Christ-beating for hours, either, so I doubt I'll be watching Passion.

I do still want to find a Jesus wind-chime, though. A few years ago they had one for Easter in our local grocery store. Most blasphemous "Christian" item I've ever seen, far beyond the chocolate crosses. Little Jesus figurines hanging down, hitting metal bars to make the chimes...my husband and I would hit it every time we walked by so we could say we were beating up Jesus.

Yes, I'm going to hell, but at least I'm laughing on the way.

I'm just not afraid of hell. Don't know why. Can't understand why the idea of eternal damnation in a long, slow-burning pit of fire and ash and lava doesn't frighten me.

Might have something to do with my not believing in it though...

Honestly, I wanted to go see the Passion in theaters, regardless of my non-belief, but the GF at the time didn't want to. She was the christian (in her words, anyway). Go figure.

Q_C

 

[Kassiana]

I'm just not afraid of hell.
--Well, I'm not either. I'm a Pagan, and I think the only place hell exists is in the minds of humans who believe in it (of course, unless you redefine it as something that actually exists, like New Jersey).

I wanted to go see the Passion in theaters
--Blood and violence disturb me, and I didn't want to give money to people who have such nasty religious beliefs.

 

[Boota]

I avoided Napoleon Dynamite for a long time because it seemed so stupid. And in a lot of ways it was. But I loved it! It takes very smart people to make dumb comedy work so well. I was told to watch it twice, even if I hated it. The second time it was even better.

The thing that really did it for me wasn't even the comedy, per se. It was that the comedy came out just because of the strength of the characters. It was funny in that they were being who they were and not that they were telling/portraying jokes. I'm sure those characters were written brilliantly, but the most credit has to go the cast. They made some of the most oddball characters you could ever see in a movie into very real people.

The boy humor label doesn't fly for me, as it was almost universally recommended to me by females of various ages.

 

[arienette]

I absolutely loved that movie and I'm a woman so no, it's geeky humor is universal.

 

[msboy8]

The opening credits were so clever, that I was disappointed when the movie started and wasn't as good.

 

[Guest]

I saw it and I thought it was hilarious! I think most of us can relate to Napoleon. We either were like him or knew someone in high school that was a lot like him! LOL

 

[yui]

Loved it. Can't complain. But I'm sort of a girl-geek, too.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Loved it. Can't complain. But I'm sort of a girl-geek, too.

geeks are the coolest

 

[msboy8]

I'm obviously too old. Ah well, I'm closer to the sponge baths though.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

When my kids wanted me to see it, I was gritting my teeth, because it really seemed like it was going to be another one of those formulaic high-school trauma movies that are endemic to the Disney channel: high school misfits are reviled by the spoiled and rich in-crowd but triumph at the end and gain the holy grail of high-school angst-movies: popularity. If you've got teen-aged girls in the house, you've probably seen enough of these movies to make you want to scream: "There's more to life than popularity!"

And that's just what the movie shows. Napoleon may be a geek (though I never thought of him that way), but he's also a hero, and a hero on his own terms. There were so many times when the movie could have degenerated into pathos, but it never does.

It also has the kind of humor I particularly like: the comedy of the everyday weirdness of people. It's the same kind of humor you see in Christopher Guest movies like "Best In Show" and "Waiting for Guffman," observational humor. It treats all its characters with such affection. You've got to be rooting for Kip and La Fawnda at the end.

It's a feel-good movie that's still hip, and that's very rare. The closest I can come to it are the Guest movies.

I think you pin-pointed it right here. It really does stand out from those movies, and it gives us a better window into real life in the way that, the characters change slowly, and they suffer from the things that tend to plague people in reali life. Rico dwells too strongly on the past; Napoleon is too lost in his own head. The scene when they're at the dance, and they're standing off on their own, staring at everyone else and saying how they're having a great time was brilliant. That single shot told you everything you needed to know about the three characters.

Oh, I watched it.

*editing list of movies to see*

Q_C