Poll: Napoleon Dynamite

Two people at work had rented Napoleon Dynamite and loved it. I had avoided it for a few weeks because something told me I probably wouldn't like it. I rented it this weekend, and I was right.

I found it really, really stupid. Too stupid to be funny. In fact, too stupid to make it all the way thru. This is the first movie I've ever rented in which I've repeatedly looked at the elapsed time counter to see how much of my life I had wasted watching it. At first, I was going to stop it at 30 minutes, but I figured I'd give it up to 45 minutes, the half-way point. At 45, I couldn't take it any more and stopped it.

This same weekend, I also rented The Battle of Shaker Heights (the 2nd Project Greenlight movie) and Robot Stories (an anthology of four low-budget short films about robotics & artificial intelligence, mostly starring Asian-American actors). While both those others were low-budget and a little on the amateur side, they were still far more interesting, entertaining, and satisfying than Napoleon Dynamite.

However, I think I'm in the minority. So, tell me what you think.

At 45, I couldn't take it any more and stopped it.

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I'm right there with you. I was ready to stop it after about 10 minutes, but let it go 45 since I wasn't the only one watching. At about 45 it was agreed it was absolutely awful and we turned it off.

I found it odd because this film was #1 on IMDb's results page for ages (i.e. things that are being searched about).

The lead actor was #1 for ages too. And that's not normal, with much bigger actors normally there.

I wondere dif there was some vote rigging going on.

You have to watch it in the sense that the movie's nothing more than a string of uncomfortable moments. Also, if you never knew someone like Napoleon in school, you might not find it so funny.

For me it's the little things... his moon boots, those plastic-framed glasses (I used to wear those), and the weirdest part of all is that you can't tell just when this takes place. There are elements of the 70s, early 80s, 90s and today all throughout the movie.

The movie revels in its weirdness. The humor is found on a personal level, I think.

It's a sarcastic humor kind of like Life Aquatic. It's either your kind of humor or it's not, IE you either love it or you hate it. Definitely aimed at the college generation's sense of humor (mine)

I liked the humor in the movie mainly because I knew a few kids like him in school. I remember one kid who always wore moonboots, even in the summer. I think the humor is very subtle and found in the circumstances and I suppose if you have never known or been involved in them they are hard to relate to. The second time I watched it was funnier than the first. I still cant pinpoint the exact time period.

I gave it a B, but I don't think this movie really falls into any kind of rating system. It's a really weird movie, very stupid, but it's a kind of stupid that grows on you. It's just one of those It's so stupid it's funny kind of things.

"You're mom goes to college!"

Man, I loved that movie.

PEDRO OFFERS YOU HIS PROTECTION!

My brother asked me if I saw it like nine times, some guy I work with asked me if I saw it after I said 'sweet' to something, and a whole bunch of other people I know acted like it was the best movie they ever saw.

I ended up renting it and then I fast forwarded through most of it with the subtitles on. I still gave it a D though.

The funniest scene was the farmer shooting his cow in front of the school bus. Shortly followed by Napolean getting down at the school convention. On a "sad/pathetic" humor note was the uncle pretending/reliving his high school football days.

Other than that, I thought it sucked.

The funniest scene was the farmer shooting his cow in front of the school bus.

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That was the *one* scene that made me laugh just a little. I thought I would also find it funny when the uncle chucks a steak at Napoleon's head, but it actually ended up not being funny afterall. It's pretty bad when the only redeeming quality of a movie is the shooting of a cow in front of kids.