# I couldn't get past the first 15 minutes of "Napoleon Dynamite" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 30, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868 "2006-04-30T20:19:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ninevah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/46a35a/32.png) [@ninevah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ninevah)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/21 "2006-05-01T01:20:50Z")
> [@bobkitty](#): > > Long answer: The first fifteen minutes are pretty much a good indication of the rest of the movie, so if you didn’t like them, you probably won’t like the rest of it. I personally couldn’t find anything redeeming, endearing, or sympathetic about any of the characters, and didn’t find it funny in the least. I wonder if it may be an age thing, and I just missed the boat, but overall I just didn’t like it. I couldn’t get into this movie either. My husband loves it (then again, he watches Super Troopers over and over again, so there’s no accounting for taste). I did, however, find that it was like watching a car crash - I knew I didn’t want to watch it but found myself still glued to it. Just couldn’t bring myself to hit the eject button on the dvd player. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/22 "2006-05-01T02:36:53Z")
> [@Phantom Dennis](#): > > I love this movie, but I can’t really defend it, since many of the reasons I enjoy it are the same reasons other people dislike it. Strange and eccentric characters – check. Slow pacing and nothing resembling a standard plot or resolution – check. Painfully stupid dialog – check. > > It’s a classic! 🆒 Bingo. > [@bobkitty](#): > > I wonder if it may be an age thing, and I just missed the boat, but overall I just didn’t like it. I doubt it, since I seem to remember (from the one time I met you) that we’re about the same age, and I loved it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/23 "2006-05-01T02:43:38Z")
Seems to me like a lot of people either love this movie or hate it. My 7th graders badgered me until I saw it; I didn’t want to b/c of all the hype. However, I laughed my ass off and thought it was one of the funniest movies the year it came out. I think it helps to have a juvenile sense of humor, no need for a linear, concise plot, and a high tolerance for the bizarre antics of the ubernerdy. I have all of those things, so I loved it. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/24 "2006-05-01T03:34:29Z")
What **Cervaise** said. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/25 "2006-05-01T06:50:53Z")
I watched this last summer because my American friends forced me to. It was mostly just one huge HUH? for me. Half the fun I got from it was watching it with my friends. I watched it again a few months ago with another friend and I actually liked it better the second time around. It’s definitely a movie you should watch with a bunch of other people. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/26 "2006-05-01T08:17:03Z")
Ugh, how gratifying it would be to pound the snot out of Napolean Dynamite. While I did find some of it funny the first time, and did enjoy more of the movie the second (and last) time I saw it, my absolute favorite part is when the normal guy pushed/threw Napolean into the lockers. Exquisitely gratifying, that bit. ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/27 "2006-05-01T10:42:07Z")
I’m one of those who love it. Perhaps it has a little to do with the fact that I lived in Salt Lake City for a while, and knew quite a few people from Idaho, and know a lot of Mormons who totally fit the stereotypes in the movie. I knew far too many Summer Wheatleys, for example. So that was part of the fun for me. But yeah, I love the movie. Watch it when I need a good giggle. Etc. ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/28 "2006-05-01T10:46:22Z")
Oops–forgot to add that my sister, who also lived in Utah, etc., totally hated the movie. So it also probably has quite a bit to do with one’s sense of humor. I have that type; she doesn’t. No big. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/29 "2006-05-01T11:17:40Z")
> [@RumbleFeature](#): > > NP more than any movie I have ever seen is an “aquired taste”. The question you may have is the same question I have when people tell me beer is an aquired taste…If you don’t like it at first then why do you keep doing it? In my case I hated it at first but it seemed wherever I went my friends had it on, so a lot of the gags began to grow on me. > > When you start to find the characters funny then you start to see the bigger picture, you begin to find everything funny like the fact that this backwards town is obviously stuck in a time warp ( being from the south I have been to many such towns). Even as you swear you hate it you slowly start quoting the film (“how could anyone even know that?”) and then finally against your will you find you are actually enjoying the movie…And you find it charming…ack! This is a _very_ good answer! I came to be a casual fan the same way - rented it, hated it, dismissed it. But it kept being the only thing showing when I wanted the TV on for background company while I worked, and, over time, I came to like it. I like it enough to actively watch it, although I never got to the quoting phrase. And “charming” is actually a pretty good description, to my estimation. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/30 "2006-05-01T11:46:29Z")
> [@N. Sane](#): > > I’m one of those who love it. Perhaps it has a little to do with the fact that I lived in Salt Lake City for a while, and knew quite a few people from Idaho, and know a lot of Mormons who totally fit the stereotypes in the movie. I knew far too many Summer Wheatleys, for example. So that was part of the fun for me. > > But yeah, I love the movie. Watch it when I need a good giggle. Etc. I grew up in Idaho/Utah and there were many cultural references that made the movie (for me) very clever. Not saying that dislike of the film would be due to not understanding some of the references, but it was rather powerful (in a nerdish way) to see my culture so well represented. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/31 "2006-05-01T11:51:49Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I saw it in the theatre on opening week when there was no hype around it yet and thought it was great. That was almost 2 years ago. Since then there has been such overkill of quotes on top of quotes and merchandising up the wazo that I think if I was seeing it for the first time today I wouldn’t think much of it. I like it a lot, even now, but you make a good point about the oversaturation. I think the movie deserves praise, but not necessarily cult status. Put it this way: the writer, the director and the cast are all to be commended for so perfectly recreating what could easily be mistaken for home video. (If you don’t think that’s a good thing, okay, but it is not easy, is my point.) But when people quote the movie, I don’t feel a kindred spirit with them the way I do when someone quotes Holy Grail or South Park. HG and SP are outlandish, so finding a quote appropriate to a real-life situation requires wit. ND is funny because it’s so **very** mundane, so responding to “What are you going to do?” with “Whatever I feel like – GOSH!” doesn’t require any thought. Just wearing a Vote For Pedro shirt does not make someone quirky. Quirky is like chic: someone who’s chic is ahead of the curve, not just in fashion but in overall demeanor, and someone who’s quirky truly has their own drummer, in that they don’t even realize they don’t conform. One cannot be chic only on Saturday night, and one cannot purchase quirkiness at Hot Topic. And the irony that many of the people wearing those shirts are the same people who, if they went to Napoleon’s school, would be the ones slamming him into lockers, does not escape me. Anyway, I liked it for what it was. Basically, they had me from the opening credit sequence. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/32 "2006-05-01T14:27:13Z")
I’ve seen it once, and enjoyed it. I like to describe the as one giant awkward pause. Which, I think is a fascinating thing to watch. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/33 "2006-05-01T15:43:58Z")
I thought it was great. I think people that like Beavis & Butthead (that’s me) would probably like this movie. It was painfully awkward and very funny throughout. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/34 "2006-05-01T15:47:07Z")
I would further say don’t see this movie expecting to learn something (except maybe how the “lower half” lives) or see something epic. It’s plain, it’s mundane, it’s realistic in many ways. Sort of like Seinfeld, there’s no big message, just quirky people getting through everyday life. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/35 "2006-05-01T16:54:28Z")
> [@RumbleFeature](#): > > NP more than any movie I have ever seen is an “aquired taste”. The question you may have is the same question I have when people tell me beer is an aquired taste…If you don’t like it at first then why do you keep doing it? In my case I hated it at first but it seemed wherever I went my friends had it on, so a lot of the gags began to grow on me. > > When you start to find the characters funny then you start to see the bigger picture, you begin to find everything funny like the fact that this backwards town is obviously stuck in a time warp ( being from the south I have been to many such towns). Even as you swear you hate it you slowly start quoting the film (“how could anyone even know that?”) and then finally against your will you find you are actually enjoying the movie…And you find it charming…ack! > > So no it doesn’t get “better” after the first 15 minutes and I certainly wouldn’t blame you If you didn’t want to suffer through it, but if you did you may discover what all the craze was about. Just as a note though you do have to throw out all of your preconceived notions about what a movie should be…Like it having…a plot… I agree. I thought this movie was totally unfunny the first time I saw it and was trying way too hard to be quirky. But then, I was watching it alone, which always makes movies less funny. The second time I saw it I watched it with a group of people who are huge fans and it was one of the funniest things I saw in months. All the other people laughing around you gets you in the mood and makes you like the movie more. So yeah… if you (the OP) do try to watch it again watch it with someone else, preferably someone who’s seen the movie. I still don’t think it’s the funniest movie ever but it definitely has some great lines. I’d like to see it again and I’ve already seen it twice, and I’m not a big movie rewatcher. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/36 "2006-05-01T17:21:59Z")
I loved it! The things that made it so enjoyable were the fact that it was taking place in 2004 yet the music, the clothes, the hair was all 80’s. My god, the Trapper Keeper alone made me snerf my beverage. It’s seeing the humor in the mundane that made it so hysterical to me. That coupled with the odd humanity of the characters. Uncle Rico being sort of innocently slimey, his obsession with his almost football career, the fact that Grandma had a llama, and better yet, Grandma got injured in a dune buggy accident. It’s just so _cheesy_. But one thing it was not, was sophmoric. It was a refreshing step away from the likes of movies like _Dude Wheres My Car_. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/37 "2006-05-01T17:58:57Z")
A one joke movie- if you like the joke, you will of course like the movie. If you don’t like the joke, you will hate the movie. I’m in the latter camp. Also thought the ghetto girl liking the dweeb to be the most unbeliveable pairing in the history of film. Not gonna happen. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/38 "2006-05-01T18:14:07Z")
I like the movie, but I don’t enjoy it. It is a brutal and unapologetic look at American small town life. Most of the people that I know who love it, don’t even get that Napoleon is really poor. Basically ND is _The Water Boy_, but honest about things. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/39 "2006-05-01T18:35:15Z")
I rather liked it for some reason. I guress it’s because I can indentify somewhat with ND, a wierd guy doesn’t have many friends. That and it’s wierd but strangely interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868/40 "2006-05-01T23:34:19Z")
> [@The Chao Goes Mu](#): > > My god, the Trapper Keeper alone made me snerf my beverage. I like, totally had a Trapper Keeper in the 80’s. Those things were cool. > [@](#): > > But one thing it was not, was sophmoric. It was a refreshing step away from the likes of movies like _Dude Wheres My Car_. This is an interesting point. I think the movie was childish, or child-like, but not sophomoric. The characters were those kids in high school who for whatever reason did not dress or act as “grown up” as kids like Summer Wheatley. Their obliviousness, which is so obvious to everyone else, keeps them innocent and bizarrely sweet. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much. It’s not about sophisticated people. It’s not cool or about being cool. It’s about being stuck being who you are and maybe having some success in the mundane little crap in life anyway. That’s why the hype is so annoying; once “cool” people get a hold of it, it’s ruined. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-couldnt-get-past-the-first-15-minutes-of-napoleon-dynamite/354868.md?page=3)