Precisely why I hated it so much. I did live in a very poor small town when I was in high school. I knew all those kids, including and especially Napoleon. A kid so desperate to make his life interesting that he lives in a fantasy world where he’s a super-cool guy, even though he knows sdeep down that he’s just a dweeb… good God it hurts. 
Hated this movie. There’s nothing funny about it. A friend of mine kept raving about it, so I rented it, thinking I would love it, and found myself wondering what was supposed to be funny about everything. I don’t get why people love it so much, nor do I want to know why.
Yeah he’s a dweeb, and yes he lives in a fantasy world in which he’s awesome, but I don’t think he realizes it. That’s what makes him so interesting – he doesn’t pity himself despite his circumstances. Rather his attitude is more elitist – he thinks he’s better than everybody else, and he gets exasperated when they don’t “get” him.
Plus his character is at least partially redeemed in the end when he uses some genuine skills (dancing) to help his friend Pedro win the election. Plus he manages to find a girl who cares about him, and even learns to reciprocate that affection in his own unique way (“I caught you a delicious bass”).
Errr, you did watch the climactic scene, right? The one where he triumphs and earns the accolades of all his peers (except that of the hated ruling class?) In that regard, I suppose you could say it was a fantasy, since that sort of thing doesn’t really happen, but it was a very triumphant movie.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that Napolean has an odd sort of confidence about him, which makes him likeable to me, despite his annoying mannerisms.
There were plenty of kids in my high school who knew they were dweebs and spent the day sitting in a corner, friendless, feeling sorry for themselves. Say what you want about the healthiness of Napolean’s defense mechanism – at least it allows him to function, make friends, and even enjoy a little success in life.
You also have to give him credit for not following the crowd. He’s an odd duck, but he doesn’t make any effort to fit in, unlike 90% of high school students, who’d gladly follow the popular kids off a cliff. Perhaps he honestly doesn’t know how to fit in, but I suspect the fact that he’s an outcast has more to do with his low opinion of his peers.
The movie is a celebration of eccentric people. I may laugh while watching Napolean brag about his “numchucks”, Kip chatting online with LaFawnduh all day, Uncle Rico trying to capture his lost childhood, Pedro trying to make sense of high school in small-town Idaho, and Deb trying to pay for college selling trinkets and glamour shots. But I’m also rooting for them. I don’t sense any mean spiritedness in the film, and I found all the characters likeable – even uncle Rico. The fact that the movie ends on a high note for each of the main characters should give you a clue about the mindset of the writers.
I think the film’s biggest problem, which has been mentioned earlier in the thread, is that a certain percentage of the audience doesn’t get the warm fuzzy vibe, and interprets the film as a kind of dork minstrel show. If this is your take on the movie, you’re going to react in one of two ways: you’ll love it anyway, because it gives you a chance to jeer at the geeky kids, or you’ll be offended, because you’ll feel that the caricatures hit too close to home.
Precisely why I love it . . . because they captured that so well. It did hurt when I was living it; it helps to know that someone understands that world and those feelings. And managed to portray it in a sweet and funny and bizarre manner, without being insulting. Strange how I could feel for Napoleon and want to dope-slap him at the same time.
(I’d do the same if I could go back and meet my teenage self. What the hell was I thinking??)
I wonder if growing up in a small rural town has something to do with it. I went to high school in a small Arizona town (with a significant Morman population), and this movie was pure nostalgia… 
It was a fantasy.
Think about it. He imagines he’s going off to… what is it? Hunt wolverines in Alaska with his uncle? He imagines that he has ‘bo staff skills’. And he practices dancing from a cheap video in the hopes that he’ll become this really amazing dancer and impress everybody.
You can take the climactic scene one of two ways – reality or wishful thinking. Though it struck me watching it that, no matter how good he was, a real kid in ihis situation likely wouldn’t get any sort of accolades from his fellow students. They’re too used to the idea of Napoleon as Pathetic Loser Omega.
It reminded me so very keenly of high school, and I have to admit that in that they did a good job in this movie. The ending for those characters is consciously unrealistic, and considering the realism of the movie that comes before it… well, it’s sort of like the American ending of Brazil.
Maybe I’m just looking at it from the wrong perspective. I’ve always been uncomfortable in movie scenes where the main character is made to look an entire fool, and this was just an entire movie of that. But is there anyone around who was “popular” in high school who managed to feel for Napoleon? Not many people were actually HAPPY in those years of their lives, not really or completely, but surely there has to be a football player on the SDMB. Was Napoleon just someone to laugh at for those people?
I laughed until I wanted to spit blood. But I did tell mambowoman the next morning that there has never been a film that she would like less. So even in my paroxsysms of laughter, I recogised it as a “different strokes for different folks” film.
mm
Well, it was playing on cable, and when after ten minutes I couldn’t understand what the appeal was, I thought of this thread.
Diedrich Bader’s dojo scene just started and while he’s amusing, the rest of the characters aren’t, so that’s it for me.
I know this is a dead thread, but I just recently saw this movie. I found it painful to watch. He was so realistically dorky that I really can’t picture the actor being anything but a complete dork. But what bothered me is that the movie was created to make fun of “That Guy”. The fact that he wins in the end doesn’t make up for the mean streak, in my opinion.
I recorded it recently and decided to watch it just because it’s become such a cultural touchstone.
It’s not the worst movie ever made, but it may be the worst movie I’ve forced myself to sit through when I had a choice. I kept thinking at each scene break that it has to change, to turn into the funny movie that people keep talking about. Never happens. The lack of plot didn’t bother me a bit. The lack of anything interesting happening inside any individual scene did.
That said, Jon Heder’s performance was amazing.
I thought it was boredom wrapped in unevenness.
Natch. You simply have to allow yourself to go for it. The entire construct, right down to the utter lack of camera movement, makes you squirm- and makes the smallest of situations and jokes that much more hilarious.
I must admit, I laughed a hell of a lot at this film. Similarly, I howled at Harold and Khumar Go To White Castle.
I’m okay with the fact that every piece of filmmaking is not a Merchant/Ivory Production.
Sometimes, Very Stupid is quite funny. 
Cartooniverse
Well, I don’t think it’s stupid. I can actually relate to this film to some extent, having been one of the geeky unpopular kids in school, like Napoleon, as well as an immigrant, like Pedro. I was actually a little dismayed when it became so popular, because then it became the trendy thing to go around quoting lines like “Whatever I want to do! Gosh!” and wearing “Vote for Pedro” T-shirts. (Although my BIL bought one for his dad, which was cool because his dad’s name is Pedro.) 
I still like it, though.
I liked Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle because it is nothing at all like Napoleon Dynamite. The individual scenes are funny in and of themselves. The dialog is infinitely better. The director wasn’t attempting a weird parody of nothing apparent but was just making a movie. I don’t understand why people keep pairing the films.
Braaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnssssssss!
I didn’t like ND either. Stupefyingly unfunny is a pretty good way of putting it. More annoying than the movie itself was the way everyone started quoting it, as if it was some great source of wit and humor. The whole thing just seemed like the triumph of the “random” kid in class who cracks everyone up by being a smug asshole.
This movie seems like something intellectuals love to hate, which is why most Dopers didn’t enjoy it. It has no overarching plot, no artsy fartsy symbolism, no “important” social commentary, no witty banter, etc. The characters are excrutiatingly annoying, but that’s the point. They’re Larry David type people - you love them because they act so socially oblivious. They’re not supposed to be loveable or cute.
I love how the movie so accurately captured the high school nerd. Most “nerds” in Hollywood movies are portrayed as handsome people with tape on their glasses that build robots in their basements. Real nerds are ugly, socially awkward, and obsessed with fantasy. ND gets this perfect. I would know, 'cuz thems my people.
Also, it might be an age group thing. The 80’s stuff was excellent nostalgia for me. The Trapper Keeper, the ninja obsession, the music - it was like look into my own past.
Nice to see my old thread rise from the dead. I confess, I haven’t tried to see the movie again… and doubt I ever will.
I mentionedlast year that I like the movie.
I don’t buy your theory completely. My Geek Cred is pretty good and I am Graduated in '84. I have two problems, while Napoleon was so geeky that even geeks might make fun of him, the girl was typically cute in a typical Hollywood fashion.
Additionally while I was somewhat socially awkward, and obsessed with fantasy, I was not ugly, I had lots of friends and got along with most of the class. My wife was a shy High School geek and was very cute. My geeky friends ranged from ugly to quite normal. I cannot recall anyone as geeky as ND except for one kid that did AV and had some sort of mental problem.
Jim