Also, if you didn’t already know, it’s not set in the 1980s. The reason they have all that '80s junk is because the town is a backwater, and anyway, they’re poor.
Napoleon’s girlfriend was cute, but I disagree that she was typical Hollywood. She was way too plain, quirky, and soft spoken for a movie stereotype.
And while I’m sure you and your wife were gorgeous, from my experience that isn’t the norm with nerds. Ugly might have been too strong of a word, but they’re certainly not anywhere near Hollywood’s idea of beautiful.
That’s pretty clear from the fact that they used the internet quite a bit. Not that it wasn’t possible then, but I don’t think Kip was that technologically hip.
Napoleon Dynamite is ok but the book was much better.
Well my wife might have qualified as gorgeous, I was just rather normal looking. 
I have no objections to your redefinition of not Hollywood’s idea of beautiful.
I saw Tina Majorino, who played Deb in something recently and she was even prettier than I initially thought in ND. She reminds me a little of Alyson Hannigan who people seem to either think is extremely cute or not cute at all. (Note: I think Alyson is cuter than Miss Majorino)
Jim
I’m no intellectual, believe me (and I’m in the right age group) and I didn’t like ND either. I found it pointless and stupid, and I can’t shake the feeling that folks who laugh at it are engaging in an Emperor’s New Clothes sort of unspoken agreement that they SHOULD find it funny.
I loved “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.”
I’d also agree that Napoleon wasn’t just a nerd; he was nerdy to the point of mental retardation. My school had its share of nerds but they weren’t that bad. I only knew one kid THAT awkward, and he obviously had some pretty serious problems with his brain.
Movies exaggerate, of course, but still, why is it fun to laugh at a retarded kid? It wasn’t that I didn’t feel for him, it’s that the movie wanted me to laugh at someone who appeared to be crippled.
But, it’s all a matter of taste.
I believe that you have to be, or have been, at least a smidgen of a loser to really engage with Napoleon and therefore resonate with the overall vibe of the film. Napoleon, while extreme in his utter lack of awareness, is a caricature, a magnification of that awkward demon that haunts those of us that are a little on the introverted end of the scale.
Take for example, the milk scene, where Napoleon says “I see you’re drinking 1%. Is that 'cause you think you’re fat? 'Cause you’re not. You could be drinking whole if you wanted to.” Now to me that’s amusing in a “it’s funny 'cause it’s true!” way because I can identify with that bumbling attempt at conversation. I was the guy that would fall to pieces in front of girls at school at utter such poorly phrased compliments.
Also, there’s the bit where Napoleon dangles an action figure from the school bus window on a piece of string. To me, that is innately hilarious precisely because I’m the dorky kind of guy that would do such a thing. Now, if you have no idea what the appeal is in dangling an action figure from a moving vehicle, it seems likely you’ll find it unfunny to point of confusion, even annoyance.
I don’t mean to pigeonhole viewers or assign any intellectual value to enjoyment/dissatisfaction, just offering my own perspective as to what makes it a pleasing watch. Truth be told, I didn’t find the film hilarious as a whole, and I thought the whole Pedro ‘subplot’ was pretty weak.
I watched it with my teenage son and we would both laugh at the same stuff and look at one another with a “this is strange” look. Now at work me and some of the young guys when we are frustrated by something fucking up will suddenly say [Napoleon Dynamite] I told you! I spent it with my uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines! [/Napoleon Dynamite]. One of the others will pick up the dialogue. It is the pissed off tone of voice that makes it work.
I viewed it with the mindframe that since it was ‘popular with the young folks’ I would not enjoy it much at all.
I loved it. So did the Mrs. And we graduated HS back in '75. I was a clueless nerd, she was as marginalized as Deb. We both identified with the main players rather well.
I find it hilarious that anyone could possibly think that the regulars here on the Dope were ever one of the popular kids in high school! 
I don’t think that’s fair. It’s not a question of ‘love to hate’; it’s rather what you say here:
I can’t stand Larry David comedies. They seem to consist of ‘Lookie here - this is stupid. Laugh at stupid’. Over and over and over again. The first couple of times can maybe be funny. The next umpty-zillion times it’s just old and tired. Very tired.
I started watching it and lasted twenty minutes before I fell asleep. Stupid isn’t funny to me. I’m happier with quick and witty or satirical or clever play on words or silly-absurd. Which is why I never understood the popularity of Letterman or Conan O’Brien - oh, he smacked himself into a wall. ha. ha. It’s just a genre of humour that doesn’t appeal to some folks.
I very much enjoyed the movie.
I hate “laugh at stupid” comedies as well. I would put ND in the “silly-absurd” category.
Perhaps it’s expectation. Did those of you who hate it see the film after it became a hit movie? I had the same reaction to The Departed. I rented it last week, and upon completion I thought “that’s it?” My brother brought me the ND DVD when I didn’t really know what it was about. I heard the name and knew it had a slight cult status, but I honestly thought it was suck because my brother loves “laugh at stupid” comedies. I was pleasantly surprised.
'Course, in the end comedy is highly subjective. I can’t tell you why I love Harold and Kumar and hate anything with Ben Stiller in it. Well I could, but it’d take more thought than I want to put into this post.
Damn that line describes my thoughts to the T. There seems to be a lot of Ben Stiller fans out there. I find almost everything he does stupid, not stupid funny, but just stupid.
Jim
And I think Stiller’s a hoot. I guess the line between absurd as funny and absurd as stupid is a thin and wavy one.
It didn’t leave much of an impression on me. It was a lot better than your standard high school movie, but that’s really not saying much. I’m English, and the whole thing was a bit far removed from where I grew up. Come to think of it, I don’t think it was particularly popular in Europe.
Despite it’s quirkiness, it still had that “Everything works out” cheesiness in the ending. I was actually really surprised by that.
I came across guys like Napoleon at high school. I’d assume I could get along with them because of mutual quirkiness, only to find their arrogance/lies/stupidity unbearable. You’d feel sorry for them for not having any friends, then remember that they really brought it onto themselves.