Okay...I
don't get it.
I mean, really, all that hype, all the
talk...for this? Is this some kind of joke? Is
it supposed to be funny? Usually mainstream
audiences don't embrace anything out of the
ordinary. It's strange that when they do, it
happens to be an out of the ordinary film that
is boring when it's making sense, and not making
sense when it's not boring.
I wonder what possessed anyone to create the
character of "Napoleon Dynamite." He's supposed
to be our hero, but he is thouroughly unlikable.
He's a fantasy obsessed nerd who randomly yells
at people and obviously does nothing to alter
his horrifyingly off-putting appearance. I'm not
the kind of guy who picks on these kind of
people, but if someone like Napoleon came to my
school, I'd probably reconsider. Throw in his
family, an even more unlikable bunch, and his
two friends, who seems like okay people but are
presented as losers of the caliber of Napoleon,
and you have a truly demented and difficult to
watch cast.
There's no story in "Napoleon Dynamite." Just a
random series of events with no purpose
whatsoever. Haha, look now, Napoleon just
crashed his bike. Hardee har har, Napoleon's
yelling at a llama. The film thinks it can be
funny by being entirely random. Yes, random is
funny; I tend to laugh at random humor more than
any other kind, but like crude and slapstick
humor, it requires a certain level of
intelligence and craft to make a random
occurrence funny.
When the events aren't random, they stop being
perplexing and start being s l o w...who cares
about Napoleon's uncle's plans to sell 24 piece
tupperware sets? Yes, tupperware is a hilarious
word, but nothing is done with it. It is never
funny!
Why is the grade where it is then? Well, I got a
few laughs from the film, but I felt bad
afterward. I was laughing AT this poor, dumb
character. The director is inviting the audience
to make fun of his creation. Characters have
been made to be laughed at before, but there was
alternative purposes to the story. Making fun of
Napoleon IS the story here.
©
Written by Jacob Hall
TC Candler's Comment
I laughed
my head off... Plain and simple.
Richard
Propes' Comment
n/a
