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Napoleon Dynamite
EMAILPRINTFox Searchlight Pictures

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 471 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by:
Jared Hess
Jerusha Hess
Directed by: Jared Hess
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 11, 2004
DVD: December 21, 2004
Running Time: 86 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell, Tina Majorino, Haylie Duff, Ellen Dubin, and Emily Kennard
From Preston, Idaho comes Napoleon Dynamite (Heder), a new kind of hero complete with a tight red 'fro, some sweet moon boots and skills that can't be topped. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Nacho Libre
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Film Threat Eric Campos
The cast playing these eccentric characters is magnificent...This is definitely one of the most unique comedies youll see all year.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Jon Heder in the magnificent Napoleon Dynamite, is one of the most winning movie creations in years.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Melissa Levine
It's charming. It's hilarious. It is perhaps the most beautifully crafted, lovingly rendered portrait of extreme geekitude ever to grace the screen. It's Napoleon Dynamite.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
If you're sick of the gross-out gags and sex jokes of contemporary teen comedy, this defiant blast of idiosyncratic individuality just could be your tonic.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
I laughed. And I laughed primarily over Heder's hilarious performance. You ain't seen nothing till you've seen Napoleon attack that tether ball.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Thrusts us into a high school senior year like no other.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
More than a deadpan comedy about oddball losers. This dork has his day, and this story has its touching subtext -- growing pains relieved by unlikely hope.
Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
For older and more reflective viewers, its a quirky, fresh slice-of-life more inviting than a tater-tot pyramid.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
A diverting and loosely connected series of episodes about the most bizarre screen family of 2004.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
An inspired dead-end stunt that keeps delivering snarky laughs far longer than it has any right to.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
While Solondz's world is a hell hole and Anderson's "Rushmore" is a place of high-toned and often poignant whimsy, Napoleon Dynamite's unceasing burlesque creates a world that is pretty much a cartoon--and it's a damn funny cartoon to boot.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Refreshing for its simplicity and its originality in a marketplace dominated by soulless blockbusters.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
There's plenty of humor in the film, but the movie is often a little uncomfortable to watch, and Napoleon is not an easy guy to like. Rooting for him takes effort.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
May not make you laugh out loud - it's too sly and subtle for that - but it will have you smiling every minute, and often grinning widely at its weirded-out charm. Nerdiness will never seem the same.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Hess and his terrific cast -- Heder is geek perfection -- make their own kind of deadpan hilarity. You'll laugh till it hurts. Sweet.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
An absurdist piece about a rural community of clueless cretins who careen through life like poorly played pinballs, Napoleon Dynamite represents the definition of the comedy of condescension and ridicule.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Both Hesses and a surprisingly large number of their very talented cast and crew are graduates of Brigham Young University's film program: Could BYU one day join the esteemed ranks of USC and NYU?
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Toward the end the freak-show humor begins to yield diminishing returns, but for most of its length this delivers a steady stream of uncomfortable gut laughs.
Read Full Review >Newsweek Devin Gordon
This achingly funny film is a string of vignettes with no real plot, so it has periods of pointlessness--come to think of it, it's all pointless. But it has "cult classic" written all over it.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
Napoleon Dynamite is too low-wattage to be a true nerd anthem, but it's charming in retrospect.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
As slight as the picture is, though, its hero is an indelible creation.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
There isn't much Napoleonic grandeur in this Idaho-set high school comedy, which in spite of its most condescending instincts, does have its moments.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
With the exception of one truly glorious dance solo, the movie treats its hero - and his equally uncool family - with undisguised disdain.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
The performances, even those by trained actors like Mr. Ramirez and Ms. Majorino, have the hesitant, blinking opacity that some directors look for in nonprofessional casts. Their awkwardness is charming, and part of the point of the movie, but it also makes for some dull stretches and thwarts your ability to regard the characters with sympathy rather than mere curiosity.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Sure, it quickly turns into a one-note exercise in laughing at the yokels, but at least it has a vision.
Read Full Review >Empire Helen O'Hara
As long as you don't mind making fun of the afflicted, there are some killer comic moments.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
So deadpan a film is Napoleon Dynamite, the story and the name of a gangly high school misfit in Preston, Idaho, that I can't say whether it was intended as a character study or a comedy.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
At the end of Napoleon Dynamite, you're glad the geeks have their day (even Kip's chat-mate turns out be a winner); you're also relieved to be rid of them.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's fairly entertaining--but not the second coming of indie comedy some notices might lead you to expect.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer
Has to be enjoyed in spurts. There's no cohesive story, just a series of opportunities for the title character (Jon Heder) to strut his gawky stuff.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
A one-note, lightweight, condescending comedy about the rubes of Idaho.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Filmmaker Jared Hess (who cowrote the script with his wife, Jerusha Hess) installs Napoleon front and center as a punchline in and of himself -- and as that dispiriting product of narrative defeat, a symbol.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
It's a simple collection of sight gags and pratfalls that mines the overly familiar turf of awkward adolescence without bringing anything truly original to the experience.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
There is a kind of studied stupidity that sometimes passes as humor, and Jared Hess' Napoleon Dynamite pushes it as far as it can go.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
If Napoleon Dynamite really is, as reported, a semiautobiographical exercise, it is one of the most astoundingly self-hating such exercises in memory.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 471 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Andrew B gave it a10:
How can you not like this movie? Its absolutely perfect. the absence of celebrities just makes it seem more like a documentary then the absolute comedic masterpiece that it really is.
[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Definitely unique, and memorable, but it is quite stupid at times.
Nathan gave it a0:
This was absolutely one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I paid money to rent it and turned it off after 25 minutes. In that time I didn't even crack a smile. I guess I am too old for this or something.
Andy M. gave it a10:
This is movie is incredibly peculiar. It has this bleak and depressing tone, yet it still manages to be heartwarming, uplifting, and comedic. It doesn't hit you over the head with gags, as some people might have expected when they first saw it in theaters. Rather, it has this quirky, subtle, eccentric appeal that grows on you. Great acting, great soundtrack... it's a must-see film. John Heder plays this role perfectly (though, sadly, he can't play any other role). You can keep coming back to this film, and it will only get better. Just... don't expect a blockbuster teen comedy.
Cory G. gave it a10:
this movie is amazing. one of my favorite parts that i always love to just act out is "break the wrist, walk away." its not supposed to have a real plot, it just kind of exists, and makes people laugh in the process. the casting for the parts was great, especially pedro. i loved his apathetic attitude.
I Am Correct gave it a0:
This movie was boring and horrible. I sat through the movie waiting for it to end, and even then, i wanted to shoot myself, and then the TV.
Rob C. gave it a5:
Just three words: Slow, Bored. Eccentric.
