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Napoleon Dynamite
Fox Searchlight Pictures

Napoleon Dynamite reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 64 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.0 out of 10
based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 453 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA 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)


GENRE(S): Comedy  
WRITTEN BY: Jared Hess
Jerusha Hess
 
DIRECTED BY: Jared Hess  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: December 21, 2004 
Video: December 21, 2004 
Theatrical: June 11, 2004 
RUNNING TIME: 86 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic), 2004 Sundance Film Festival

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...

90
Film Threat Eric Campos
The cast playing these eccentric characters is magnificent...This is definitely one of the most unique comedies you’ll see all year.
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90
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Jon Heder in the magnificent Napoleon Dynamite, is one of the most winning movie creations in years.
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90
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.
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83
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.
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80
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.
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80
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Thrusts us into a high school senior year like no other.
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80
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.
78
Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
For older and more reflective viewers, it’s a quirky, fresh slice-of-life more inviting than a tater-tot pyramid.
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75
Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo
A cult classic-in-the-making.
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75
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
A diverting and loosely connected series of episodes about the most bizarre screen family of 2004.
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75
Boston Globe Ty Burr
An inspired dead-end stunt that keeps delivering snarky laughs far longer than it has any right to.
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75
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.
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75
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Refreshing for its simplicity and its originality in a marketplace dominated by soulless blockbusters.
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75
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.
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75
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.
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75
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.
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70
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.
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70
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?
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70
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.
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70
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.
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70
Slate David Edelstein
Napoleon Dynamite is too low-wattage to be a true nerd anthem, but it's charming in retrospect.
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63
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
As slight as the picture is, though, its hero is an indelible creation.
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63
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.
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63
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.
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60
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.
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60
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.
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60
Empire Helen O'Hara
As long as you don't mind making fun of the afflicted, there are some killer comic moments.
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50
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.
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50
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.
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50
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's fairly entertaining--but not the second coming of indie comedy some notices might lead you to expect.
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50
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.
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50
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
A one-note, lightweight, condescending comedy about the rubes of Idaho.
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42
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.
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40
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.
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38
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.
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30
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.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 453 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Michael B. gave it a0:
Reviews would suggest the obvious: you either love this movie or hate it. I'm in the latter group. The laughs are few and far between. The creators set out to create a "laugh at how stupid we are" kind of movie, and instead, you end up cursing yourself for wasting your money. This one isn't even worth a rent.

Drew R. gave it a10:
Fine line betweeng enius and stupidy, Napoleon dynamite earns the nobel prize!!!! if you did not find this hilarious and heart warming, then you didnt get it and should not b reviewing films, nuff said!

Tim S. gave it a10:
Absolutely hilarious - refreshingly everyday, not a special effect in sight. Its inspired me to become a porn director.

Chris M. gave it a9:
Best enjoyed with friends.

[Anonymous] gave it a0:
The worst movie I've ever had the misfortune of seeing.

Mike gave it a1:
I don't see how it's possible to 'get' this movie. The entire film seems to be based around one character idea... and it gets boring after about 5 minutes. Trevor L... "quite possibly the funniest movie of all time" ...wow.. the mind boggles! Uninteresting characters, a pathetic plot, I just didn't care what happened at the end. Rubbish... I think I also 'hate this film with my entire soul.

Jack B. gave it an8:
A good and funny movie, I loved Kip, especially in Rex Quondo.

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