Setting the Record Straight..."Napoleon Dynamite"

I do love me some tots!

The Story:

Slacker teen Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) lives with his grandma and his older brother.  When grandma must go away, their Uncle Rico comes to watch the house.  As if Napoleon wasn't tormented enough, now he's getting it at home and school.  Enter the mysterious new student, Pedro, whom Napoleon decides to help elect to the Student Body.

This movie is nearing it's 10th Anniversary.

For 10 long years, I've harbored a secret...

One which will forever cast a doubt on my reviewing capabilities from those of you who venture to this location to read these reviews.

That secret?

I hated this movie.

Of course, hated implies past tense, as if something new has happened and I have discovered the error of my reviewing ways.

So just this weekend as I surfed the channels, this movie was starting up, and I thought to myself...

Why not give it a shot?

Maybe I was wrong.

Everyone I know loved/loves this movie, so maybe I just missed something.

Cue the movie, and the opening credits are pretty inventive.

And that remains the only positive thing I have to say about this movie.

Invoking the 20 minute rule, I bailed at about the 12 minute mark (when Napoleon jumps the bike).

There had been zero laughs, and just the annoyance of Heder's Dynamite grating on my nerves.

Heder is one of those actors that doesn't act, he simply plays himself in various stages of slacker persona.

I tolerated it in The Benchwarmers, but other than that, I can't think of many actors of the last generation that are this annoying.  Tobey Maguire may be bland, but at least he has some range.

So yes, I've sat through the movie once before, about a decade ago and just didn't get the whole world going gaga for the film.

10 years later, I made the right choice of clicking it off... it simply doesn't get better.

At least not for this guy.

It's a cult movie, and this is one cult that I just don't like the taste of the Kool-Aid.

Final Grade: F

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Not even willing to try again at the 25th Anniversary screening.  I've got better things to see... like just about anything.