Napoleon Dynamite

If I was in charge of the Idaho State Tourism Board, I'd be filing a lawsuit against Hollywood. This movie doesn't blow entirely. It started off great. The creative opening credits and White Stripes song were fantastic. The nicest things I can say about this movie are about the music and choice of songs. I mean… good grief… they pulled out some Penguin Cafe Orchestra. I only know two other people on this planet that have heard of the PCO, besides people that have heard of them from me.

There were some parts that made me laugh out loud (the whole bit with the time machine comes to mind). But on the whole, I'd say this was just another pretentious bit of indie film making that tries so, so hard to shove down our throats just how completely cool we should all think this dork is. Oh, and it has a gimmick - It's an MTV produced film that has no bad words in it (don't believe me that it's a gimmick? Take a look at the "cleverly" named DVD menu choices).

Remember that home video that went around on the internet of a chunky kid who videotaped himself doing Star Wars lightsaber moves with a stick? His unadulterated enthusiasm and goofiness made him world famous for 15 minutes. This is the same kind of thing, except its scripted, forced, and about an hour and a half longer. …And the "Star Wars Kid" video had more action in it.

Besides the music, the development of the relationships between Napoleon and the girl and Napoleon and Pedro was the only other thing that kept me from just turning the movie off. But, finally, after the end (and, yes, even after the "2 months later" epilogue) I just felt like I'd been watching a National Geographic special on "The Courtship of Neanderthal Cavemen".

If you want a truly hilarious and outstanding comedy about some "hicks", do yourself a favor and see "Raising Arizona" instead.

But let's end on a positive note… if I was making movies, I'd hire this movie's "guy in charge of picking music" in a heartbeat.