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Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) is a high school geek and describing him as a geek might not even be doing justice to the word geek. He has a big, puffy head of hair; he's tall and gangly; he wears glasses yet is still constantly squinting; he breathes with his mouth open and his bottom lip seems to stick out further than his top lip; he wears winter boots in the summer and constantly wears track pants; he draws pictures of a liger (a cross between a lion and a tiger). I could go on but I hope you get the picture.
His older brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) is not much better. He is 32 years old, lives at home, wears shorts with socks hiked up to his knees and seems to think a wild night out on the town entails two hours of sitting at home and talking to chicks online. (Insert Brendan joke here.)
Napoleon Dynamite, the movie, follows a few months in the life of Napoleon Dynamite, the super-geek, and some of the key players in his life - his equally geeky brother, his "best friend" Pedro (Efren Ramirez), his Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), his grandma (Sandy Martin) and a small handful of his classmates.
There's not a whole helluva lot going on in the life of Napoleon, besides the fact that his first name is Napoleon and his last name is Dynamite. He watches videos of his uncle playing football, he takes a martial arts class, he takes dance lessons and he helps Pedro run for school President. Funny? Sometimes it is humourous, sometimes it drags a bit and sometimes it is just plain foolish.
His brother, on the other hand, is great. He is a dedicated on-line dater. He also takes a martial arts class. And in a brilliant turn of events, he goes gangsta on our asses. I laughed at this one.
Overall, I would say Napoleon Dynamite is a mixed bag of nuts. There were times I laughed out loud and other time it was painfully slow and torturous to watch. I was hoping this movie would be a lot funnier than it actually was. It seemed sort of like a modern days version of "Revenge of the Nerds", but not nearly as dynamic or as funny. I am sure there are people out there who are going to fall in love with Napoleon Dynamite. I did not fall in love seeing this movie. I don't regret giving it a chance to win my heart but it quite simply was not funny enough to deserve my love.
 
- 5/10
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Brendan Cullin - Senior Editor
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