Napoleon Dynamite Movie Review 2004

Filmed in Preston, Idaho, the debut of director Hess (co-written by his wife) is a small-budget, small-scale, overreaching effort about the unfortunately named title character (Heder), an awkward, frizzy-haired, high school uber-nerd whose life is one exasperation after another. He's beaten up by the jocks, can't score with the babes, and his only friend is a shy Mexican immigrant, Pedro (Ramirez), whom Napoleon assists in his campaign for class president against popular blonde goddess, Summer (Duff, Hilary's sister). His much-older brother Kip (Ruell) is even more of a misfit and his creepily macho Uncle Rico (Gries) is looking after the family since Grandma (Martin) had an ATV-riding accident. You should want to root for the underdog but you may become just as exasperated as Napoleon watching this flick.

Distribution

Fox Home Entertainment, PO Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213, Phone: (310)369-3900, Toll-free: 888-223-4FOX, Fax: (310)369-5811, URL: http://www.foxmovies.com/index1.html, Remarks: Also known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 86 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Hell High School, High School, Teen Angst

Screenplay

Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess

Cast

Jon(athan) Gries, Tina Majorino, Diedrich Bader, Jon Heder, Aaron Ruell, Efren Ramirez, Haylie Duff, Trevor Snarr, Shondrella Avery

Cinematography

Munn Powell

Director

Jared Hess

Music

John Swihart

Other

Matt Davis, Jeremy Coon, Curt Jenson, Jerusha Hess, Cory Lorenzen

Producer

Jeremy Coon, Sean C. Covel, Chris Wyatt, Fox Searchlight