Napoleon Dynamite (2004) Rated PG Starring: Jon Heder, Jon Gries, and Aaron Ruell Rating: out of

Napoleon Dynamite centers around the adventures of Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), a nerdy kid who lives with his grandmother and brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) in Preston, Idaho. When Grandma is injured in an ATV accident, Uncle Rico (Jon Gries) arrives to take care of the two brothers.

All of Napoleon Dynamite's characters are strangely out-of-sync with reality. Napoleon spends his time drawing fantasy creatures, fantasizing about being a ninja, and generally being unkempt. Kip spends his time online in chat-rooms talking to "hot babes." Uncle Rico lives in his van trying to recapture the glory of 1982, the year he almost took the high school football team to the state championship. Other than these brief descriptions, there's little to know about anyone in the film other than they're all quite bizarre. And I guess that's the joy of Napoleon Dynamite. The characters are so brazenly odd that they're immediately endearing. Napoleon is a loser but he seems to work so hard at it that one can't help but like him for his efforts.

Later in the film, Napoleon makes friends with Pedro (Efren Ramirez), the school's lone Latino student. Pedro decides to run for class president and Napoleon helps him in his effort to beat the preppy Summer (Haylie Duff) for the job. Their joint promotional methods are what one could expect from two nerdy outsiders and not the type of unbelievable stunts a typical Hollywood film might have them perform.

There's precious little story and the plot mainly exists to string a bunch of set piece skits together but, somehow, it all works. The humor is most certainly not for everyone but, if you've ever felt like a geek or an outsider, Napoleon Dynamite will make you laugh a bit louder and harder than if you haven't.

Trivia: The name "Napoleon Dynamite" is a pseudonym used by Elvis Costello for his 1986 album, "Blood and Chocolate". Executive producer Jeremy Coon has stated that the similarity is a coincidence and that the producers were unaware of Costello's usage of the name until the film was in production. (Source: The Internet Movie Database)