17 years ago history (and a fairly entertaining movie) was made. Like a lot of formulaic movies that put you through 2 hours (1:36:00) of hell so that the climax will be… climactic. Kind of like putting a horse down, it ends the suffering. It all comes together in the end though. What really impressed me was that it was made for around $400,000, and it grossed around $90,000,000. That’s what impressed me (and Napoleon’s dance scene at the end).

Originality stands out. 23 nominations and 10 wins worth. And it was pretty much ‘G’ Rated. The director Jared Hess was only 24 when he made it. The star John Heder was 2 years older than the director! (John Heder drew all the drawings in the movie except the unicorn) Having just seen the ending, it reminded me of how all the dysfunction merges into a happy ending. “Sorry I’m late, I just got done taming a wild honeymoon stallion for you guys.”

The appeal seemed more to men then women. I keep coming back to when Nap dangles the action figure from the moving school bus. But then there’s that scene from the picture above when Napoleon and Deb fight through all the relationship roadblocks, and look like they are going to be an item. If like me though, you’re really hoping they don’t have kids.

I just realized yesterday looking through the IMDB pages for the director and the stars, most of them seemed to be ‘one hit wonders’. Basing this on absolutely nothing, I can’t help but wonder if a lot of it isn’t Hollywood’s animosity to indies? Independent productions often turn out to be wildly successful, thereby making the big studios look stupid.