Bottle Rocket (1996)

What a waste of my time!!!

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Short and Simple Review by WubsTheFadgerWes Anderson's first feature film shows us this directors future potential. Bottle Rockets is not his best film but it has some good moments. Throughout the film, there are very funny scenes and some good dialogue. I just thought that the film was missing Anderson's classic quirkiness and weirdness.The acting is very good. Owen and Luke Wilson work great together and both are very funny. Robert Musgrave, Ned Dowd, Andrew Wilson, and Jenni Tooley all perform well.The pacing, for me, was a little slow and the runtime was overlong. This film was better as a short rather than a full feature.Pros: Some funny moments in the story, Owen and Luke Wilson's performance, and good overall actingCons: Slow pacing, an overlong runtime, and the film was missing Anderson's weirdnessOverall Rating: 6.5

While, for me, this isn't up to the level of many of Anderson's best films to come, this rambling, likable and good-natured oddball shaggy dog story, packs in some real emotion to go with laughs along the way. It's full of terrific understated performances, and good use of images and music.I recently watched it a 2nd time and thought I wasn't all that into it... until near the end, when it suddenly got me on a deeper level emotionally than on first viewing. There's something in it about the loss of childhood dreams that resonates beyond the silly and playful surface. Always a good sign when a film deepens with time and re-visiting.Of course Criterion do their usual great job with both the transfer and the extras, and seeing the original short film is very interesting and a lot of fun in it's own right.Anderson has gone on to become one of our most important film-makers, and if this first film doesn't represent him as quite at full speed yet, it's still well worth seeing in terms of both entertainment and recent film history.

This is definitely seen as one of Anderson's lesser films, seeing as how it's definitely a lot less "Anderson-like" in its approach and style. Still, it's pretty good and pretty entertaining. The actors do a nice job, especially Luke Wilson. While Owen has always been more talented when it comes to comedy, Luke really knows how to make the most out of his dramatic talent and he's able to nail dramatic ticks and notes in his character that I don't think I've seen him do since (not in film, but certainly in Enlightened). Overall, this isn't such a big deal and it maybe didn't show the kind of stuff Anderson would go on to do, but it's definitely good.

OK. I was recommended to watch this film because I had a conversation about Wes Anderson with someone. I didn't know about his first film, Bottle Rocket, and my friend said she liked it because it was so laid back and appealed to her in some way.While I think it is a good first attempt for a film, and a good start for Wes Anderson. Although, I have to say that I got a good amount of the Wilson Brothers from the entire film, I thought it was admirable.It had it's moments and was shot decently well. There are a lot of problems with it. Motive for the story, the 2 dimensional characters with some important character traits, and a script that doesn't really work in the sense that it would serve to the story. This is long before Wes is making self aware quirky movies that pan to a certain type of trope or theme and it falls flat to deliver a solid movie with a plot that would make sense. It is incredibly well shot in a simple way and doesn't hit you over the head with anything, the performances feel a little forced, but it still all feels genuine enough to be believable.Once again, being that this is his first film, you can overlook a lot of the material and give him a pat on his back for what he was trying to accomplish. And he kind of hit it out of the park and began developing a style that some people would get under and truly respect. Anyway, that's my lightweight review of the movie. I don't want to bring up specific details of the film that bothered me or that I liked, but I would definitely give this a watch if you are interested enough in Wes Anderson as a director.