Bottle Rocket | | Cast : | Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson | | Director : | Wes Anderson | | Studio : | Columbia/Tristar Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | February 21, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | May 17, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | Wes Anderson goodnes | Content
 | If you like the style of Wes Anderson, you'll in all probability like this film. I saw his other films first ("Rushmore", "The Royal Tennenbaums" & "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou") and thought that maybe this, his first movie (right?), might not be of the same standard ... but I think it is. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 29, 2005 | | Summary | Like a Rocket! | Content
| Great dialogue, great performances and a fresh look at the criminal mind propels BOTTLE ROCKET to be a definite favorite for the new breed of cinemaphiles. The story revolves around a pair of friends (portrayed by the Wilson Brothers) who are unsuitable in their field, crime. After a couple bumbled heists and a good talking to by a younger sister, the boys find themselves abandoned at a roadside motel where one finds love. James Caan makes a much needed appearance in the film, otherwise, it would have fallen under too many radars and probably would have not gotten the attention it deserves. Wes Anderson followed this up with the wonderful RUSHMORE. The DVD has no special features, just an adequate widescreen transfer.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 20, 2005 | | Summary | Anderson's Brilliant Debut | Content
| Like Wes Anderson's other films, BOTTLE ROCKET investigates the limits of loyalty.
Anthony Adams serves as the film's center because he has the most and the strongest loyalties -- to Dignan, despite his craziness; to Bob Mapplethorpe, despite his weakness; and to Inez, despite her seeming rejection of him.
Even Anthony's flight from a botched heist is an act of loyalty, since it confirms that Dignan -- whatever his flaws -- remains the leader of the "mission," the one on whom its success or failure depends.
As in RUSHMORE and THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, the music is superb. The almost impossible intensity of Love's "7 and 7 Is" both dramatizes and mocks the rush the friends get from their first "job," a burglary of Anthony's mother's house. And "Alone Again Or" lends emotional depth to the quirky (and otherwise implausible) courtship of Anthony and Inez.
Despite a slight misstep in THE LIFE AQUATIC, Anderson may be the best American director of his generation. BOTTLE ROCKET is an engaging introduction to his work.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 13, 2005 | | Summary | A strangely compelling, wonderfully quirky little comedy | Content
| Low-key, deadpan humor is the name of the game in this quirky comedy that is chock full of Wilson brothers. Owen wrote and starred in the film alongside brother Luke, and yet another Wilson brother plays a small role as their buddy's brother. Bottle Rocket is definitely a quirky little film, and its humor won't appeal to everyone. Inevitably, you'll either enjoy it or wonder why such a nothing story was ever made into a film. By this point, I have to come to terms with the fact that I am actually an Owen Wilson fan; I can't help it - the man's just extremely funny.
The story centers around Anthony (Luke Wilson), who just got out of a voluntary mental hospital, and his one-of-a-kind buddy Dignan (Owen Wilson). Dignan has big plans; in fact, he has the next fifty years charted out. This master plan of his calls for Dignan and Anthony to pull a few burglary jobs and thus impress the local landscaper (I mean, criminal mastermind) Mr. Henry (James Caan) so much that he makes them part of his crew. Dignan obsessively maps out each facet of his plans, treating them as daring capers of great importance, but Anthony and his friend Bob (Robert Musgrave) tend to get distracted rather easily. The first job, a little after-hours bookstore robbery, sort of succeeds despite itself, and the trio goes on the lamb until the supposed heat is off, holing up in a cheap motel out in the middle of nowhere. Here's where things start falling apart, at least insofar as Dignan is concerned. Bob's all worried about his brother having been arrested for the pot that Bob was growing in his own backyard, while Anthony falls in a rather pathetic - but awfully sweet - kind of love with Inez the housekeeper (Lumi Cavazos) - despite her limited knowledge of English. Everyone goes his separate way, basically, but the gang comes back together in order to pull their most ambitious (and, of course, wildly unsuccessful) heist yet. There's not a great deal of story resolution at the end, but that's okay; the film's ambiguity is actually one of its strengths.
Bottle Rocket is a decidedly quirky film, but the characters of Dignan and Anthony really grow on you. Poor Dignan, despite all of his big plans and enthusiasm, is really just a loser going nowhere, while Anthony basically just wants the world to slow down to his low-key pace and to be reunited with Inez. The whole film thrives on a fairly intellectual brand of comedy - no toilet humor, outrageous pratfalls, or low-brow, course jokes to generate cheap laughs. Sure, the movie is sort of stupid, but the comedy certainly isn't. Basically, you either get Bottle Rocket or you don't. That's probably one of the reasons that the film has never managed to generate a giant blip on the radar screens of movie viewers - and that's too bad because Bottle Rocket really is a funny little oddball of a film. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 08, 2005 | | Summary | "Backyard! Right now!!" | Content
| Anybody reading this has probably already seen the movie, but...
This is a fun little movie based around 3 guys in their mid-twenties who innocently choose to pursue a life of crime out of sheer boredom.
Owen Wilson is brilliant as Dignan...an insecure character with a strong desire to be a criminal mastermind. He recruits his best friend Anthony (Luke Wilson) to be his right hand man and take down some scores together. Bob joins the "gang" as the getaway driver, which makes sense since he is the only one with a car.
I would consider this an Owen Wilson movie moreso than a Wes Anderson film because Owen carries this movie in every scene. Any scene without Dignan tends to drag along (the whole Anthony/Ines relationship really slows down the flow).
I give this 4 STARS minus one for the bare bones DVD. No commentary, no deleted scenes, we don't even get to see the original short film version of Bottle Rocket that was shopped around and eventually led to the feature length.
I would bet money that the Criterion Collection picks this DVD up and re-releases it properly. Hold out if you can... |
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