Bottle Rocket

A simple movie that went far beyond what could have been expected. I have been fascinated with Wes Anderson ever since. The Wilson brothers shocked me in that they were so easy going through the whole film. Never before have I been so intrigued about a movie that involved so little detail, which in itself proves there was great detail and a great effort in keeping the detail. The laughs are there, but it's no Happy Gilmore. That's a big reason why I like it. I would recommend this film to anyone who is quirky and who likes to see a young, raw Owen Wilson. Wes Anderson has gone on to make other wonderful pieces of filmery, but you gotta love his first effort purely for its simplicity.

At this point, I wager, Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson weren't entirely sure how their Bottle Rocket feature would turn out. As a means of getting support for it they made this short film which won over James L. Brooks at Sundance and got them a movie deal at Columbia pictures. Their plan worked... except that their short film had only the smallest of substance- heavy on style, of course, even in the grittiest possible for anything by Wes Anderson- and they spent more than a year or so writing and rewriting the feature until they got it to where it worked, brilliantly.

So, as someone who loves the 1996 Bottle Rocket, I have to say that this one was just alright. But alright in that sense that does get you excited about a couple of things. For one thing the Wilson brothers, however airy their delivery, already have an interesting rapport going on, and certain scenes are identical to how it came out in the feature such as the robbery of the house, or of the shooting of the cans with the guns (the Charlie Brown music is an especially funny and awesome touch). I also liked how they introduced the book-store into the story, how the bits and pieces of visual information were kind of "stolen" shots probably taken when no one was looking in the aisles and around the corners. It overall is something slight, but it works for a 13 minute short with a sort of abrupt ending.

This 20 minute short served as the trailer for and basis of "Bottle Rocket" the feature, which in turn launched Wes Anderson's long career as one of our most critically admired directors.

I remember how talked about the short was in film circles, and how it inspired Polly Platt (long time James Brooks partner) to get behind Anderson and champion his getting a shot at doing a feature version. There were many envious young film-makers and film students out there!

While the short is rough, it already has the odd, intelligent wit and strong comic acting along with the surprisingly complex characters that marks all Anderson's work. Visually it's nothing special, lacking the specific and idiosyncratic film language Anderson would make his own in films to come, but it tells it's enjoyable shaggy dog story just fine.

Luke and Owen Wilson are both very good, and amazingly young.

The short is available as an extra on the Criterion release of 'Bottle Rocket' and is well worth seeing - both as a piece of modern film history, and as an entertaining film in it's own right.

This short was great. It's actually the first and only Wes Anderson work I'd seen, so I didn't know what to expect. But it was surprisingly well-made. Obviously not the best, but for a low budget screening, the cinematography was good, the dialogue was pretty good, and especially the main actors were good. Sure, they weren't Humphrey Bogart or Robert De Niro, but I thought they did great for first timers. Honestly, I was surprised that it was their first time. Of course, I did have an admiration for Owen Wilson before.

Overall, this short was better that I expected. I know Anderson's work now and I know the writer side of Owen Wilson. I'll see even more when I see the feature length version - this film made me want to see it.

The owner of our local video store was nice enough to let me borrow his copy of the short when I rented Bottle Rocket. It's very clever but honestly nothing to write home about. Witty dialog with a lot of pop culture references and a certain charm, but it just doesn't have that endearing quality that Anderson and Wilson's longer films have. It actually seems more like something Quentin Tarantino would do than Anderson and Wilson. If you're a fan of Bottle Rocket and you get a chance to see this it's probably worth it. If nothing else it's interesting to see how it started. On the other hand if you never see it you shouldn't feel like you're missing too much.