This is a step back in time as the film is Wes Anderson’s first feature film and after all a few minutes with the Owen brothers in place you can already see the first steps towards such features as The Grand Budapest Hotel. It has to be said this is a delightful step back in time. Truth be told nothing too exciting happens as right from the start it can deduced that a curiously short haired Owen Wilson’s character Dignan is an idiot with no real abilities in anything and with the others involved not truly committed to the cause it points to one thing – failure. The film really is about loyalty, friendship and somehow, despite all odds, finding your place in the world.

It is testimount to the writing and the acting that although you are in the company of petty, if useless, criminals who drift and have no real serious aim in life you want to be in their company and want to see what happens to them. Frankly in less skilful hands this could be a true bore of a film.

Being an independent film and the ‘team’s’ first serious effort the temptation to be wacky, weird and confusing with more pretentious makes might have overwhelming but here Anderson and the Owen’s reign it in to a perfect degree. No doubt Anthony and especially Dignan are strange and off-kilter but they are grounded in something recognisable more just foolish and aimless and with those traits this time of characterisation and story making is a difficult thing to pull-off.

Anderson’s makers are all in place, quirkiness, a bone dry sense of humour and flawed and interesting characters, something it is pleasing to see he has never lost to some people’s joy and others chagrin.

All of the acting is perfect for this type of film and every character is in a weird way believable in in the more unbelieveable scenarios. Great credit must go to Luke and Owen Wilson who easily could played over the top or more showy in what a was small production that would easily be overlooked by some people. All of the supporting cast are good too and it was great to see the effortless ease of James Caan’s Mr Henry.

With a perfect blend of humour and crime-drama this early-Anderson was an easy viewing and a great insight to the workings of Wes Anderson’s style as he started out on the road to film-making.

If take nothing else from this film never have a 75 year plan and follow your heart in love – oh and stick by your true friends despite how strange they can be. It worked for Dignan, Bob and Anthony as it did for Luke, Owen and Wes.

It's always staggering to me that _Bottle Rocket_ is almost universally considered one of Wes Anderson's worst movies. Seeing the sub-70% rating on this website nearly broke my heart. And since there were no reviews of the film, I decided it was my duty as a _Bottle Rocket_ stan to make a feeble attempt at evangelizing on its behalf.

People complain about how twee and pretentious Anderson's movies come across. Yet, somehow, as one of his movies that largely sidesteps those pitfalls, Bottle Rocket usually gets shit on the most. Part of the "problem" is that there's a subtlety to the humor and the storytelling that is unmatched in Anderson's filmography. It's not as "mainstream quirky" as a _Moonrise Kingdom_, nor does it have the flashiness (relatively speaking) of a _Rushmore_ or a _Life Aquatic_. It's much more than that -- to me, at least.

It's a very low-stakes film, something which I always appreciate in my fiction. It's just a bunch of morons who want to be criminals. Why? Because they're morons and they have names like Dignan and Applejack and it's funny. You want a compelling plot, go watch _The Royal Tenenbaums_. You want to laugh at Owen Wilson dressing up in a banana-colored jumpsuit and riding around on a tiny motorcycle, _Bottle Rocket_'s ya boy.

Luke Wilson's Anthony is, ostensibly, the star of this film. His struggle with his vague mental illness really resonates with me because I, too, am nuts. Owen Wilson is the main attraction here, though. He brings a sort of low-key freneticism to Dignan that always makes me smile. Look at that little guy go. I honestly don't think Wes Anderson has ever written a better character, though I know that I'm, inexplicably, the only person in the world who thinks that.

I don't know what I can say to make people like this movie more. It's good! It's fun and cute and sweet! It's very Wes Anderson without being too Wes Anderson. You know? I would think more people would appreciate that. If this were made today, Timothee Chalamet would undoubtedly be cast as one of the two leads, so let's be glad it lives forever encased in 1996 carbonite.

This is the definition of a great small flick and if you want a film that can have you in stitches in one scene and then make you feel sad in the next then you'll love it. The film revolves around two men who want to perform a series of robberies but the issue is they aren't very good at it and they are definitely not mentally stable enough to be doing them, literally that is the plot of the film and though simple it actually has some pretty good twists and turns.

Both Luke Wilson (Anthony Adams) and Owen Wilson (Dignan) were flawless in this film as you love these two characters and you just want to see them both happy though they keep making bad decisions, also I am a sucker for love and the relationship between Luke Wilson (Anthony Adams) / Lumi Cavazos (Inez) is lovely.

I couldn't give it a higher rating because the film wasn't long enough in my opinion and I can tell it was done on a tiny budget, but Wes Anderson really shows why he is one of the greats in this because with the little he had he made a film that I would say anyone can enjoy.