The Texan trio Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson were all in their twenties when they decided to shoot this short film. None of them had credits before in the film industry and here they go. For Anderson it was the first directorial effort and screen writing work. For the older Wilson brother it was the first screenplay and acting performance and Luke Wilson has never acted before either.Basically it's a 13-minute display of two buddies not too fond of obeying the law on how they spend their days. They go to a café, visit a shooting range and make a living. All while discussing random topics, meeting other people and sharing every day wisdom. I usually like black-and-white films, but this as just a very forgettable experience. I watched it mainly as I quite like some of Anderson's other work including his other short Hotel Chevalier, which is truly a thing of beauty, but I think Bottle Rocket is only worth the watch if you enjoy one of the trio in most of his other films and even then it's not a guarantee, as in my case.Anyway, Anderson and Luke Wilson continued their fruitful work in the years after this, first by turning it into a full feature, and then by crowning their cooperation when both got nominated for a screenplay Oscar for writing The Royal Tenenbaums five years later.

Guess I never realized it but Wes Anderson biggest inspiration as a film-maker probably always has been Quentin Tarantino. It shows best in this 13 minutes early short from the director of movies such as "Rushmore", "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".The movie is really made in Tarantino-style, so with long dialogs about nothing, sympathetic crook-like simple characters and a criminal plot.The acting and dialog is really what makes this movie, since the plot itself is actually rather thin and almost non-existing. The Wilson brothers were great and to be honest I've never seen them better in anything else.The movie is rather well made with some simple standard but well thought out camera positions and editing. It makes the directing also one of the highlights of the movie.But the movie remains just a 13 minutes short which is too short to ever let the movie reach a level of true greatness. It's not long enough to develop the story or any of it characters and therefor the movie mostly remains a flat and distant one, although it definitely is a well made one. It's hard to rate a thing like this, since it obviously shows that the talent is there but it it doesn't fully express in this movie.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I could be wrong but it seems to me that Wilson and Anderson were under the spell of Tarantino when they wrote this one; this is especially true of the dialogue, which is chock full of clever pop culture references and seems just a little too self-satisfied. This isn't at all true of the finished Bottle Rocket; rather than trying to be Pulp Fiction it shows us a bunch of likable ne'er do wells who've watched stuff like Pulp Fiction a few too many times. The short is interesting and it shows off Anderson's talent, but the just how good Anderson and Wilson are is only hinted at here. If you love Bottle Rocket and Rushmore as much as I do and you get a chance to see this you should, but if you can't you're not missing anything too great.

This is the FIRST Bottle Rocket, not the full length. This version begins after the breakout in th '96 version, and ends after the boys RECAP the bookstore robbery to Bob. This is interesting to watch for hardcore Wes fans, and if Criterion loves us, they will release a DVD including this original on it. Especially worth seeing is the "I bought the gun" scene, where Dignan flips out in a vulgar rage which only Owen Wilson could have executed the way he did.The Bottle Rocket '96 trailer includes a shot of Anthony breaking into a car to steal a wallet, but the scene is cut from the actual movie. That scene is present in the short version.