BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

MartinHafer Wes Anderson's first film was this short film which he co-wrote with Owen Wilson. It was also Owen's first film as well as his brother, Luke's, first film. Apparently the reaction to this short was positive, as only two years later a full-length version was made and all three have gone on to exceptional careers since.The short is really not a complete film--more like a snippet to show potential investors the type film it could become. And, you have many of the story elements you'll see in the later film--as well as a meandering style which both films possess. However, due to costs, the short is only about 13 minutes long, is in black & white and uses inappropriate music (such as a cheap sax piece as well as Vince Guaraldi's song from "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown"!). This isn't really a complaint--just an observation about the cost-cutting done to create this little film.It's really very hard to rate this, as I mentioned it is quite incomplete. My advice is see it and then see the full-length version--otherwise you might not appreciate the short.

Boba_Fett1138 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/

Kelv-1 I'm a big fan of the Wes Anderson/Owen Wilson team. I sawRushmore only a few months ago for the first time, after hearingabout it for years, and loved it. Only two nights ago, I rented 'TheRoyal Tenenbaums' from Blockbuster and thought it was reallygood. Yet, I still haven't seen the full length 'Bottle Rocket'. I've onlyseen this short that inspired it soon after i first saw 'Rushmore'.This a very original and enjoyable short, although the pop culturetalk at the start seems somewhat dated since we've now seen it ineverything from Kevin Smith's 'Clerks' (Not to mention all his otherfilms) to Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction'. The short does containa nice share of laughs, mostly involving Dignan, although I cannever really figure out why it got picked to be made into a feature.Don't get me wrong, I love Wes Anderson and I thought this shortwas really good but I know if I saw it, the first thought on my mindwouldn't be to make it into a feature. I still haven't saw the feature,although I've read a few select parts of the script and it looks funny.I think the acting in this short was rather bad but I guess it justadds to the charm of a 13 minute black and white short, doesn't it?All in all, it's a short that doesn't have a lot of replay value but iswatchable the first time and good none the less.

JBinAz I happened to see this film on impulse, and now I own it and have seen it many times over. The humor is subtle and intelligent and the performances are very genuine. If you have not seen this film, you are missing out on a great one. Pay attention to the dialogue though, or you might miss some of the laughs.