Blu-ray.com - Bottle Rocket - Criterion Collection [Blu-ray] Review

Has anyone else been looking forward to this release? They were supposed to release a Criterion version on DVD a long time ago. I'm kind of glad they held off for Blu-ray. My admiration for Wes Anderson's work has cooled over the years (I didn't even see The Darjeeling Limited), but I still really love this first film--first not only for him, but for all three Wilson brothers. I think it's certainly Anderson's most accessible film. The characters and dialogue and goofy premise go together really well. I'm really glad that I rented it so long ago, even after thinking the box art looked lame. I can't wait to get my copy of this Blu-ray next week.

"Rushmore" is easily one of my favorite movies, but I completely understand how some don't get the offbeat quirkiness of Wes Anderson. "Bottle Rocket" is great, too, but my stomach-turning reaction to Owen Wilson almost made me not want to watch it. Luckily, he is early in his career and far from acting his own caricature.

"The Royal Tenenbaums" is good, but a little harder to digest. This is only my take on it, but I believe Wes Anderson used disjointed pacing and awkward cuts in the first half of the movie to depict the family growing apart from each other, each lost in his/her own pursuit. In the second half, the film seems to find its groove, and I think it's edited on purpose this way to subconsciously clue the audience in on the family coming back together and gelling as a singular unit. The pace picks up and a rhythm develops, while the first half left my antsy and shifting in my seat.