Bottle Rocket

Starring: Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson

Directed by: Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson’s debut feature “Bottle Rocket” is now available on Blu-ray  and is chock full of extras that the original DVD lacked.

The new features include deleted scenes, a “making of” documentary and commentaries from the director, as well as the movie’s stars, Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson.  The film is also the first for the brothers.

The quirky director’s movies are known for their dry sense of humor, misfit characters and extreme level of detail, and “Bottle Rocket” is no different.

The story begins with Dignan (Owen) trying to help his friend Anthony (Luke) “escape” from a voluntary mental hospital.  Dignan wants to pursue a life of crime while Anthony seems to be stuck in a deep depression and is looking for something to do.

They soon recruit another friend Bob (Robert Musgrave) to be the getaway driver for their first big heist: robbing the local bookstore for a few hundred dollars.

After the cumbersome heist, the naïve Dignan decides the three “need to go on the lam” and hideout for a while.  They aimlessly drive until they find a small town motel and settle down.

This is where the movie finally begins to find its place.  The story is no longer about crime, but about 20-somethings lost in life.  The three seem to be looking for a purpose, or maybe just an excuse to hang out for a little while and escape reality.

But the charade soon ends.  Bob decides to leave after his brother gets caught by the police with the marijuana plants Bob has been growing in the family backyard, and Anthony has fallen in love with a Spanish-speaking motel maid.  The world Dignan tried to create and control comes crashing down.  The rest of the movie deals with the characters’ falling out with each other and their individual redemptions.

The story is one of Anderson’s best and most touching.  The movie only suffers inthe beginning when the dialogue, at times, becomes too “Tarantinoesque.”  When the characters stop talking over each other, the movie takes a similar tone to the rest of the director’s catalog.  His movies are known for all taking place in the same fictional “world.”

Anderson fans and casual movie lovers alike should give this movie a chance, or at least see what its “cult status” following is all about.  Many will be pleased they watched this touching comedy.