The charming moments of Bottle Rocket make the film likable, but the lulls between those moments keep it from being lovable. For a debut it has some strong performances and a glimmer of the writing that came later from Wes Anderson & company; think of it as a practice run. Owen Wilson’s choice of roles since then hasn’t been overly impressive, but he shines in this one, as does Luke for that matter. As a minor aside that wouldn’t have been an issue when it was first released and the duo was unknown, I had a hard time shaking my knowledge that the two leads are, in fact, brothers. They have a strong resemblance that forced me to keep reminding myself that in the movie, they’re just friends, and that’s part of the minor flaw with the movie: the characters are such an unlikely pairing, that I wanted a little back story on how they became friends or why Anthony (Luke) shows so much loyalty towards Dignan (Owen). While it isn’t straight up pants-wetting comedy, blazingly dark humor, or radically quirky satire, it is a little of all those things. If you don’t expect too much of it, you may be pleasantly surprised.