Ever had that recurring dream where you walk into your old high school science class and realize you’re late and don’t know what’s going on? That’s kind of how I felt watching “Bottle Rocket” (1996). I get the fact that it’s a Wes Anderson movie and it launched the careers of Luke and Owen Wilson, but it’s just not a very good movie. Owen’s lunatic criminal mastermind is curiously entertaining, but pointless. And I don’t know why most of the other affluent slacker characters are doing what they’re doing. Not James Caan. He’s an actual criminal. And he’s no slacker.
Archives for posts with tag: Luke Wilson
It’s tough when you’re watching a simple-yet-elegant opening credits sequence and you know that’ll be the best part of the movie. But that’s where we are until we finish digesting the massive backlog of Bruce Willis dirty cop flicks. In “Gasoline Alley” (2022), he’s joined by Devon Sawa, who’s possibly being framed for a homicide, and Luke Wilson, punching above this film’s weight as a glib detective who knows who isn’t the murderer but doesn’t know who is. Willis is Wilson’s partner. Sawa turns amateur sleuth in this sloppily constructed police procedural. Kudos to second unit director Robert Laenen, though.
Hollywood likes bundling a bunch of good-looking teenageish boys for movies about Texas football because it checks off boxes in a whole bunch of marketing demographics. The latest installment of inspiring underdog gridiron mediocrity is “12 Mighty Orphans” (2021). Based on a true story (aren’t they all?), this heartwarming tale of Dust Bowl grit, determination and long speeches by Luke Wilson introduces us to a Fort Worth children’s home that captured a Depression-era nation’s attention. The filmmakers inject it with the typical melodramatic steroids of teenage hijinks and overbaked subplots. Still, it’s worth waiting for the mini-bios during the credits.
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