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/

Set to a jazz soundtrack, this short film set the stage for the feature film of the same name. Several scenes look almost identical to scenes from the feature, including the robbery of Anthony's mother's house, the firearm purchase and the planning of the bookstore robbery. There seems to be a bit more cursing present in the short than in the feature, and it makes for a few laughs. The dialogue contains the usual wit expected from Wilson and Anderson, and the black and white photography looks nice. The bookstore robbery isn't shown, but explained after the fact to Bob by Anthony and Dignan; this is a drawback, it isn't as amusing as actually watching it happen. The film ends on a funny note with Anthony and Dignan betting on which one of them would win in a foot race.

A simple movie that went far beyond what could have been expected. I have been fascinated with Wes Anderson ever since. The Wilson brothers shocked me in that they were so easy going through the whole film. Never before have I been so intrigued about a movie that involved so little detail, which in itself proves there was great detail and a great effort in keeping the detail. The laughs are there, but it's no Happy Gilmore. That's a big reason why I like it. I would recommend this film to anyone who is quirky and who likes to see a young, raw Owen Wilson. Wes Anderson has gone on to make other wonderful pieces of filmery, but you gotta love his first effort purely for its simplicity.

This is a witty movie, certainly cute, clever, and appealing, if somewhat slow. The number of votes that it has (or hasn't) attracted has allowed some serious skewing of the rating scores. Maybe it was because the cast are the only ones voting? Nevertheless, a fairly amusing tale and well crafted for the backyard effort that it was. But not for everyone - my wife gave up on it. My vote 7/10