Bottle Rocket

The title of Bottle Rocket refers to cheap fireworks that fizz before they flame out quietly, and that's what three Southwestern slackers do in this amiable heist movie-cum-road flick. Live wire Didgnan (Owen C. Wilson, recipient of Jim Carrey's bathroom beating in The Cable Guy wants to burn off life's ennui with a series of hilariously naive robberies, dragging along sad sack Anthony (real-life brother Luke) and lost-soul rich boy Bob (Robert Musgrave). Director Wes Anderson may prove a bottle rocket himself — like so many indie auteurs, he's got a charming voice and not a lot to say with it. But his spare-looking film lights up a TV screen handsomely, and watching at home — where you could be doing something constructive — only heightens the delicious sense of wasted time. B+