Last night I saw the first half of Bottle Rocket and the second half of Shark Night 3D. So, if I had to finish one of these which would it be? Which had the best half? and is the second half better than the first? It is time for a Movie Mashup!So I had been toying around with the idea of a movie mashup for a while now, but was still trying to workout exactly what I wanted to do with the idea. Would I review two similar movies or two completely different ones? Perhaps I could compare remakes to the originals. However last night when I was watching Bottle Rocket, my PS3 started acting funny and wouldn't play the second half. So I clicked on the television to see what was on. While I actually thought I was watching Piranha for about 5 minutes I did clue in once Malik brought that massive shark onto the beach. That is the point from which I started Shark Night, oh so sadly not in 3D.
The Story:
First off lets compare the story, well at least the parts that I saw.
Bottle Rocket [1996]: "Wes Anderson assembles his standard cast of quirky characters and then..."
Bottle Rocket is the story of three guys who aspire to be thieves and criminals. Upon Anthony's "release" from the mental hospital, he teams up with Dignan and then Bob, the getaway driver, and set out to begin their crime spree. They pull off a robbery of a book store, and then decide they need to hide out. So the next part of the movie consisted of them hanging around a motel, in the middle of nowhere, and from what I could tell, that is where things would have stayed as Anthony begins to fall in love with the housekeeping woman.
Shark Night 3D [2011]: "Just when you thought it was safe to make another shark based horror film"
Shark Night I guess assumed that we haven't had enough movies to make us fear the water since Jaws was big, and while I confused it with Piranha, its story was a little intriguing. Apparently 7 friends go to their lake house for vacation and then discover a bunch of crazies have released sharks in the lake, so they can film the carnage and sell it. So, I think there was 6 of them still alive when I tuned in, however, Shark Night being an extremely standard formula based horror movie, I could easily piece together the first half of the movie, and probably only unfortunately missed all the sexy parts. From what I saw onward however it was pretty standard, I even picked out every twist and identified who the villain was, although I didn't completely understand scarface.
Results:
Quite Obviously, Bottle Rocket is going to be the one that wins it for story, because that is what Wes Anderson does and Bottle Rocket was clearly shaping up to be something. Shark Night on the other hand is a horror movie made purely for pretty people to get chewed up in 3D, so if you have to see the second half of anything, Shark Night 3D is probably the best route.
The Cast and Characters:
Bottle Rocket: "If you know anything about Wes Anderson, remember he's friend with the Wilson brothers"
Ever wonder where the Owen and Luke Wilson started, well, this is it, Bottle Rocket. Boy do they look different. The cast of Bottle Rocket is very new and inexperienced, but they don't let that hold them back from what I saw, they were going to give some great performances, if ever I saw the climax. It is up to them to bring to life the characters, which when it comes to Wes Anderson's movies, is key. Anthony, while the one from the mental hospital seems the sanest of the trio, while Dignan is definitely more than a little crazy. and then there's Bob. All the characters are a little quirky, but that is why we would have, if I'd seen it all, loved them. As for as far as I saw, they where starting to run into their problems, and so, not a lot of character development had occurred, but lets hope some did.
Shark Night 3D: "I don't think I have to worry about character development here."
So the first faces I saw when I turned on Shark Night was Sara Paxton and some guy I don't even care to look up the name of. I always find it funny however, how Sara Paxton went from all those teenage girl movies I used to associate her with to the horror genre. However, while Shark Night wasn't the best move, she did make some good choices with The Last House on the Left remake (is that the better one I can't remember) and The Innkeepers. The only other guy I recognized was Joel David More, who I like, but as usual in horror movies got the short end of the stick, when 10 minutes after I started he was shark bait. The rest of the cast and all the characters are cookie cutter formula, ironic because there was cookie cutter sharks. The bad guys look like back woods hicks, the girls look sexy in bikini's, the guys look like they all came out of a catalogue with the exception of Joel. Nothing great in this category.
Results:
You need to see the whole movie to really develop any of the character in Bottle Rocket, while since Shark Night 3D spends more time giving us character development on the 15+ cool shark species they included, seeing only half doesn't matter.
The Rest:
Soundtrack: I don't remember either's so no point there. (wait there was points?!)
Climax: Only saw one, but Shark Nights was standard as ever.
Accuracy: Bottle Rocket doesn't break the laws of physics, but like the sheriff said everyone watched Shark Week, and so I would like to argue with a few technical points, there Shark Night.
Badassery: Point go to Malik, for having the blackest name, and fighting sharks while missing an arm.
Special Effects: While 3D is overused, Shark Night is where it fits in best, but I don't have a 3D t.v. so...
Title: Bottle Rocket did involve bottle rockets, and Shark Night 3D had sharks, but at what point does 3D become standard enough that we can drop the 3D in the title?
Awards: I'm sure Shark Night won't win any but Bottle Rocket is part of The Criterion Collection. Points!
Conclusion: (really need a more epic word there)
So which movie wins this movie mashup? On the sole principal that if I could only watch half of one of these movies, the second half of Shark Night will always win, even over the second half of Bottle Rocket. Bottle Rocket is something you have to see in its entirety to enjoy, while Shark Night is satisfy as 30 minutes time killer filler anytime. However if I had to pick one to watch again, Bottle Rocket will be what I would choose and actually will finish.
Also, there was no point system for movie mashup. Would you like one? Do you think Movie Mashup is good as a first half Vs. second half comparison or should I just watch the entirety of ridiculously different movies. Is there something else I should compare? Feel free to comment away below and suggest future mashups.
Links:
Bottle Rocket IMDb
Shark Night 3D IMDb
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