Don't mistake the dog walker for a millionaire. Don't wear yellow when you're about to commit a crime. And never, ever mess with Werner Herzog. These are just few of the lessons to be learned from this week's exciting batch of new DVDs: Wes Anderson's little-seen debut Bottle Rocket is a charmer; Audrey Tautou displays a naughtly side in the French comedy Priceless; Werner Herzog makes his own version of a penguin movie in Encounters at the End of the World.
1. Bottle Rocket (1996)
Criterion Collection
Often, when I think of a crime gone wrong, I flash back to Dignan (played by the hilarious and then-unknown Owen Wilson) in his bright yellow jumpsuit, ready to commit a heist. Wes Anderson's debut Bottle Rocket, a gentle comedy caper, is a lovely film - lacking the twee overload that has come to define Anderson's career. Younger brother Luke also stars, as a hapless partner in crime who falls in love with the Mexican maid at the get-away hotel.
2. Priceless (2008)
First Look Pictures
Audrey "Amelie" Tautou sheds her peachy clean image in the role of Irene, a paid companion of wealthy older men in in Pierre Salvadori's sunny romantic comedy. Suitors and their credit cards in tow, she hops from one ritzy Cote d'Azur hotel to another -- until she meets Jean (Gad Elmaleh), a dorky hotel employee whom she mistakes for a millionaire.
3. Encounters at the End of the World (2008)
Image
Werner Herzog states plainly that his was not another movie about fluffy penguins. Instead, the legendary German filmmaker asks: why don't chimps, who possess such enormous intelligence, straddle goats and ride off into the sunset? Why indeed. Many of Herzog's interviews with eminent scientists and various resident Antarctica oddballs unearth fascinating truths about life at the Southernmost tip of the earth.
