Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
N/A
"The Royal Tenenbaums" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/25/2017
A deadbeat dad who lost touch with his extended family after separating with their mother tries to insinuate himself back into their lives after informing them that he is dying. The Royal Tenenbaums is typical of Wes Anderson's brand of offbeat character ensemble and shares all of his usual strengths and weaknesses. The array of characters are likeable enough thanks to a talented cast but despite this - like The Life Aquatic - it is very much a one man show. Gene Hackman is great fun as the amusingly selfish and tactless absentee father and whenever he is on screen, the film is very watchable; but that doesn't stop its own self-conscious and rather forced kookiness from making the story seem rather contrived and ultimately pointless. There are some amusing moments but little of any real …
Rating of
3/4
A lukewarm take on a very confusing family.
memento_mori - wrote on 08/19/2013
I don't really know how to feel about The Royal Tenenbaums.
As the two people in the world who read my reviews know, I'm a Wes Anderson fan. I almost almost enjoy his deadpan humor and great direction, but once in a while comes a story of his that I'm not sure how to feel about.
This movie has qualities of his other movies. It has the quirkiness, great framing, great dialogue and what I enjoy most about Anderson.
So, what's its fatal flaw?: It's messy.
Somewhere in the middle of the movie, it breaks in two. It feels like another movie with parts of the first half cut in.
The way this movie is structured makes me question what kind of movie it is exactly trying to be. It is overwhelming how poor the editing and interludes to other scenes are. I never understood what this movie …
Rating of
4/4
The Royal Tenenbaums review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 10/10/2011
The story of the Tenenbaum family: Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) a lawyer who was cold to his children and did not provide adequate love; Etheline Tenenbaum (Anjelica Huston) the wife who discovers love with her accountant; Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow) is the promiscuous adopted daughter married to Raleigh St. Clair (Bill Murray), a neurologist; the financial genius Chas Tenenbaum (Ben Stiller) sued and had his father disbarred and Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson) the tennis wunderkind. Henry Sherman (Danny Glover) falls for Etheline and exposes the real intent of Royal. The author and family friend Eli Cash (Owen Wilson) had an affair with Margot and has a drug addiction.
Script was impressive with engmatic lines: Royal – “Look, I know I'm gonna be the bad guy on this …
Rating of
3.5/4
The Royal Tenenbaums review
alec96 - wrote on 10/07/2011
Director Wes Anderson and his longtime writing partner and friend Owen Wilson follow up Bottle Rocket, and Rushmore with this offbeat comedy about a dysfunctional family reunion. The Royal Tenenbaums is very similar to Anderson's previous two movies. The only difference is that he does everything he had accomplished in his two other movies even better in this one. The Royal Tenenbaums is Wes Anderson best movie.
Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) was an extremely successful attorney who had three children with his wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston), she is an archaeologist. Each of the Tenenbaum kids was pretty much a genius: Chas (Ben Stiller) made a killing as a child investor. Richie (Luke Wilson) was a junior tennis champ and a three time U.S. Nationals winner. The adopted Margot …
Rating of
2.5/4
A director disappearing up his own a**
jmoney1776 - wrote on 10/23/2007
The Royal Tenenbaums isn't a bad movie. It's just not a terribly good one. I love Wes Anderson's first two movies Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. Both were extremely clever and witty without being too pretentious. RT on the other hand, is slightly witty and super pretentious. This is the point where Anderson started believing the hype about himself and disappeared up his own a**. The performances are all good, the problem is the characters. They are written as being so quirky that nothing seems real about them. If this film was a cartoon it would have worked better. In all honesty the first half hour is pretty engaging but by the time everyone's back in the house it goes flat and never comes back save for Owen Wilson who unfortunately has a pretty small role. I would not tell someone not to …
