Rating: 
Summary: A worthwhile endeavor
Review: This movie has plenty of laughs, both highbrow and below the belt. It's well-acted and for the most part well-written. It's major flaw is that it is a little too self-conscious, like a film school student's major debut might be. I'm glad to have it in my collection but I don't pull it down to watch it that often.
Rating: 
Summary: Bunuel in New York
Review: I liked Rushmore, but I had issues with the grandiose Hollywood ending (the party that resolves all the conflict and everyone ends up happy). The Royal Tannenbaums isn't like that, there's nothing "Hollywood" about it (well except for most of the actors). The plot is loose and almost doesn't really matter, because the writing flows so well. We never get to know any character, yet they all entertain us.And like Rushmore, the soundtrack rules the movie. Each and every song has its purpose. The songs drive the plot, they give the characters as much if not more emotion than their dialogues. Its sort of like watching the Monkees on TV. The characters talk for a minute, then next thing you know they are up to something and the music kicks right in. What Wes Anderson really has developed nicely throughout his oeuvre is his visual sense. The Tannenbaums even tops the set design and composition of Rushmore. The warm lighting, use of color, everything is set so perfectly. If Wes can strengthen his plot structure, he could be one of the great writer/directors.
Rating:
Summary: To be young, smart and weird
Review: Wes Anderson, creator of the compelling "Rushmore" and the wonderful and supremely underrated "Bottle Rocket," gave us a twisted version of the typical family drama in "Royal Tenenbaums." It is part dry, dark comedy and a bit of a poignant family drama. Good acting, good writing, good direction -- a comedy for people with brain matter. If intimacies with pastry are your idea of comedy, then you won't like this at all. Philandering, obnoxious Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) left his family twenty-two years ago: his capable, intelligent wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston), and his three genius kids Chas, Richie and Margot (Margot, as Royal reminds everyone, is adopted). Margot is now a secretive playwright with a dull marriage, Etheline is an archaeologist engaged to her kindly accountant, Chas is a safety-obsessed widower with two young sons, Richie burned out of his incredibly bright tennis career, and Richie's pal Eli has become a hit novelist and a drug addict. In short, they're all brilliant and strange, each in his or her own way. When Royal's money runs out and his hotel kicks him out, he returns home, claiming to have stomach cancer and claiming to want to spend time with his family before he dies. When his ruse falls through, he realizes suddenly that he really does want to get to know his family. So this insensitive patriarch tries to prove that he really can be a father after all -- even as family tensions, problems, and longtime loves boil to the surface to create even more weirdness. Child geniuses have a tendency to not last long as normal human beings, with the exception of a rare few like Mozart. Chas is a real-estate and business wiz, Margot is the depressed artsy one and Richie is the athlete. All of them have, one way or another, collapsed as adults. And it doesn't help if their dad is a jerk, which he is. Theoretically this film shouldn't be funny, or even watchable, but the cast and script make it a fantastic movie. Art, business, family and parental duties are all touched on. The direction for this movie has a very crisp, unusual feel to it. It reminded me of the movie "Amelie," with its narration of the characters' lives, the unusual photography and those little "Chapter" pages that flashed up at the end of each part. Wes Anderson knows when to show ironic comedy, and when to be poignant. But the poignancy is never overdone -- we aren't forced to hear Royal burble about the joys of his family, which would have been totally out-of-character. We're just told that he wants to be with them. And it takes a really good director to not leer at the idea of a man in love with his adoptive sister -- it's handled very tastefully and intelligently here. Gene Hackman is deliciously despicable as Royal, but over the film I grew to like him. Anjelica Huston is a bit underused, but does a good job as well. Gwyneth Paltrow appears wilting, pigeon-toed and very depressed, and she's never been better; she breaks out of her apathetic shell to show her vulnerability every now and then. Ben Stiller is fantastic, although sometimes he seems ready to spring into outright comedy; Luke Wilson is perhaps the best performance of all, as a sensitive and quiet young man who has fallen in love with his adoptive sister. The comedy of "Royal Tenenbaums" is not slapstick or obvious. It's irony, something very underused in most movies. As in his prior movies, Wes Anderson shows his skills as a writer and director (alongside Owen Wilson, who plays Eli). A fantastic film, and certainly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Eccentric Tenenbaums
Review: I stayed away from THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS for a few years because I was afraid it'd be an "eccentric comedy". I dislike movies that treat their eccentric characters too preciously. The characters in such movies are usually eccentric for eccentricities sake -- and they usually end up being the butt of the joke ("Oh, how weird they are! How eccentric!"). I'm happy to report that my prejudices against THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS were wrong. In fact, it's quite a good movie. I just finished watching it, and I'm still trying to get my head around why I liked it so much. The movie is funny. I would classify it as a comedy. But it's definitely a character film, too. The reason it works so well is because the characters, despite their eccentricities, are well-drawn. But director Wes Anderson tweaks the film in such a way that makes it very interesting: at the very beginning of the film, after an introduction that sets up the characters, Anderson shows his hand by giving screen credit to the actors (i.e. "Angelica Houston as Etheline Tenenbaum"). This is a litle disarming -- aren't actors supposed to "disappear" into the characters? Instead, Wes Anderson trumpets their casting. Anderson also uses a book motif throughout the film. He flashes to pages of a "Royal Tenenbaum" book ... chapter one, chapter four, etc. At first, not knowing a lot about this movie, I thought it was adapted from a novel! No, it's another interesting way that Anderson is telling the story. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS reminded me a lot of an early John Irving book. The characters are literary stars, playwrites, or geniuses. But the crux of the film is the Tenenbaum family. The basic story is that Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) comes back into his family's life after an absence of many years and tries to set things straight. Wes Anderson has directed a comedy, but a very smart one. Characters fall in holes and dogs get run over, but this movie has a heart. I actually cried at the end when Ben Stiller's character makes his peace. As Chas Tenenbaum, Stiller perpetually wears a red track suit (duplicated on his two children!) -- this is funny! At a funeral, the track suit is changed ... to a black one. Funny! But, Chas is a well-written character too, and it is easy to understand why he acts as he does. I almost feel as if I should see THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS again. It's got a lot of detail to it. However, I'm satisfied after my first viewing of it. It's a great film. I think I'm off to rent RUSHMORE next!
Rating: 
Summary: NO!
Review: This is the first movie I have ever turned off in the middle of it. Horrible!
Rating: 
Summary: It's a Royal one, all right.
Review: "The Royal Tenenbaums" is a movie probably best appreciated by anyone fascinated, as Wes Anderson obviously is, by just how many different THINGS there are in the world. The film is crammed to the rafters with Stuff, everything from boar's heads to board games. Anderson's object fetish clearly played a large role in making "Rushmore" so very fun to look at, but in "Tenenbaums" it gets the better of him, spilling into and defining his, and the viewer's, relationship with his characters. There are really no people in this movie. Yes, actors occupy sets, wear costumes, say lines. Sometimes they smoke cigarettes. But they have no more inner flame than the knick-knacks threatening to engulf them. Symmetrical framing, used effectively in "Rushmore", takes on a creepily compulsive air here: in practically every shot, the actors look like objects carefully arranged on a shelf. Angelica Huston, at least, manages to invest her role with a fluttery vulnerability, but she's operating in a vacuum.
Rating:
Summary: This film is a comedy ?
Review: What a waste of talent, a great cast, a terrible film.
I thought this film was a comedy, i didn't laugh once!
I checked the cover to make sure this was supposed to be a comedy
If you want to waste 2hours of your life , go ahead and watch this film.
You want to see comedy? grab a copy of the Simpsons Halloween specials.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Movie By Wes Anderson
Review: This rates as one of my favorite movies over the last few years. Director Wes Anderson follows up the outstanding RUSHMORE by bringing his unique vision to the dysfunctional Tannenbaum family. Presented as a cross between a fable and a documentery, the film is both a comedy and a drama. There are outstanding performances by Gene Hackman as the father trying to reintegrate himself into the family after years of absence, Angelica Houston playing the mother who had kept the family together and Luke Wilson, Gwenyth Paltrow and Ben Stiller as the children, all who had acheived great things in their youth only to fail upon reaching adulthood. Owen Wilson plays the neighbor and family friend who also has acheived success as an author only to see it slip away. Danny Glover gives an excellent performance as the accountant/suitor of Mrs. Tannenbaum. The only flaw in the film is that Bill Murray who was so great in RUSHMORE does not seem to well utilized in his charecter here as Gweyth Paltrow's suffering husband. The humor in the film is understated and subtle with a surreal element woven into it. The jokes are not set up and then delivered, but are casually observed in the interactions of the charecters or sometimes as visuals in the background. The superb soundtrack and cinematography are essential to the success of the films mood. I would highly recommend this, however with a warning. If you are a fan of comedy of a broad nature or are expecting a riveting family portrait, you may be disappointed. This is a unique film which requires the viewer to meet it on it's own terms, which is not standard Hollywood procedure. If you enjoy this movie and have not had the opportunity to see Wes Anderson's other films, RUSHMORE and BOTTLE ROCKET, by all means check them out as well.
Rating:
Summary: Dysfunctional Fairy Tale Rings Too True
Review: Unlike with "Rushmore," which I didn't like at all the first time I saw it and didn't actually love it until the 3rd or 4th viewing, I decided about 3/4 of the way thru the first time that RT was definitely one of my favorite movies of all time; I guess because in a weird way it's like the fairy tale version of my own family (only my sibs and i didn't begin to show any signs of any talents above average until well into adolescence) if there were one, complete with the neighbor kid with the crush on our family and idyllicizing us, wanting to be one of us. I can only ditto what all others have said about the brillance of cast, writer, director, etc. but would add that i would also recommend the soundtrack.
Rating:
Summary: Over-rated
Review: The actor's performances were very good, but the movie is without any reason for being. It's one of those movies that strives to be quirky for the sake of being quirky. Even a screwball comedy needs some sort of believable foundation that one can build upon. This film works backwards, taking a group of people, assigning each with very odd behaviors from the get-go and placing them in manufactured situations. It doesn't make you laugh. It just makes you wonder what's the point?
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