The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

I had high expectations for this film -- Bill Murray is one of my favorite comedic actors; I loved Groundhog Day, What about Bob? and many other films with Bill Murray as star. The Life Aquatic is an absolutely terrible movie, not worth the price of admission or the price to rent. Not one other guest in the theater laughed -- at any point in the film. The characters all fall flat -- there are minutes upon minutes before any humor is attempted, and when it is, it always falls flat. Some terrible tragedies are portrayed as humorous, and even these scenes are not funny at all. It seems as if there is no point to this film -- nothing sustains it as it creeps along intolerably. I fought off falling asleep several times, disbelieving that a movie with this kind of cast could be this bad. An epically bad film, one of the top ten most boring, unfunny, and ridiculous films of all time -- based upon the actors involved. I am upset that I wasted two hours of my time and so felt compelled to write this review.

Fmovies: Either I'm getting too old and out of touch with reality or most of the reviews and votes on this website are done by industry paid shills. This is certainly the worst movie I've seen in a while. Murrray's deadpan can be funny but only when he's juxtaposed with either an outrageous situation (Ground Hog Day) or with outrageous people (Ghostbusters). In this case it just doesn't work.

I know that actors have to take chances on scripts and that sometimes it pays off. This time it didn't. I feel embarrassed for Dafoe, Blanchett and the rest. Oh well. This thing is a turkey. You've been warned!

I find this a hard movie to rate. Maybe a second viewing would make it easier. It's a odd film: one of these low-key black humor films which is a mixture of drama and comedy. What set this apart were a few other shocking scenes of violence, something not normally in this type of movie. For a comedy, albeit a tongue-in-cheek one, that violence doesn't seem to fit, but it makes the film all the more intriguing.

At times I was totally bored with this movie and at other times fascinated. I know one thing: this is a bizarre story! That automatically means it's a good vehicle for Bill Murray, who excels at wacky characters, event he low-key ones as he sometimes plays (i.e. Lost In Translation, The Royal Tenebaums, etc.). Speaker of the latter, this movie was written and directed by Wes Anderson, the same man who did "Tenenbaums." If you saw that, you have an idea of what you might get here, although I thought Royal Tenenbaums was far funnier.

At 118 minutes, this a bit long for what it offers. I'd like to have seen it 15 minutes shorter with a tighter script. But it does offer some good photography in addition to the strange story. This movie, as they say, is not for all tastes.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou fmovies. Well exactly as my summary says, this is a very well made straight-out unpretentious movie about a fading wildlife-film director's attempt to re-create his past success that made him some sort of cult phenomenon. Reading a few of the other reviews, I think this is evidently a "hate it or love it" film, however a lot of people seem to have missed the point-I don't think this film was really intended as a comdey, to me it was more just about the relationships and interactions between the various characters and maybe even an exploration of the human spirit.

The motivation for this project is revenge on the "leopard shark" that killed his best friend/long-standing partner and there is a lot of emotion on the way, including an inspiring relationship between him and his long lost son, whom he has never met but was a huge fan of his as a boy, and the constant drama between him and his wife, who's father's money has payed for his entire career.

Wes Anderson has excellent cinematography, with some great CGI, depicting marine life in a very retro fashion, and beautiful landscapes, as well as a very well put-together soundtrack including Sigur Ros, The Stooges and Ziggy Stardust era Bowie played in Portuguese with a classical guitar accompaniment. We also see Bill Murray at his best as well as a heart-warming performance by Owen Wilson, who I am not normally a fan of. The script is also very well written and the story is so well put-together that even an attack by pirates or looting a large scientific institution seem plausible in a serious movie about an oceanographer! Overall, this is a brilliant film and there isn't a lot more I can say.

This story is a lighthearted adventure comedy. I too am guilty of being one of those Wes Anderson fans who salivate over all the small details but while watching this I quickly detached myself from the director and his style and previous work and just let "The Life Aquatic" take me along. And that's what you have to do. It's different from his other stuff in that it's more plot driven. There are some wonderful characters but they have to deal more with outside complications than internal struggles. It is similar in tone and style to Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H," what with all the juggling of fighting and death (serious themes dealt with in an objective comedic manner). There's also some Fellini moments (it was mostly filmed at Cinecitta). I loved it. Don't go into this film as a biased hipster Wes Anderson fan, clean the slate and take it with an open mind. It's certainly sillier than Rushmore or Tenenbaums, but it's just as ambitious and exponentially courageous with shots and tone.

To reiterate: more action oriented, funny as all get out, and quite possibly the funnest I've had in a theater all year.

I went into this movie thinking it would be hilarious. I believe this is how the movie was marketed, and would explain the poor box office showing of this movie.

However, this is more a story about life than a comedy. Sure it has a comedy wrapper, but a wrapper is usually thin and inedible compared to the candy inside. This is not your typical candy, but it is fruitful in many ways. This movie is a fabric, not a two dimensional piece of characatured tissue paper as the many signs would have you believe.

This movie is for deep thinking people and those with a heart.

See it.