The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Criterion Collection | Bill Murray, Owen Wilson

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Criterion Collection | Bill Murray, Owen Wilson | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

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The Life Aquatic w...

	The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Criterion Collection Bill Murray, Owen Wilson Miramax Home Entertainment, 2005 average customer review:based on 328 reviews view larger image
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In The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, director Wes Anderson takes his familiar stable of actors on a field trip to a fantasy aquarium, complete with stop-motion, candy-striped crabs and rainbow seahorses. And though Anderson does expand his horizons in terms of retro-special effects and a whimsical use of color, fans will otherwise find themselves in well-charted waters. As The Life Aquatic opens, Zissou (Bill Murray), a self-involved, Jacques Cousteau-like filmmaker, has just released a documentary depicting the death of his best friend Esteban, who was eaten by some sort of sea creature--possibly a jaguar shark. Zissou?s troubles also include his waning popularity with the public, and a nemesis (Jeff Goldblum) who hogs up all the grant money. Hope arrives in the form of Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), an amiable Kentuckian who may be Zissou?s son. Despite his lack of enthusiasm for fatherhood, Zissou welcomes Ned--and Ned in turn saves Zissou?s new documentary (in which he seeks revenge on the jaguar shark) in more ways than one.

One of Wes Anderson?s greatest achievements as a director to date has been launching the autumnal melancholy phase of Bill Murray?s career, starting with Rushmore in 1998, and Murray delivers a similarly comedic yet low-key performance here. Unfortunately, Zissou is one of the few characters in this ensemble to achieve multi-dimensionality. Even co-star Wilson doesn?t get to develop Ned much beyond Noble Southerner, and he ends up seeming more like a prop for illustrating Zissou?s emotional development rather than his own man. The Life Aquatic probably won?t be remembered as a great film, but it is still one that no Anderson (or Murray) fan can afford to miss.--Leah Weathersby

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I like Bill Murry but this movie was a bomb. Good price and fast service.
Will shop again and would recommend to anyone.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

My favorite of Wes Anderson's movies. I'm a huge James Bond fan, which helps to understand a lot of the humor in this movie. I also love David Bowie, so the portuguese takes on many of his classics were a pleasant surprise. Funny from beginning to end, with Jeff Goldblum turning in a brilliant performance.

Entertaining on one viewing, but perhaps Anderson's most discomforting film yet

Wes Anderson's 2004 film THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU centers on the personal dramas of the title character (Bill Murray), a Cousteau-like oceanographer who feels like he has reached the end of his career. After a jaguar shark kills his partner, Zissou vows to go on one last adventure to hunt it and kill it. As he looks back on his womanizing private life, a young airline pilot (Owen Wilson) approaches him and suggests that Zissou may be his father. This budding father-son relationship unfolds among the struggles of Zissou's crew to reach the last known whereabouts of the shark.

Those who know Wilson's earlier films, especially THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS of 2000, will recognize many similar themes, actors and humour here. The setting is ostensibly in our own time, but with much retro design. There are complex personal relationships and failed marriages. And the soundtrack is quirky, this time to an even greater degree (Brazilian star Seu Jorge singing David Bowie translated into Portugese and playing the guitar). However, there are some fresh new elements that keep this from being a mere repetition of his earlier comedy/dramas. There's even two shootout scenes, so Anderson certainly can't be hit with charges of making films where people just talk and talk. A delightful visual touch are the fanciful sea creatures (stop-motion puppets, not CGI), and the set design, which makes Zissou's ship Belefonte look real. Finally, whatever else one might thing of the film, the cinematography of the helicopter crash scene deserves great praise for so subtly and gradually informing the viewer that something has gone horribly wrong.

Yet, for its general entertainment on a single viewing, THE LIFE AQUATIC strikes me as Anderson's most uncomfortable film to date. Of everyone here, only Steve Zissou is presented with any sort of depth. Owen Wilson's character is about as vague and featureless as the jaguar shark himself, just one more obstacle thrown in Zissou's path. Bill Murray had already honed this type of grim middle-aged moper many times before, reaching his finest hour with LOST IN TRANSLATION, but here (as well as in BROKEN FLOWERS) he's obviously gotten stuck in a rut as an actor. Klaus, the German first mate, is a lame ethnic cariacture.

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