The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

Truly Dreadful Film

To me, this movie is perfection.

Memorable, crazy movie

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

2/23/18. A somewhat silly parody to pay homage to Jacques-Yves Cousteau (those red hats and speedos). Great ocean cinematography but the story line is totally silly. Decent cast for fans (Murray, Wilson, Blanchett and Huston).

This glorification of violence falsely represents human existence as heroic. It's a humble struggle of routine observance. Combining comedy and gun-play lend the film a cartoon feeling. His films display a formulaic quality. Luckily this allows easy re-viewing. I watch it regularly.Bill Murray is pleasantly laconic. Kate Blanchett almost carries the picture. Huston is a suitable contrast. This story reminds us that scheduled maintenance must be followed for whirly-birds! DVD release is thorough.The color photography is stunning. I love movies with locations in nature. The island and "Bellefonte" with its model make the movie fun. Characters are well developed. The plot a little thick. Soundtracks enjoyable. You can waste your time in worse ways.

Hegel once said: "The beauty of nature is only a reflection of the spirit, a beauty that is not perfect." That is achieved by Wes Anderson, in one of the last scene of this film. It helps the film with its purpose. The purpose of this film is to make ignorant people believe that they are watching a great movie, and of course, they aren't. By the end of this film there is a beautiful scene, that can only be described as "masterful and magical". This was a clear example of Mr. Anderson finally achieving Hegel's view of art, unfortunately this only lasts for about a minute, because if it didn't, the movie would have been way better.In great films such as Fellini's "Prova D'orchestra" or François Truffaut's "Le dernier metro" great filmmaker were able to show us how to make a true glorification of art and life. In "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", Wes Anderson shows us that he thinks he knows a lot about oceans, but he clearly doesn't know (or care) anything about neither life, nor art.The plot revolves at Steve (Bill Murray), an oceanographer. Steve believes that he has enough talent to become a director, and he's wrong (Just like Wes Anderson!). After the death of his friend, Steve will go, and hunt, the creature who killed him, while shooting a documentary about it. His crew will be joining Steve for his little adventure. As in every story, things start happening. Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson) joins them. Ned may, or may not, be Steve's son. Steves wife, Eleanor Zissou (Angelica Huston) believes that Steve is taking advantage of Ned, and leaves him. And Steve's friend, Klaus (Willem Dafoe), becomes jealous of Ned. And of course, Ned needs a love interest, because, why not? A reporter called Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett) is a very important part of this movie (because she's Cate Blanchett, and you can't have a movie without Cate Blanchett).Murray and Wilson are uninspired, and so is director Wes Anderson. The film is always trying so hard to succeed, and because of this, it never does. Of course the movie has some funny parts, but they're not enough foe forgiving Anderson the rest of the film. "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is shallow, unoriginal, and almost completely not arstistical. Mr. Anderson is probably proud of this mess, with the excuse that it's a very strange film, and everything. But let me tell you Mr. Anderson, you have made a few good movies, but most of them are bad, and yes, most of them are strange (this one isn't), but they don't have the strange magic of Woody Allen, Luis Buñuel, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, David Lynch, or even Tim Burton! Many people call Wes Anderson a genius, well most of them have never seen Carl Theodor Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio De Sica, and many other great and more important filmmakers in their entire lives! So, Mr. Anderson, you are mostly a bad director. Good luck with your "Life Aquatic".

If you're over 30 or 40 you've probably seen the older documentaries. My parents are big fans of Cousteau stuff, which is really dated by today's standards. This film is a quirky, very funny parody of a ocean explorer who is well past his prime. His old films are the over the top, contrived but supposedly spontaneous majestic ocean nature documentaries. And if you've seen them, it's funny. It's more of a character study of a team that is doing what it can to placate a legend in the field of oceanography and also can be a bunch of stooges, since the captain is focused on a senseless revenge mission.This is a totally hit or miss film. Like it or hate it. Get it or you don't get it. So I get the high ratings and think it's hilarious. The joy isn't in the plot itself as to what specifically happens but the funny journey along the way towards the unknown confrontation with an old enemy. There are some subplots, such as the "is he or isn't he" the abandoned son of the captain along with the love interest that is somewhat in between the Zissous.What I like about this film is that at least it is an original effort and not yet another rehash of something else. It's humorous, not intended to be taken seriously at all and completely an exaggeration and satire of a time that is long gone and probably relates far more to an older generation. This is why you'll see many ratings from younger people who just hate the film, not getting the joke that this is a Cousteau parody, something they have never seen or a time which they experienced.