The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 176
Fresh: 94 | Rotten: 82
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is getting soaked by many critics, who call it smug, ironic and artificial. Still, others have praised the movie's sheer uniqueness, eccentricity and whimsy.
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 20
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is getting soaked by many critics, who call it smug, ironic and artificial. Still, others have praised the movie's sheer uniqueness, eccentricity and whimsy.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 182,948
Movie Info
The first effort from director Wes Anderson since his critically beloved The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou finds the filmmaker re-teaming with a number of familiar faces, including Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, and Seymour Cassel. Murray plays Steve Zissou, an eccentric and renowned oceanographer who has decided to seek out and enact mortal revenge on a shark that ate one of the men on his team. Along for the ride is Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), a young man who
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Cast
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Bill Murray
Steve Zissou -
Owen Wilson
Ned Plimpton -
Cate Blanchett
Jane Winslett-Richardso... -
Anjelica Huston
Eleanor Zissou -
Willem Dafoe
Klaus Daimler -
Jeff Goldblum
Alistair Hennessy -
Michael Gambon
Oseary Drakoulias -
Bud Cort
Bill Ubell -
Seu Jorge
Pele dos Santos -
Seymour Cassel
Esteban du Plantier -
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Matthew Gray Gubler
Intern
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All Critics (191) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (94) | Rotten (82) | DVD (42)
A little too laid-back for its own good.
Top CriticIt is heartening to reflect that the best of Bill Murray may be yet to come.
The film is often quite funny.
Full of [Wes Anderson's] many trademark flourishes.
It's one of the great mysteries of contemporary Hollywood that a talent as sideways as Wes Anderson gets bankrolled by a major, and not famously risky, studio like Disney.
Ultimately, it's hard to connect with these odd, distant people, and though the film has an ending that finds some grace, it's too little, too late.
Wes Anderson creates a highly stylized and peculiar world, which either works for you or it doesn't. It works for me beautifully...
full review in Greek
A film I'll be able to return in years hence and have lovely waves of happiness wash over me.
magnificent display of talents not weaved into coherent story
Has a quiet comical edginess that reflects the poignancy of the situation and the characters.
Expect the absurd, the bizarre, the sweet, and the occasionally surreal, and you'll probably have a darn good time with The Life Aquatic.
Suggests that Wes Anderson may have become too immersed in his own meticulous and idiosyncratic world to quite realize that he's left ours far behind.
Funny, gorgeous, and touching in spurts.
There is a distinct sense that Anderson is trying to re-invent himself with this film.
Kudos for tone and flavor, but if you take the meat of something we aren't inclined to eat, all the best seasonings in the world won't save it.
The film's storyline plays out as a comic riff on Moby-Dick, which is hilarious if you're on Anderson's wavelength but will probably bore to tears those who aren't.
Anderson's ability to deftly flip between whimsy and sentiment remains intact.
Stylish, quirky, enjoyable comedy-drama, with a superb ensemble cast and a terrific soundtrack - this is a treat for fans of Anderson's work, although the uninitiated may be less impressed.
Well, this is a painful review to write. The film is a mess. The really odd occurrences are just that...odd. They have no resonance.
There was some great action and some funny bits but I found this film a little too strange for my taste.
I guess I was just in the mood for (Wes Anderson's) latest offering, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou."
Wes Anderson's most self-conscious movie to date. It's also his worst.
Almost entirely whimsical. It bears little resemblance to reality, well, maybe Hollywood reality ...
I think it's the closest thing to a new millennium BUCKAROO BANZAI that we'll ever see.
Audience Reviews for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
What is true of all Wes Anderson's films is doubly true of this one. Emotionally wrenching dynamics handled blithely and cheeky sequences of deadpan humor abound in this film, and while I think Anderson's style works in most of his films, this film gets overbearingly laid-back. All of the performances are classic Anderson fare (with the exception of Owen Wilson whose accent changes from scene to scene), and the actors are certainly not to blame for the film's failures; rather, I think Anderson's style becomes more gimmicky in this film than it does in his other work. Whereas Darjeeling Limited was a film with unmistakable substance, the substance of this film is hidden beneath layers of Anderson schtick, and what Anderson is saying - a warning against the dangers of obsession and selfishness - only comes out in fits and starts.
Overall, I think this film is only for die-hard Anderson fans who delight in his schtick and have the patience to wait for the subject to be finally revealed.
Super Reviewer
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- Alistair Hennessy: They turned my research turtles into soup.
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- Steve Zissou: Don't point that gun at him, he's an unpaid intern!
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- Steve Zissou: I'm going to find it and I'm going to destroy it. I don't know how yet. Possibly with dynamite.
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- Esteban du Plantier: He's the Zissou.
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- Klaus Daimler: Who the shit is Kingsley Zissou?
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- Bill Ubell: No Captain! That's Cedric. He's a friend.
- Steve Zissou: Merci, Cedric. Remind me, we'll send him a red cap and a Speedo.
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Movie: ID: 12895 Title: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Release Date: 2004-12-10 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- Die Tiefseetaucher (DE)
- La vie aquatique (FR)
Most of the time i liked Zissou's playful tone. It never takes itself too seriously and feels free from any possible limitations as a film. For the first time it also felt that Wes Anderson was not trying too much with his dialoque. His style can be seen each and every scene of the film and some of the compostions feel unnecessary visual tricks that just does not serve the story. Still it is a film that is pleasure to watch and listen.
I have noticed that i am not easiest person to make laugh in films but with Zissou there were moments that felt extremely hilarious and brilliant. I even laughed within couple of scenes. Thanks to wonderful chemistry between the fantastic ensemble cast that has names like Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Angelica Huston, Cate Blanchett, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon and Jeff Goldblum in it. It is one of the most impressive casts that Anderson has brought together so far and some of the vrbal comedy is just genius.
Zissou combines comedy, drama, action, suspense, adventure and music with such an original effect that you have to admire Anderson's capability to hold it all together as well as he does. There are some minor flaws here and the biggest one of them is the film's lenght that is just too long. Zissou is a film that would have needed heavy trimming. Now it is two hours long at it takes it's time to really begin. With more editing it would be something much more coherent than it actually ends up being.
Zissou still stands as one of the best film from Wes Anderson and i can assure you that it is a experience you have never seen before.