The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

Play trailer

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

R

2004

1h 58m

Comedy

Romance

Action

Adventure

Drama

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

57%

Tomatometer

224 Reviews

82%

Popcornmeter

100,000+ Ratings

Renowned oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) has sworn vengeance upon the rare shark that devoured a member of his crew. In addition to his regular team, he is joined on his boat by Ned (Owen Wilson), a man who believes Zissou to be his father, and Jane (Cate Blanchett), a journalist pregnant by a married man. They travel the sea, all too often running into pirates and, perhaps more traumatically, various figures from Zissou's past, including his estranged wife, Eleanor (Anjelica Huston).

Watch on Fandango

Stream Now

Critics Consensus

Much like the titular oceanographer, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou's overt irony may come off as smug and artificial -- but for fans of Wes Anderson's unique brand of whimsy it might be worth the dive.

Read Critics Reviews

Sukhdev Sandhu

Daily Telegraph (UK)

04/01/2019

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is so knowing and so arch: the first part striving for a faux-grandiosity that the second part tries to undercut by its pseudo-geekiness... but ends up being plain annoying.

Go to Full Review

Anthony Quinn

Independent (UK)

04/01/2019

How much of this will work for you depends on your appetite for the picturesquely dysfunctional.

Go to Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

04/01/2019

3/5

It is such a brilliant idea, and everything looks so great, especially the way the film is constructed on Cousteau-esque lines, with the calm deliberation of a nature documentary from a more innocent age.

Go to Full Review

Sarah Ward

Concrete Playground

Oct 16

Will always be Anderson's undersung gem. It's so quintessentially Anderson and, with its length, it's guilty of sprawling — but every absurdist moment is a marvel.

Go to Full Review

Nick Rogers

Midwest Film Journal

11/09/2023

3.5/4

While it would be nice to be able to laugh a little more (acoustic-guitar versions of David Bowie classics sung in Portuguese only go so far), the film delivers a metaphor for the death of romantic and robust boyhood imagination with great subtlety.

Go to Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

02/08/2023

3/4

It may be impossible to love The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, but it's remarkably easy to drown in its sea of eccentricity.

Go to Full Review

Read all reviews

Trevor B

@TrevBills Apr 14

What the heck was this??

See more

Levi J

@Lev77 Mar 29

Great, smart, and underrated Wes Anderson movie!

See more

Brian K

@Briankeith3 Mar 19

Maddenly inconsistent with more distractions and plot issues than a 12 year old with ADHD. What a waste of some interesting ideas and lovely cinematography. Acting quality varies: Bill Murray is a natural, but Owen Wilson is not... the others fall in between

See more

Jonas S

@Steger Mar 5

One one my favourite movies. People who don't like this - I don't get.

See more

Yaaron R

@KompetenterMedi Feb 1

Not quite my kind of ocean The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou has clever dialogue and strong performances that add warmth to a very stylized film. The problem is that Wes Anderson’s controlled, deadpan, often absurd tone kept me at a distance, so I ended up watching it more than feeling it. The premise is fine, but the story never becomes gripping, and it struggles to build momentum. Visually, it is uneven, and some underwater animation has aged poorly enough to be distracting. I can see why fans love it, and I almost wish it clicked more for me, but it never fully did.

See more

D3Z 1

@RT51637195 Jan 13

Even though The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou boasts an all star casting with the likes of Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Williem Dafoe, this isn't Wes Anderson's best.

See more

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

POST RATING

Wes Anderson

Director

Bill Murray

Steve Zissou

Owen Wilson

Ned Plimpton

Cate Blanchett

Jane Winslett-Richardson

Anjelica Huston

Eleanor Zissou

Willem Dafoe

Klaus Daimler

I Heart Huckabees

63%

75%

I Heart Huckabees

Watchlist

The Ladykillers

54%

43%

The Ladykillers

Watchlist

Mumford

58%

65%

Mumford

Watchlist

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

23%

42%

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

Watchlist

Swing

43%

40%

Swing

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Synopsis

Renowned oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) has sworn vengeance upon the rare shark that devoured a member of his crew. In addition to his regular team, he is joined on his boat by Ned (Owen Wilson), a man who believes Zissou to be his father, and Jane (Cate Blanchett), a journalist pregnant by a married man. They travel the sea, all too often running into pirates and, perhaps more traumatically, various figures from Zissou's past, including his estranged wife, Eleanor (Anjelica Huston).

Director: Wes Anderson
Producer: Barry Mendel, Scott Rudin
Screenwriter: Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach
Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures
Production Co: Touchstone Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions
Rating: R (Partial Nudity|Language|Some Drug Use|Violence)
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Action, Adventure, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 25, 2004, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $24.0M
Runtime: 1h 58m
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Join The Newsletter

Join The Newsletter

Cookie Settings