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The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

December 27, 2004

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe and Michael Gambon

I am a fan of 2 of the last 3 Wes Anderson films. I really liked Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tenenbaums. Rushmore I could take it or leave it but his newest, The Life Aquatic is just a boring mess. There isn't anything funny about it. The subtle humor that Anderson usually excels in is virtually non-existent here.

Bill Murray plays Steve Zissou, a Jacques Cousteau like character that makes boring movies about his adventures. In his latest film his friend is eaten by a jaguar shark and so Steve decides that he needs to find this jaguar shark and kill it for revenge. In the meantime a young man turns up that may or may not be Steve's long-lost son and Steve takes him under his wing. This is a decent premise but it is executed in such a way that I didn't give a flying fig about one single character in this movie. We just sat there waiting for it to end. It seemed so long and it was so disappointing that I was tempted to walk out. I won't even bother going through the rest of the movie but to sum up there are some computer generated sea creatures, a group of pirates, a pregnant reporter (for no reason) and lot's of talking, talking and more talking.

It seems as if Anderson spent too much time and money on making the sets and not enough time on the script. I can't even recommend this as a rental. By the time the jaguar shark appears on screen you are hoping it eats every last one of them.

My Grade: C-

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