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 - What a long strange trip it's been...They've got cameras. They've got glocks. They've got a ship you wouldn't cross the LA River in, `though it does have a sauna and a very nice kitchen. They've got funding issues, interpersonal issues, mutiny issues, midlife crisis issues, love triangle issues, pirate issues... they're Team Zissou, and they're in search of Bill Murray's personal Moby Dick. Talk about a movie that defies analogy and categorization; in plot and look and feel, it's not really like anything else out there. It's a feast, visually and musically; wonderful undersea footage (and stop-action animation), richly saturated colors, and a Bowie-based score with throw-ins from the Zombies, Bach, and Iggy Pop (of course, the Bowie cuts are all sung in Portuguese, so there!). The oversaturated colors and writer/director Wes Anderson's unconventional cuts (and a couple of truly amazing theater-style scenes on a cut-away version of the ship) give it a delightful but somewhat artificial feel, the feel I get from a well-done comic book; enjoyable but very clearly not `real' (which could of course spark the Film School 101 argument about what cinema is supposed to be, anyway...). Yet it's also neither zany, nor naïve, nor even melancholy; gently surreal, maybe, like a mild buzz from the joints Murray's character smokes throughout. Murray has nearly perfected droll-and-despairing; one reason the movie works so well is that its pacing matches Murray's perfectly. Anjelica Huston is, well, Anjelica Huston; Owen Wilson plays southern-sincere so syrupy that he's almost Leslie Howard; Cate Blanchett does okay with an interesting but oddly unfinished character; Willem Dafoe gets to turn his trademark intensity on its ear; and for heaven's sake it's got Jeff Goldblum and Bud Cort in the same movie! What more could you ask for? It's truly odd, but not odd in a dark way at all... if you'll grant Anderson his conceits and just enjoy the ride, it's a heckuva ride indeed. A- Rating:  - Pass the chips please, and crunch the empty packet.Sorry folks. I've struggled with Wes Anderson, probably more than I should have, at the urging of my nineteen year old daughter. No more. The Tender bums were boring. Rushmore gave a feint giggle. But this is the last straw. And if these films aren't meant to be comedy, do they pass as some inditement of their genre? Undeveloped characters, feeble plots, script thinness, Anderson has the lot. And I feel his cleverness has triumphed in an under graduate kind of way. Whoever suggested going to the beach instead of wasting away before this is on the money. Rating:  - "I Wonder If It Remembers Me?" ~ A Film I Would Prefer To Forget`The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' ('04) is one of the most boring films I have had the displeasure to sit through in a long time. Believe me, saying that is as much of a surprise to me as anyone. I'm a longtime Bill Murray fan and really looked forward to finally viewing this movie. Not only do I generally love his films, but I also like Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe and Owen Wilson, so I thought this one was a sure thing. Boy was I wrong. To be blunt and to the point; the film is not funny, the dialogue is uninspiring, the actors don't illicit any emotional attachment to their character and the plot wears thin long before this 118 minute albatross finally comes in for a landing. My recommendation, pass on this one and go to the beach instead. Rating: - SorryI was really looking forward to this film. Eneded up falling asleep...... The only reason I bought it was because a friend had leant me the DVD and my bulldog ate it....... I hated spending the money on this Rating:  - I liked it.People seem to talk a whole lot about Wes Anderson and the intellectual quality of his movies, which is a line of babble I don't really follow. I know I DO enjoy quirky comedy, and Bill Murray as well as a lot of the other cast seemed like they could pull something out of this crazy plot. In my opinion, they do and then some. Zissou might not be entirely formulaic movie making, but it's not really the art/fringe film some might suggest. It's funny because it's always treading near the realm of nonsense, but there's still a strong plot (which is actually Zissou's relationships with his supposed son, his wife, his crew, and the world that once gave him a career and now has deserted him, not the more outlandish revenge against a shark.) Despite a slightly confusing ending that asks the age old tirade, "why did they do that at the last minute to character X to make the end more dramatic" it is a fairly warm and engaging tale of a very dysfunctional lot of mavericks that nontheless somehow find expertise through their combined strengths. The humor is like if the satiricalness of Office Space and the fast paced dysfunction of Arrested Development mellowed out and smoked a joint, to tell the life of a much crazier Jack Cousteau and his crew. All I know is that I'll watch again, because I like what has been created here, which is not my usual response to films.
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