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List Price: $19.99 | | Label: Miramax Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 2710
Released: May 10, 2005 |
| Our Price: $15.99 |
| Used Price: $9.49 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) and his crew -- Team Zissou -- set sail on a expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elusive -- possibly nonexistent -- Jaguar Shark that killed Zissou's partner during the documentary filming of their latest adventure. They are joined on their voyage by a young airline co-pilot, who may or may not be Zissou's son (Owen Wilson), a beautiful journalist (Cate Blanchett) assigned to write a profile of Zissou, and his estranged wife and co-producer, Eleanor (Anjelica Huston). They face overwhelming complications including pirates, kidnapping, and bankruptcy. Oscar(R)-nominated writer-director (Best Original Screenplay, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, 2001) Wes Anderson has assembled an all-star cast that also includes Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, Noah Taylor, and Bud Cort in this wildly original adventure-comedy.
Description of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Criterion Collection (2-Disc Special Edition):
In The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, director Wes Anderson takes his familiar stable of actors on a field trip to a fantasy aquarium, complete with stop-motion, candy-striped crabs and rainbow seahorses. And though Anderson does expand his horizons in terms of retro-special effects and a whimsical use of color, fans will otherwise find themselves in well-charted waters. As The Life Aquatic opens, Zissou (Bill Murray), a self-involved, Jacques Cousteau-like filmmaker, has just released a documentary depicting the death of his best friend Esteban, who was eaten by some sort of sea creature--possibly a jaguar shark. Zissou’s troubles also include his waning popularity with the public, and a nemesis (Jeff Goldblum) who hogs up all the grant money. Hope arrives in the form of Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), an amiable Kentuckian who may be Zissou’s son. Despite his lack of enthusiasm for fatherhood, Zissou welcomes Ned--and Ned in turn saves Zissou’s new documentary (in which he seeks revenge on the jaguar shark) in more ways than one.
One of Wes Anderson’s greatest achievements as a director to date has been launching the autumnal melancholy phase of Bill Murray’s career, starting with Rushmore in 1998, and Murray delivers a similarly comedic yet low-key performance here. Unfortunately, Zissou is one of the few characters in this ensemble to achieve multi-dimensionality. Even co-star Wilson doesn’t get to develop Ned much beyond Noble Southerner, and he ends up seeming more like a prop for illustrating Zissou’s emotional development rather than his own man. The Life Aquatic probably won’t be remembered as a great film, but it is still one that no Anderson (or Murray) fan can afford to miss.--Leah Weathersby
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Criterion Collection (2-Disc Special Edition) Reviews:
great movie. pay attention. 
2009-11-11 - very typical wes anderson... multi level scenes with very subtle humor/jokes that carry throughout the film.
great movie - didn't really do it for me at first, i have come around.
good experience
2009-10-28 - WELL, WES ANDERSON IS A NEW DIRECTOR, NEW FOR ME AND MY FAMILY, DIFERENT AND FULL OF PROPOSALS. I FIND IMPORTANT THE COLOR IN HIS FILMS, PARTICULAR IN THE DARJELING EXPRESS,MAY BE THE BEST WORK. LIFE ACUATIC IS A KIND OF TRIBUTE FOR JAQUES YVES CUSTEAU, FULL OF HUMOR AND WITH A DIFERENT RYTHM AND TIMING. I RECOMEND THIS TWO FILMS AND THE OTHER CLASIC NAMED RUSHMORE. OK??
Simply outstanding!
2009-08-07 - Anyone who doesn't rate this film with five stars not only completely lacks a sense of irony, but is deaf to Wes Anderson's poetry. A dry, visually gorgeous and impeccably scripted and acted take on Jacques Cousteau's documentary series, this film is now one of my top five. Ever.
Love this movie 
2009-06-30 - i bought this movie for my husband for father's day since it's his favorite. he loved it and has watched it several times already.
the movie got here quickly and i was pretty happy with everything except that now i get a bunch of emails from amazon.
Not a cookie-cutter movie but for the kid in of all of us
2009-06-26 - I've never felt inside a story so much as I feel watching this film. People have criticized this film a lot but it brings me back to the great kids' adventure shows of the past but with more cynical dialogue and more sophisticated sets. And while Angelica Huston is wonderful in everything, she really cracks me up in his films, she is always a burst of fresh air. Wes's style reminds me of her father's in that he creates seductive environments in order to tell a story - like John Huston did in Moulin Rouge, The Dead, The Maltese Falcon, etc. But Wes seems to let the scenes and dialogue evolve out of that, just letting them be what they are, so that instead of the usual contrived space-filling dialogue, the characters talk and act like I can believe they might actually do given their circumstances. While the story is fantastical it is never fakey.
Heck, I wish the sea creatures and books and movie posters in the film were real, so I could check them out! I love the cartoons, the music, the locales, the characters, the script, and Willem Dafoe is a fantastic treat. He really did steal the show, if that's possible given all the greats in this bunch.
The Criterion edition, with all the extras, almost satisfies my longing for a sequel or a TV show based on these characters.
