Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4710 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-05-10
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Portuguese, Tagalog
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Running time: 119 minutes

Review
While Wes Anderson's particular and unique visual style is abundant throughout The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, his skills as a screenwriter have abandoned him. The filmmaker Noah Baumbach collaborated with Anderson on the screenplay, marking the first time Anderson has written with anyone other than Owen Wilson. The biggest difference between this film and his others is that Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums were filled with humor derived from characters who were usually laced with melancholy. This focus on fully-rounded characters allowed the emotional highs and lows to connect with the audience. Life Aquatic offers up a protagonist whose goals are never clearly defined. Aside from a section of the film where Zissou organizes a rescue of his crew, the script never gives the character a strong enough objective. That leaves Bill Murray to fill in the gaps. His conception of the character seems to be far more interesting than the one that has been written. The director gives Murray enough room to do what he wants to with the character. (Not even The Razor's Edge allowed Murray this much empty visual and emotional space to fill up with melancholy, cynicism, and brooding.) The Life Aquatic screenplay never allows the characters to be anything more than two-dimensional figures (even when the actors are giving it their all) so the melancholy feels unearned and the quirkiness feels shoehorned into the proceedings. At best, The Life Aquatic shows that Anderson is a gifted enough image maker to keep most viewers looking at his film even if they have no emotional investment in the characters. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

On the DVD
ccNew high-definition transfer, approved by director Wes Anderson and enhanced for widescreen televisions
Commentary by Wes Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach
"This Is an Adventure," a documentary by Antonio Ferrera, Albert Maysles, and Matthew Prinzing chronicling the production of the movie
"Mondo Monda," an Italian talk show featuring an interview with Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, with host Antonio Monda
New video interview with composer and Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh
Ten complete video performances of David Bowie songs in Portuguese by Brazilian recording artist and actor Seu Jorge (Pel� dos Santos)
Intern video journal by actor and real-life intern Matthew Gray Gubler (Intern #1)
Multiple interviews with the cast and crew with behind-the-scenes footage
Ten deleted scenes
Behind-the-scenes photos and original artwork from the film
Theatrical trailer
A fold-out insert featuring a cutaway of the Belafonte, with Eric Anderson's original illustrations, and a conversation with Wes and Eric conducted in 2005

Synopsis
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 has joined Zissou's crew after showing up claiming to be the seaman's long-lost son and Zissou's co-producer (and estranged wife), Eleanor Angelica Huston. As the expedition ensues, the two bond and Plimpton falls for a female journalist (Cate Blanchett) who is writing a piece on Zissou. The crew meets a host of obstacles on their journey, including pirates, kidnapping, and bankruptcy. Adding a flair of whimsy to the film's aesthetic, the sea creatures and underwater scenes in the film have been created using stop-motion animation under the direction of Henry Selick, the man behind The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. The ensemble cast also includes Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, Noah Taylor, and Bud Cort. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

Another quirky movie of hits and misses from Wes Anderson
Saying that a movie starring Bill Murray is strange hardly seems a revelation, but "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is certainly out there in its own little universe. The obvious cinematic reference point for this 2004 film is 2001's "The Royal Tenenbaums," since Wes Anderson directed both of them, but this quirky film has a better payoff, although I would be hard pressed to argue out exactly how that is accomplished. Murray is the hook to get people to see this movie, but the rest of the fishing paraphernalia belongs to Anderson.

Steve Zissou (Murray) is either a parody of, or a homage to deep sea explorer Jacques Cousteau (it works either way but I lean towards the latter interpretation). Zissou has been making documentaries for decades, but now his star is in decline and to add insult to injury, his best friend is devoured by a "Jaguar Shark." This turns Zissou into Captain Ahab but before he can set sail on the good ship "Belafonte" (famous for his calypso singing, which, it turns out, was the name of Cousteau's own good ship), a couple of newcomers show up for the ride. Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), appears to be the son that Zissou never knew he had, and Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett) is a journalist who is doing an article on Zissou and his quest. Zissou is smitten with Jane, who takes a fancy to Ned. Meanwhile Zissou's estranged wife, Eleanor (Angelica Huston), continues to be the brains behind Team Zissou, Klaus (Willem Dafoe) remains Zissou's right-hand man, Bill (Bud Cort) is along to count the money, and even rival Alistair Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum) lends assistance, even if he does not know about it until it is too late to say "no."

Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas") does the animation for all of the underwater sea life in glowing pastel colors, and that aspect of the film helps to clue us into the wry surrealism of its humor. The other big clue is that one of the crewmembers sings David Bowie songs in Portuguese. Oh, and then there is the fact that the there are scenes taking place on a cutaway version of the "Belafonte" that would also be a clue. The problem is that there are patches where you think we are supposed to be taking things more seriously than we are, especially when the title character emerges from his lethargy to try and do something about all the down spiraling in his life. Still, despite the steady sense of unease that afflicted me through most of the movie, I liked the ending of "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," both in terms of the underwater climax and the on shore resolution. Just do not ask me to show my work on how I came up with the rating.

3.5 Good, But Is Often Too Silly & Self-Conscious
The Life Aquatic has many flashes of brilliance, from its amazing detailed sets, its animation of sealife, to some of its witty interactions between the weird characters... However, unfortuately (I wish I were wrong) the sum of those parts don't quite add up to be a great movie. Although this type of disjointed style is Wes Anderson's (director) trademark, the staged scenes and assortment of odd characters are often too distracting/intrusive...so that you are often aware you are watching a group of actors hamming it up (main expeption being Bill Murray, and most of the time, Willem Dafoe: Owen Wilson is pretty much going through the motions in this one).

One feels this could have been so much more, but truthfully, it is hard to pinpoint where things could have been improved...
I will have mixed feelings about this one for a long time... and may even buy it just for the aestetic merits.
Cheers.

quirky shipwreck
First of all with a cast like this it proves you need a script to make a good movie. It would also help if Bill Murray had not lost his fastball years ago along with his curve, slider, changeup, split-finger and knuckleball among his comedy repertoire. The guy cannot make a funny movie anymore. It's just not possible.

The "look" of the flick is pretty decent. The quirkiness just falls so flat especially the guy who constantly pops up strumming on his acoustic guitar singing Bowie tunes (the extra DVD features all 10 songs done in Portuguese by Seu Jorge). Sorry, what was the point of that? Did not get whatever ironic symbolism it was supposed to convey.

This double DVD set comes with a printed booklet with a Q&A with director Wes Anderson and his brother Eric that has a cutout of the movie's funky ship. The extra DVD has a documentary on the making of the movie, Wes Anderson & Co-writer Noah Baumbach interviewed on Italian (OK, enough with the quirkiness, guys!) TV, an interview with ex-Devo (Are We Not Men? We Are Quirky) member Mark Mothersbaugh who did the soundtrack, an intern video done by a real-life intern (whoop de freakin' do!), bunch of interviews with cast and crew, behind-the-scenes feature (for, I suppose, what the docu didn't catch), deleted scenes, trailers, pics and artwork.

Basically, can you say "filler"? I knew you could.

All the padding in the world cannot save this shipwreck. Next time--actually find a writer who can write quirky stuff that people will actually find funny and stop[ hiring Bill Murray--he's on crusie control now at this point in his career.