Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8502 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-05-10
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Portuguese, Tagalog
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 119 minutes

Amazon.com
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

DVD features
In the DVD world, the Criterion Collection label generally indicates that you'll be getting your money's worth on the extras, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is no exception. These two discs contain many features that fans of the film will expect: Seu Jorge performing David Bowie songs (complete versions), many documentary scenes of writer-director Wes Anderson at work, interviews with cast members including Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, etc. Other extras are a little more confusing. For instance, does Seymour Cassel, who plays Zissou's deceased partner, know what he's doing when he complains to a hairless cigar merchant about having to go faux bald? And what's the deal with Mondo Monda? It's a cringingly awkward Italian talk show in which the host (also an actor in the film) interviews the screenwriters, throwing out references so random and esoteric that even smart guys like Anderson and Noah Baumbach are left speechless. It's all a joke, right? In the end, the bonus material accomplishes its primary goal: get those who already enjoy the film to like it just a little bit more. --Leah Weathersby

From The New Yorker
The latest movie from Wes Anderson, after "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums," marks another bid to swim away from the mainstream. Bill Murray plays Steve Zissou, an old-style explorer of the seas, who could easily be a mad American cousin, twice removed, of Jacques Cousteau. Steve has a tall, peculiar wife (Anjelica Huston) and an even taller and more peculiar rival (Jeff Goldblum). The plot, such as it is, concerns the hunting down of a jaguar shark, which has chewed up one of Steve's associates; at the same time, our hero is coping with the appearance of a young man (Owen Wilson) who claims to be his son. This level of weirdness could, in other hands, appear forced and willful, but Anderson seems at ease with his conceits, allowing his cast-which includes Willem Dafoe and, with a ringing British accent, Cate Blanchett-to relax into the demands of deadpan. Hardly anybody here looks young, and we can only guess at the experiences that have aged them, tested them, and cloaked them in Anderson's brand of sadness. Set against that, we get joyous bursts of David Bowie: "Space Oddity," "Rebel Rebel," and other hits, many of them transposed, naturally enough, into Portuguese. With silly, fetching marine animation sequences by Henry Selick. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Wonderfully Strange - Beautiful Colors - What Is Real?
I think if everyone would stop referring to the Wes Anderson movies as comedies we would all be better off. "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is not about making the audience laugh. Yes, there are times you will laugh, but there are also times you will cringe, and there are other moments for just about everything else. What kind of movie is it? It really isn't something that can be given a single label. Yes, there are all kinds of jokes, but aren't they in the service of something more than simple laughs? Hearing David Bowie songs in Portuguese with an acoustic guitar is not only funny, it is kind of beautiful.

A simple joke is the name of Zissou's ship. The Belefonte is clearly a play on Cousteau's Calypso as are the crew's red knit caps. However, some of the humor is quite tough. Think of the scene with Jeff Goldblum's Alistair Hennessy playing cards with his pirate captors as Steve Zissou comes in the room. What follows is funny, but grim at the same time. Then there is the weird way the inside of the boat is portrayed in a cutaway set that looks fake and is meant to look fake. Notice that the science room is the smallest room on this research vessel. The Sauna is much bigger and all the rooms given over to film production constitute most of the ship.

This movie has a lot of fun with the artificial in documentaries and films. Even the scenes of creatures of the sea are often CGI creations that don't even try to look real. Heck, even the colors in the Zissou documentaries are supersaturated and look like they were done in different colors of ink rather than the ocean. How real is life when you are more concerned about getting everything shot with the right sound rather than living it? And how legitimate can a documentary be when it is cobbled together from a lot of staged shots and hosted by someone who really doesn't have a clue about the science behind what is being filmed?

All of the lead actors are terrific and Bill Murray leads the way as the weary and fading Steve Zissou. Everyone involved with Zissou has their own downward arc. Even the equipment is old and barely works. Tired helicopters are dangerous things.

Does the movie work? Maybe not. However, I find so much to watch and enjoy in each scene - even just the actions of the non-speaking characters - that I really enjoyed this movie. If you want to see something strangely beautiful, that plays with all kinds of notions of what is real and what is fake and has a lot of fun along the way, this might be something you would enjoy, although it is not for children.

I guess the kind of send up it is, even of Moby Dick, can be captured by then end title that expresses "gratitude to the Jacques Cousteau Society even though they had nothing to do with the making of the film." I like this kind of thing. Maybe you do to.

Zissou Life
Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) is sowing some of his more artificial and creative wild oats in his latest, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou." I mean stop-motion clay animated sea horses and other assorted sea creatures? As well as a third wall removed set of Zissou's (Bill Murray) ship in which Anderson films the scenes there as if they were acts in a stage play?
It's strange, weird...and I've got to admit pretty wonderful.
Bill Murray plays Steve Zissou: a Jacques Cousteau sort of Sea Adventurer who, at the film's beginning, is down on his luck and has just lost a best friend to a so-called Jaguar Shark. One of the film's funniest scenes comes near the beginning when Zissou, in a conference swears to get even with the shark by finding and murdering it to avenge the death of his friend.
Owen Wilson is also on hand as Ned: a man who claims to be Zissou's son and once again we have this recurring theme in Anderson's work about lost, then regained fathers so prevalent in "The Royal Tenenbaums."
With a film so full of artifice, snotty-yet-funny wit and the king and queen of deadpan, Murray and Angelica Huston one would think that all of "The Aquatic Life" would be without an emotional life. But I found this film to have a very deep well of emotion if you are willing to wash down your emotion with large gulps of remorse and wry humor.
"The Life Aquatic" is a veritable beggar's banquet for the eyes and the ears (a Brazilian troubadour sings David Bowie songs throughout the film to underscore the drama) and though you sometimes think the whole ship is going to go over the edge artistically...it never does. It just sails along; the course set for parts unknown and uncharted.

Hilarious, Bizarre, Not To Be Taken Seriously, & Definitely Not A Film For Everyone!
Truth be told...this is NOT a film for everyone - definitely not a mainstream movie. I personally enjoy writer-director Wes Anderson's somewhat eccentric, (bizarre?), style. However, if you watched "Rushmore" and/or "The Royal Tenenbaums" and did not crack a smile, or thought about turning off the DVD player, you should stop reading here. "The Life Aquatic" is not for you. See, how helpful I have been? Now you don't need to read the entire review.

For those of you who have chosen to remain with me, Bill Murray is at his best here - wry, witty, wacky, clever, typically dead pan, totally self-absorbed, and once in a while, comedically tragic...or morosely sentimental! Think of this as a mega-fish story, with Murray as Steve Zissou, a Jacques Cousteau kinda guy. He, just like Cousteau, is an internationally famous oceanographer, who makes underwater documentaries, and wears a Cousteau-like knitted red cap - but Steve's has a pom-pom on top of his. Unlike Cousteau, however, Steve's a pothead. The ship resembles Cousteau's famous state of the art Calypso - but here it is named the Belafonte. Get it? Belafonte used to sing calypso. Hehehe. Well, that's the kind of humor you'll find with Team Zissou. I think it's hilarious...but that's me and this is just a warning. Anyway, Captain Zissou, (whose insignia looks like the Mark of Zorro), and his crew are filming a documentary about "The Life Aquatic." During the film's 1st stage, Part 1, Zissou's partner and close friend Esteban, is devoured by a Great Jaguar Shark, like Jonah and the whale. However, I think the Jaguar Shark, which makes "Jaw's" monster Great White look like a guppy, does a bit more crunching and munching. There's blood in the water! In other words, Esteban is not swallowed whole! Steve takes an emotional turn for the worse after the death, and his Captain Ahab side emerges, as he goes in quest of vengeance, to reap havoc upon the great leviathan.

Underneath all the fame and misfortune, Steve is an insecure, middle-age man in the midst of a long-term mid-life crisis. He feels like a wash-out, his best years behind him. However, he does manage to recover enough self-esteem to hit on pregnant, unmarried journalist Jane Winslett-Richardson, (Cate Blanchett), who is writing a magazine feature about the expedition. When Steve is approached on the eve of the voyage by Ned Plimpton, (Owen Wilson), an intelligent young Southern gentleman and an airplane pilot for Kentucky Airlines, he is forced to confront his past. Ned may be his son, a love child. Zissou gives the young man a red cap and a Speedo, like the rest of the crew, and invites him to be his new assistant. He also renames him Kingsley (Ned) Zissou and buys him embossed stationery with his new moniker.

Other wild and crazy team members are the faithful, and ever so strange, German assistant Klaus, (Willem Dafoe), Jeff Goldblum as Steve's arch rival, nemesis, and much better financed competitor, Hennessey, (who wears an "I'm A Pepper" T-shirt), Michael Gambon is the supercilious financier Drakoulias, and Bud Cort plays the amiable, mild-mannered bond company rep, called the "Bond Stooge," who fortunately happens to speak Tagalog. I say fortunately because they are boarded at one point by vicious Philippine pirates. So add some Tom Clancy action, an extreme and perverse version, along with Moby Dick, the Bill Murray/Jacques Cousteau shtick, and director Wes Anderson's shenanigans - are you getting the picture?

The Zissou crew of mongrel miscreants returns to the water once again to film Part 2. Other team members are an ex bus driver, a former substitute teacher, a topless script girl, and various summer interns who don't get paid, but do get college credits for mixing Steve's Camparis on the rocks and acting as all around gofers. Eleanor, (Anjelica Huston), is Mrs. Zissou number 2 or 3. She comes from a wealthy family, who is frequently called upon to foot the bill for the underwater ventures. Eleanor thinks she'll sit out the hunt for Moby shark. She takes off for their private island, abandoning her post as the chief logistics officer. This stresses everyone, except Mrs. Zissou. Eleanor is considered the brains behind Zissou and Co..

There are some wonderful details in the film, especially when the crew submerges in their updated WWII submarine. The fanciful, sometimes psychedelic sea creatures are created by Henry Selick. There are rhinestone bluefish, a crayoned coat of many colored seahorse, beautifully striped sugar crabs, and the most marvelous Jaguar Shark. As I mentioned, we are also treated to a pirate attack, (where Steve saves the day), a hostage rescue, (where Steve saves the day), a mutiny, (during which Steve grovels for love and sympathy), a romance, (where Steve's a loser), death and violence...none of which is to be taken seriously. Seriously. Well, maybe there are one or two solemn moments. Otherwise, "The Life Acuatic" is a lark. And perhaps, I'm warped.
JANA