There are very few directors that make me cringe as much as Wes, and God knows there are many embarrassingly bad "auteurs" out there. He tries so hard to be deadpan, clever, original, intellectual and profound even, but falls so flat, fails every single time. He could take a lesson or two from Hal Hartley on how to cast, write and direct this type of comedy. Wes's only talent is to set up a scene visually. That's it. That's literally all he can do well. He should be a cinematographer only, and stop thinking he is more than just a guy who's good with the camera. A great visual style comparable to Kubrick and other greats, though? I need to sniff those mushrooms too. I bet they're Bolivian.He makes comedies tailor-made for hipsters. Wes even throws in a couple of useless Bowie songs, hence endearing himself to those skinny poseurs forever. He picked 70s Bowie songs which of course makes him "legit". Hilarious.And the ca-jones he has to extent this dull plot to two hours! Wes doesn't follow even the most basic rules of comedy and common sense: don't go over 90 minutes when doing horror or comedy. Only a select few geniuses can get away with a 2-hour comedy without torturing the viewer. Though I did feel violated already after 30 minutes of this dross. So it's a bit like Chinese torture. Plenty of water in the movie to go around water-torturing millions of people.Oh well, at least he didn't cast the movie so badly this time. Wes seems to think that Owen Wilson and Schwartzman are comedic geniuses. He even casts Brody in comedies. Admittedly, casting Brody in ANYTHING is a sign of blithering incompetence.

I saw this movie with my family and even though it was a colorful Wes Anderson film, it was kind of boring. The only one that finished the movie was my dad, who just did it to have seen it. I was in shock after I found out it had such good reviews, and I think its worth it to watch it again if you don't like it. Either its very good or very bad.

Life Aquatic is a beautifully composed film with a great story. The artistic value is very unique. Like all Wes Anderson movies, it has colors that really pop, very symmetrical shots, and amazing stop motion scenes. The movie was super entertaining and funny. For educational value, you wont learn anything about boats or sea junk, but you watch a guy give up his life to work on a ship and travel the sea. And i think the lesson there is that in life, sometimes you just have to give up all your stuff and travel the sea. To be happy you cant always play it safe. On the surface, the movie is about claiming revenge on the jaguar shark that ate Esteban. But the real story is about a dad connecting with his son and learning to care about others. Pretty awesome movie.

Bill Murray, bearded in a red knit beanie, plays a low-keyed, yet fiercely determined oceanographer--a sort of second-runner to Jacques Cousteau--who has assembled a motley crew of adventurers to document his vengeful destruction of a Jaguar shark; complicating the scenario is the appearance of a southern airline pilot who believes himself to be the oceanographer's long-lost biological son. Another dry, quirky comedy-drama of odd human attributes from writer-director Wes Anderson; impeccably crafted and produced, but not always so interesting or likable. A great deal of the film's effectiveness rests on Murray's scratchy, irascible presence, yet his Steve Zissou often acts like a jerk, which undermines the proceedings with a sour tone that I'm not sure is entirely unintentional. Anderson's strengths as a filmmaker are apparent: he has an artist's eye, a talent for visceral detail which sometimes takes the viewer's breath away. However, his desire to punch up the character-driven material with mechanical action backfires (one may initially presume the hijackers episode is a fantasy of Zissou's), as does the mercurial but underwritten relationships between the men and women in the movie. The eclectic soundtrack--an Anderson staple--is lovingly filled with David Bowie songs (originals and those interpreted in Portuguese by Seu Jorge), while the look of the picture is both theatrical and vivid. Overall, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is about as unwieldy as its title--which surely hurt the film at the box-office--and not one of Anderson's watermark films, yet it features moments of beauty and emotion which make it worth-seeing for the filmmaker's admirers. ** from ****