Okay, "The Life Aquatic": Huh?!

[CanuckAmok]

Dear Wes Anderson:

I really, really liked Rushmore. Royal Tanenbaums was okay-to-good, but "The Life Aquatic"...P.UUUU!

Character development (even of characters who are 'delightfully quirky' for no apparent reason) is good, possibly even essential in good storytelling.

But so is having A FUCKING POINT!

Please keep that in mind when developing your next "story".

Your pal,
CanuckAmok

[thebigidea]

1. the only good bits were Murray's acting and the use of DEVO

otherwise, I was bored senseless. It came off as cookiecutter quirky.

[CanuckAmok]

3. Yes!

Did you notice Mark Motherbaugh was the movie's composer, too?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. He composed the "Rushmore" soundtrack too, must be friends with Wes.

I actually enjoyed this but thought it was gratuitously quirky/arty. Wasn't half the movie Rushmore was.

[seemunkee]

2. Saw it this weekend at the hotel we were staying at

I liked it. Found it amusing. Not great but ok. I didn't like Tanen baums all that much

[mike_c]

5. I disagree....

I LOVED The Life Aquatic. Seriously. :shrug:

[CanuckAmok]

6. Okay, fair enough...

...but why? I'm not trying to tick you off, I'm just trying to understand what was appealing about it... maybe I missed something.

Foornote: I think I'm having the same reaction to TLA that others had to Lost in Translation, which I heartily enjoyed.

[mike_c]

10. OK, now it all begins to make sense....

I went to bed in the middle of Lost in Translation.

TLA: Well, I'm a biologist-- not a marine biologist, although I work with a number of marine folks-- so I totally related to all the subtle biologist jokes. I thought the humor was wonderfully understated. The music was great. Air Kentucky. The interns. Jeff Goldbloom. The cutaway boat. I loved it. The last scene, where Murray gets the award and walks down the steps with the boy on his shoulder gave me goose bumps. I mean, it was a totally silly movie that left me feeling moved. It was one of the very few movies I've attended during which the entire audience sat through all the credits.

[gardenista]

12. Hmmm... maybe it's the biologist connection...

I absolutely loved it, too. I'm not a biologist, but worked in entomology for a while, and maybe that's why I loved it so much.

I also loved the extras on the DVD. We watched all of them, and loved them.

[Mr. McD]

7. We got through a hour of it

and switched to Law and Order reruns. It Totally sucked.:puke:

[gardenista]

8. We LOVED "The Life Aquatic"! The whole thing was brilliant!

I thought the characters were richly drawn, all of them! Even Willem Defoe made everything out of his limited dialog.

[marigold20]

9. Rushmore was great but

The Life Aquatic was just boring. I rented it because I love Bill Murray but I fell asleep. When I woke up it was almost over and I felt no need to rewind it.

[Ediacara]

11. The Life Aquatic is probably the best movie I've seen in years

I'm sorry you disagree.

[LeftyDarthBrodie]

13. Wes Anderson had a nice run

but much like M. Night Shyamalan needs to try a different kind of movie. I loved Rushmore and Tenenbaums but only mildly like Bottle Rocket and The Life Aquatic. Willem Dafoe was the highlight of the movie for me.

[tarkus]

14. I actually liked it enough to see it in theaters two nights in a row.

And of course buy it when it came out. I don't know, the complete worthlessness of the story really appealed to me. And I loved the quirky humor, not to mention the brilliant dialogue.

Interviewer: They say Eleanor is the brains behind Team Zissou. What is Steve?

Esteban: The Zissou!


Ned/ Kingsley: When did you... find out about me?
Steve: I read about it in an article about me in .
Ned/ Kinglsey: Did you believe them?
Steve: Well, I assumed they checked their facts...

[GirlinContempt]

15. I liked it

:shrug: