The Life Aquatic

[jazzbo]

Anyone else really enjoy this movie? I thought it was just a wonderful film, thoroughly modern, thoroughly entertaining, with just the right amount of shallow end of the pool depth. . . .

Mature Murray doing it so well and so on target once again!

Edited December 29, 2004 by jazzbo

[bertrand]

Lon,

Thanks for the recommendation - the reviews in DC were pretty negative, but the only DC film critic I really trust died last year.

My wife and I are hitting a movie tomorrow night - I'll propose this one. Any movie that makes fun of Jacques Cousteau is alright with me - he always annoyed me.

Bertrand.

[jazzbo]

This is a lot more than just making fun of Jaques BUT you'll enjoy it I'd wager! Really a fun experience!

[Brandon Burke]

I was kind of disappointed by this. I should say now that I'm a very big fan of Anderson's work so I was quite prepared for his *thing*. Set design, costumes, cinematography were all great, as I have come to expect from him. Lot's of nods to Bunuel, Fellini, etc.

Screenplay seemed very disjoited, however, and I felt very removed from the characters. In and of themselves, these traits are all fine and good. Other genres are based on such stylistic choices. Anderson's previous works on the other hand (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royals Tennenbaums) are all very character-driven so I found that distance made the tone a little too cold. Again, I can do cold. (Hell....I love Lars Von Trier.) But that warmth is a central part of Anderson's aesthetic, making this seem more like a straight-ahead comedy that he simply directed rather than wrote.

Also, whereas in his earlier works the weirder moments seemed like trancendent and dreamlike remnants from older cinema (again Bunuel), here they seemed too screwball and goofy.

I dunno. I'm going to see it again for sure. I didn't like Tennenbaums the first time either so....

Edited December 30, 2004 by Brandon Burke

[jazzbo]

I think it's a middle-aged thing. I didn't feel removed from the characters, or that the plot was disjointed in any real way. This resonated with me now than it certainly would have twenty years ago!

[jlhoots]

I liked it more than my wife did.

She thought it was "weird".

[jazzbo]

I'm sure I enjoyed it more than my wife did, but my wife thought it was a very good film. She liked it a LOT more than Tannenbaums. She really did NOT like that movie. Go figure.

The couple we went to see it with are a former HR coworker of mine and his Brazilian girlfriend. (She's really German, from a German town in Brazil, though she knows Portuguese.) She was confused by a lot of the movie, but she's confused by almost every movie, but she said "Was very fun."

[Rooster_Ties]

Not sure what to think about going to see "The Life Aquatic". I'm on the fence (mostly from the TV adverts I've seen), and my wife definitely isn't interested in seeing it.

FWIW, I loved "Lost in Translation" --- and my wife simply "liked" it, but didn't get what all the fuss was about.

I was rooting for Murray for the Oscar for best actor last year, though I knew he was a major long-shot at best. Tough crowd he was up against too, with Ben Kingsley in "House of Sand and Fog" and Sean Penn in "Mystic River". A quick Google, and it appears Penn won, but frankly -- Kingsley was probably the most deserving. God, "House of Sand and Fog" was an amazing performance, and an equally amazing film.

Anyway, before I thread-jack this any further -- if I liked "Lost in Translation", how does that portend for liking "The Life Aquatic"??

Edited December 30, 2004 by Rooster_Ties

[Soul Stream]

This would have been a great hour-and-a-half movie...instead it was a mediocre 2 hours plus movie. Just my opinion, and I went in really ready to like this movie. That said, it IS different. And with all the same-ol-same-ol crap out these days, it's refreshing to see ANYTHING off the beaten path. This is definately that.

The only movie I've seen lately that I thought was different AND good was "Neverland" w/Johnny Depp. I highly recommend it.

[Brandon Burke]

Not sure what to think about going to see "The Life Aquatic". I'm on the fence (mostly from the TV adverts I've seen), and my wife definitely isn't interested in seeing it.

You should see it.