"Smug and slow moving. Who cares about Steve Zissou? For Anderson, it is all about the boat." Victoria Alexander FILMSINREVIEW.COM "Anderson’s latest endeavour will have you yawning from start to finish.**" Angela Baldassarre SYMPATICO.CA "Your whimsy tolerance will be tested." Boo Allen DENTON RECORD CHRONICLE "Though it looks like a Wes Anderson film, it doesn't feel like one." Jeffrey M Anderson SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER "has its small pleasures, but mostly it just flaps around like a dying fish" Laura Clifford REELING REVIEWS

"Might have worked better as an amusing diversion, but Anderson is clearly trying for more. He's tried too hard."C Mark Dujsik MARK REVIEWS MOVIES "If you like Murray, and you can savor the concept of a movie that could be a bulked-up version of one of his old Saturday Night Live skits, you will likely like the film." David Elliott SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE "A ruse of a film that doesn't have a tenth of the wit it thinks it has." Tom Long DETROIT NEWS "Intermittently brilliant, intermittently hilarious -- and occasionally tedious." Lou Lumenick NEW YORK POST "There was some great action and some funny bits but I found this film a little too strange for my taste." Vince Koehler ENTERTAINMENT SPECTRUM

The Inside Story "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" boasts a very accomplished cast. There's Bill Murray, fresh from the success of his role in "Lost In Translation"; Academy ® Award winning actress Cate Blanchett, fresh from the success of "The Aviator"; Willem Dafoe, seen recently in "The Clearing" and Auto Focus"; Owen Wilson, who played Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson in the bigscreen remake of the hit television series "Starsky & Hutch"; Academy ® Award winning actress Anjelica Huston who appeared with Murray, Wilson and Seymour Cassel in Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums"; Jeff Goldblum has starred in two of the fifteen highest grossing films of all time, "Jurassic Park" and "Independence Day" and finally there's Sir Michael Gambon K.B.E, BAFTA Award winner who appears to be popping up everywhere these days, but can [at the time of writing] be seen in the delightful "Being Julia". It appears to be a cast to die for and one that will immediately have cinemagoers gasping with delight at the thought of such a troop of stars performing in the one film. Unfortunately, unlike "Being Cool" which also boasts a huge cast and a great satoryline, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" falls flat on too many occassions. Granted there are a few laughs; granted on paper, the story looks good; but it never reaches the great heights of Anderson's previous efforts "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Rushmore". Granted some Wes Anderson fans will find this good fare, but really, for the bulk of those who spend their cinema dollars, this may well prove to be very disappointing indeed. Big advertising has been pushing the comedy aspect of "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and statements like 'hilarious' and 'laugh out loud' are far from reality. Slick advertising may fool a few into the cinema but the end result will be disappointment, rather juxtapose the words eccentric, unpredictable, tedious and wearisome if big value commercial films are your genre. Putting the commercial aspects aside, if you are a Wes Anderson fan, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" should prove as delightful an experience as "The Royal Tenenbaums" was. For those who aren't familiar with his work, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is the fourth Wes Anderson film, [following on from "The Royal Tenenbaums", "Rushmore" and "Bottle Rocket"] and has been described his riskiest film venture to date. So far, the film has failed to set the world on fire and box-office returns aren't good. "Wes took some wild risks in making this movie. He essentially threw out the ‘Wes Anderson book’ and reinvented himself," says Producer Barry Mendel. "Far from the very precise chamber pieces of ‘Rushmore’ or ‘The Royal Tenenbaums,’ he’s thrown himself into a chaotic, exterior, fantastical genre film." Anderson "admits to having a longtime fascination with "aquatic films and undersea life in general" and to having "always wanted to make a movie set on a boat in the world of adventure filmmaking." The realisation and fascination has been fulfilled thanks to the eccentric, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou". "This is a movie I’ve been thinking about for fourteen years," he said. "I’ve always been fascinated by this strange and amazing character who creates a kind of eccentric family at sea." Anderson first started toying with the idea way back when he was at college where he first put pen to paper creating Steve Zissuo, his wife and his ship. 'The Belefonte'. Over the years the characters evolved but it wasn't until Anderson joined up with long-time friend, writer and director, Noah Baumbach that the story of Steve Zissuo fully evolved. "The level of detail and the amount of emotional layers and the sophistication of the dialogue in that first draft was terrific," says Mendel. "Wes’s verbal dexterity and ability to shift cadences and ideas in a heartbeat is something that doesn’t really exist outside of his movies. It’s something that I think people almost take for granted in a Wes Anderson movie—that the dialogue will be brilliant—but he takes it to the next level in this film with lines that are constantly funny, revealing and memorable. The screenplay really reflects the amount of fun that Wes and Noah had writing it. It takes you into a completely rambunctious, alive and energetic world filled with wonderful characters." While for Anderson fans there is great appeal in the characters who accompany Zissuo on 'The Belafonte' there is real appeal in the rawness of the way it has been filmed. "I wanted a handmade look to the film," Anderson says. "There’s a real personality to these old techniques and there’s a feeling of craft that’s very different from what you get when you do things digitally. I’ve always admired Henry Selick’s work ["Monkeybone" & "The Night Before Christmas"] and I knew he would bring a great deal of artistry to the film. It just has the right quality for this story. I couldn’t imagine going too high-tech to tell the story of Team Zissou and their adventures on The Belafonte." Crew Bytes "THE LIFE AQUATIC" was .......
directed by Wes Anderson ["Bottle Rocket", "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums"]; screenplay by Wes Anderson ["Bottle Rocket", "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums"] and Noah Baumbach ["Kicking and Screaming" and "Mr Jealousy"]; costume design by TWO time Academy ® & TWO time BAFTA Award winner Milena Canonero ["Chariots of Fire", "Barry Lyndon", "Bulworth", "Single White Female and "A Clockwork Orange"]; production design by Mark Friedberg ["Runaway Bride", "Kama Sutra", "Far From Heaven" and "Coffee and Cigarettes"]; edited by David Moritz ["Town and Country", "Jerry Maguire", "One Good Cop", "The Affair of the Necklace" and "Knockaround Guys"]; cinematography by Independent Spirit Award winner Robert D Yeoman A.S.C ["Beautiful", "The Royal Tenenbaums", "Bottle Rocket" and "Drugstore Cowboy"]; original music by Richard Kirk Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Mark Mothersbaugh ["Bottle Rocket", "Rushmore", "The Royal Tenenbaums", "Thirteen" and "Happy Gilmour"] produced by Wes Anderson, Barry Mendel ["Rushmore", "The Sixth Sense", "Unbreakable" and "Serenity"] and Scott Rudin ["Sister Act I & II", "The Royal Tenenbaums", "The Hours", "Sleepy Hollow", "Team America: World Police" and "The Manchurian Candidate"]. Casting About "THE LIFE AQUATIC" stars .......
Golden Globe ®, Emmy ® and BAFTA Award winner Bill Murray ["Meatballs", "Ghostbusters", "Stripes", "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Lost in Translation"]; Owen Wilson ["Zoolander", "Shanghai Noon", "Shanghai Knights", "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Starsky & Hutch"]; an Academy Award ® winning Anjelica Huston ["Bastard Out of Carolina", "Prizzi’s Honor", "The Addams Family", "The Crossing Guard" and "The Golden Bowl"]; Independent Spirit Award winner Willem Dafoe ["The Last Temptation of Christ", "Control", "The Reckoning", "Auto Focus" and "The Clearing"]; Jeff Goldblum ["Jurassic Park", "Independence Day", "Annie Hall" and "The Right Stuff"]; Michael Gambon ["The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover", "The Actors", "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azbakan" and "Sky Captain"]; Bull Cort ["Harold & Maude", "M*A*S*H", "Dogma" and "Made"] and ACADEMY ®, BAFTA and Golden Globe winner Cate Blanchett ["Pushing Tin", "Bandits", "The Talented Mr Ripley", "Veronica Guerin" and "The Aviator"] as Jane Winslett-Richardson. What It's All About Tragedy stikes when acclaimed oceanographer Steve Zissou's best friend and assistant, Esteban du Plantier is taken by a Jaguar Shark and eaten. Returning to port, Zizzou announces Team Zissou, who are easily recognized by their Red beanies, baby-blue polyester uniforms and their Addidas sneakers will undertake one final expedition. To hunt down and destroy the shark that took his friends life. Unfortunately for Steve he doesn't have backing for another trip. His producer, Oseary Drakoulias and bondsman Bill Ubell, have just about exhausted every available avenue in an effort to raise the necessary funds. Then, out of the blue, an airline pilot named Ned Plimpton turns up. He believes he is Zissou's son. Zissou takes him on as a crewmember. With only limited funding the Belafonte sails off on another great adventure. A perilous voyage which will involve sea-going pirates, a kidnapping, a heroic team rescue, a financial lifeline from an unexpected quarter and a journey into the dark depths of the ocean. The hunt for the rare killer shark is back on. The Verdict "Fans of Wes Anderson will no doubt find this film, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou", much to their liking, but the truth is there is very little commercial value in the film. Sure the cast is huge and onpaper the story looks good, but it fails to gel. If you believed the print media advertising you'd be forgiven for thinking that this film is the best thing to hit the screen all year, Well it isn't! You would hardly call it hilarious, in fact this is pretty much a dumbed down film. For dedicated Wes Anderson fans and those who get a kick out of seeing a big name cast at work. See it at your own peril." The Cast

Bill Murray Owen Wilson Cate Blanchett Anjelica Huston Willem Dafoe Jeff Goldblum Michael Gambon Noah Taylor Bud Cort Seu Jorge Robyn Cohen Waris Ahluwalia Niels Koizumi Pawel Wdowczak Matthew Gray Gubler Seymour Cassel Antonio Monda Isabella Blow James Hamilton Melanie Gerren Leonardo Giovannelli Henry S F Cooper Jr

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Steve Zissou Ned Plimpton Jane Winslett-Richardson Eleanor Zissou Klaus Daimler Alistair Hennessey Oseary Drakoulias Vladimir Wolodarsky Bill Ubell Pelé dos Santos Anne-Marie Sakowitz Vikram Ray Bobby Ogata Renzo Pietro Intern #1 Esteban du Plantier Festival Director Antonia Cook Festival Photographer Mandeeza Werner Talk Show Host

The Crew Directed by Wes Anderson Written by Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach Produced by Wes Anderson/Barry Mendel/Scott Rudin Cinematography by Stefano Falivene Additional Photography BY Robert D Yeoman Film Editing by David Moritz & Daniel R Padgett Casting by Douglas Aibel Production Design by Mark Friedberg Art Direction by Stefano Maria Ortolani Set Decoration by Gretchen Rau Costume Design by Milena Canonero Run Time 118 minutes Rated M 15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2005 - Buena Vista Internationa - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2005 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved