The trailers for the movie really ruined almost every funny moment in the movie. If one hadn’t read reviews of Life Aquatic, and had only seen the trailer, one might have imagined that the movie was a comedy. I hate trailers that ruin movies. I have a hard time describing the movie. Was it a comedy, a drama, a fake documentary or a farce? It was all of those and yet none of them. My frustration with deciding if I liked the movie hinges on the fact that it wasn’t an especially good drama, comedy, farce or fake documentary. I didn’t hate the movie, and I really liked the ideas in the movie, but the execution seemed like a four cylinder engine running on three cylinders. The plot felt incomplete like bits were missing. The characters felt like a sketches where significant parts were erased or smudged. Having grown up watching the adventures of the crew if the Calypso and her indomitable Commander Cousteau, I really enjoyed the spoof laden bits of the movie. Writing that makes me think that someone should make a funny spoof of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.” Now that I think about it, someone should make a really good Cousteau spoof, since this wasn’t it. In the end the movie felt incomplete and Steve Zissou left me feeling sad and a little empty. If feeling a little sad and empty appeals to you and you like quirky movies you’ll probably like this one. Jeannie didn’t like the movie, felt it was a total waste of money, felt pity for the audience, and felt embarrassed for the cast.
Life Aquatic
I saw Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou last night with Jeannie. It was a very odd movie. If I hadn’t see the Huckabee’s movie so recently, I would say that Life Aquatic was one of the oddest movies I have seen in a long time.
