The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

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I finally went and saw the one movie I was looking forward to so much, I was going to see it on Xmas day for crying out loud, now it's at the dollar theater, and am I ever glad I finally got off my duff and went.

THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU is now one of my top favorite movies ever. If someone were to ask me, "If they made a movie about your life, what would it be like?", I'd have to say, "Well, they already done did: it's THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU!" yeah, hearing all my old favorite Bowie tunes sung in pidgin portugese, man that was just the icing on the cake . . . Bill Murray's role was just picture perfect . . . all the actors fit just right into his twisted little jigsaw world . . . the locales . . .the setting of his property . . . (see, I used to belong to the Cousteau Society . . . I once built a model of the Calypso . . . so the beauty of this homage to the late great Jacque Costeau himself was not lost on me) . . . I thought everyone did a stand out job . . . . what's-his-face . . .ol' crooked-nose . . . (Owen Wilson!) . . . I've always liked him in movies, but in this role, he was just perfect. The movie was filmed with just the right degree of charm and carefree irreverence . . . I really think of it as a sort of masterpiece . . . every camera shot had a reason behind it . . . I love the way Wes Anderson has a way with shooting scenes which somehow, when they're translated up on the big screen, have the capacity to show things how they really are . . . loved the tropical settings and houses . . . (I've lived in Central America) . . . it's just like that . . . there is such a degree of realism in this movie, I'm not sure much of American audiences appreciated it . . . and the Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas) stop-motion Sea Horses and curious tropical fish they would spot every now and again . . . loved that . . . To me, those little spots of brightly-coloured "fake" sea life were there for good reason . . . they were there to high light the fact that Zissou's crew, due to their curious natures as explorers, would often be privvy to spotting curious critters in the underwater wilds . . . critters that normal, everyday people probably wouldn't notice even if they swam right by them . . . and of course, the unusual shark Zissou had spotted eating his old friend, that was the ultimate symbol of Zissou's unerring vision of discovering any new secrets the sea had to offer . . . most definitely my favorite Wes Anderson film, that much ain't difficult to discern at all . . . I like his previous two flicks, especially the second one . . . but THE LIFE AQUATIC takes the cake, if I may say so myself. That was one well-spent dollar.