VERY accurate portrait of a full-blown narcissist, but otherwise quite fragmented, bizarre and lacking in real deeper meaning. So many things seemed artificial, superficial, show-offy and unreal. Perhaps this was meant to mirror the empty narcissist? The relationships and feelings (and even deaths) seemed fake, even though the movie was crammed with different people, situations and relationships, that could have been explored in many interesting ways (but all of them remained one dimensional, although I'm convinced the excellent actors did their best with what they had.)But kudos to Bill Murray for excellently portraying the charm and ruthlessness of a true, fully self-absorbed narcissist!… Expand

I just don't "get it." This film sets a mood, but doesn't go anywhere. If the idea of a plot is optional, you'll love this film. I couldn't help but feel like characters were introduced just so the actors could work with Wes Anderson. Wes, you stole two hours of my life!

A major comic misfire with no laughs and a distracting Murray. On the Criterion disc is an interview with both of the writers that will make you cringe with disgust and hate the movie even more. Anderson cannot get one sentence out of his mouth without name-dropping some obscure director, artist, musician, whatever it takes to make himself seem hip. On the bright side, it's not as bad as his American Express commercial.… Expand

ummm, i turned this movie off. i started watching it BY CHOICE and i really wanted to see it, but it was just bad. i liked the wife character, but that was it.

The only good thing about this movie was that I didn't have to pay for it, so the only damage done was wasting my time and some mild cranial bruising from beating my head against the wall.

Was disappointed by this especially after the royal tenebaums i was expecting a lot more from Wes Anderson.

Mildly amuzing throughout but not very funny. Too often wierdness and psuedo dramtic elements are used to distract from the fact that not much funny is happening.

Interesting and original concepts keep one waiting for the story to take off. All the pieces come together, but none of them click into place. Harmless, but with chemistry between the actors prohibited during production. Not even Cate Blanchett can save this. I blame the director and editor. It should have worked.

It's rare that I see a movie so bad that I actually look up the critics on the DVD box that gave it favorable ratings just to see if those people actually exist. The movie was supposedly a comedy, but there was nothing funny about it. The most humorous thing was Bill Murray saying "Remind me to send him a red cap and a speedo" (meaning make him a member of our team) when he found someone he liked. The absurd thought of him sending someone a red cap and a speedo brought a mild chuckle (the biggest laugh I could manage), but how exactly is that "intelligent" humor as the people who like this movie call it? Is it "smart and quirky" when Bill Murray and his team wear pajamas to the beach at night to film creatures that wash up on the shore? I think not. I find it stupid. Oh, I see the attempt at humor, but it fails miserably. If I could give this movie a -1 I would. Save yourself the boredom and the pain. Skip this one.… Expand

This movie was absolutely horrible. On the back cover of the DVD a guy named Glenn Kenny with Premiere gives it 4 stars, and a guy named Richard Schickel of Time says it's the "Best Comedy of the Year". I will NEVER trust a review by either of them. I think I managed one slight barely audible chuckle throughout the film.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life! What drugs were those critics on??? A waste of the four dollars spend to rent this bad bad bad turkey.

Painfully awful. As a huge Bill Murray fan, I kept waiting for something funny to laugh at, and yet, it never materialized. Some will say, "You just don't get it." Well, there was nothing to get...just a horrible disaster of a movie.

A movie with no place important to go and too much time to get there. A few smiles but way too cute and hip. Could not force myself to finish this idiotic, drone.

Very poor! Not funny!

Wes Anderson movies just keep getting worse and worse. Even all the quirky star power doesn't save this disaster. My advice: skip this and see Rushmore again.

Terrible movie. Like a thousand sharpened knives attacking my eyeballs. It tries to be different, tries to invent a new humour. I feel that only pretentious people who are anti-mainstream, anti-Oscars, anti-entertainment will enjoy this movie, and therefore hate all those movies that ARE entertaining and all people that HATE this movie. If you read some of the reviewers who have given this movie 10, (such as Nupe M.) you will see that instead of saying why this film is good, they simply say those who don't like it are idiots. They pretend to be smarter than everyone else because they enjoyed/understood this movie (such as many Donnie Darko fans). But, as with Donnie Darko, you can pretend to make sense of it as much as you can, but you won't succeed. This movie is not good. It is awful. Boring. Dull. Different, but only in a bad way.… Expand

This movie feels too hermetic...too closed in and shut out from any real life. I understand it is not meant to exist within the realm of real life, but even the storytelling lacks in that field. This movie has neither the subtle details and hilarious character moments from "Rushmore" or the poignancy and wit of "The Royal Tennenbaums". This movie is certainly unique and original, and Robert Yeoman's photography is brilliant in every way, Anderson seems to be too concerned with being surreal and weird and not care much about character, plot, or story. While in The Royal Tennenbaums, the strange and odd elements were blended into the fabric of the overall frame of the story with Royal reconnecting with his children, it felt natural. Here certain scenarios and character quirks feel forced and uneasy, as if Anderson had a good idea for a scene, and then infused it with unneccessary elements just to make it more strange. Overall a big disapointment. Terrific soundtrack though.… Expand

The kind of movie that makes you just plain "PISSED" after you struggle to stay awake to finally realize you've completely wasted 2hrs of your life.

Unbelievable disapointment, you will laugh once, thats it. should not be classified as a comedy. worst movie bill murray has ever been in, and i love his movies, was looking forward to this, the clips in commercials give you the wrong impression of what kind of movie this is. saw it with my 14-15 year old nephews, my 37 year old brother and my 60 year old dad, we all agreed that even for a hundred dollars a head, we would not sit through that movie again. this will be the low point in bill murray's career. attack of the killer tomatoes was more entertaining.… Expand

A total waste of time. Bad script, bad acting, no laughs.

Oh. My. God. What a disappointment. I love Bill Murray, but you know what? I couldn't stand him or the film. Total waste of time and talent. This was not worth the money, nor was it worth the two hours of my precious time. Not funny. Not entertaining. Not clever. Just stupid and pointless.

I honestly do not get Wes Anderson, and I get the Wes Anderson cult even less. There's a definite base of filmgoers (some of whose opinions I truly respect) who find tremendous profundity and poignancy in Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums; I've always found them to be mildly amusing but rather off-puttingly chilly gagfests. Anderson doesn't really direct films as much as he stages tableaux; he's a filmmaker whose visual style I think is better suited for a different medium altogether:committee-written and produced parody trade bestsellers like Jon Stewart's current smash America (The Book) or the National Lampoon's legendary 1964 High School Yearbook (although both of these works are much funnier and, frankly, have a great deal more genuine heart). Nevertheless, Anderson's films up to now still provided a reasonably entertaining night at the movies, largely because of the droll acting performances, especially Bill Murray's in Rushmore and Gene Hackman's in Tenenbaums. Well, the ride is officially over: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a near-complete disaster in almost every department. An unbearably overextended treatment of a one-joke premise saddled with an unbelievably selfish, irritating and unlikable title character (Murray), Life Aquatic meanderingly details the professional and personal perils of a Jacques Cousteau-like documentary filmmaker who takes his crew and various hangers-on on a voyage to kill the shark that ate a friend and crew member, and capture it all on film. I know it's usually not right to include the reactions of the audience I saw the movie with in my response to it, but I feel compelled to report that the 25 or so people in attendance at my showing laughed so few times, you'd think they were watching House of Sand and Fog! From the annoying, repetitive and nearly endless petty squabblings of all the supporting characters (Anjelica Huston, Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Cate Blanchett, etc.) to the distracting gimmick of having Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) animate all the fauna (a tactical mistake, because their scene-stealing only further illuminates how threadbare all the stuff going on in front of, behind and all around them is), Life Aquatic is in nearly every way the work of a man who has started to take his own press clippings to heart and is making us suffer for it. Appreciate whatever tiny bits of nourishing plankton DO happen to float by: Willem Dafoe's delicatessen accent is a riot; Sev Jorge does a truly showstopping on-ship rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity;and I loved the gorgeous handpainted posters of Zissou's various earlier documentaries that we see early on (actually, I wouldn't mind owning one!) And Ms. Huston, as Zissou's estranged wife, is still--nearly two decades after Prizzi's Honor--an amazingly sexy actress; she looks so good in a strapless gown that it almost compensates for the absolute torture of having to watch Murray with his shirt off every fourth scene or so. Three big questions remain: 1.) Since Anderson collaborated with a different screenwriter than Owen Wilson this time, does that make Wilson the real genius behind the Anderson oeuvre? 2.) If (1.) truly is the case, and Wilson IS a genius, then why does he keep making all those crappy comedies with Ben Stiller? And finally, 3.) Why are critics and filmgoers more or less giving Anderson a pass for doing more of the same, only worse...but when M. Night Shyamalan released a 2004 movie that pretty much adhered to all of Shyamalan's trademark characteristics, he gets treated like he kidnapped and killed the Lindbergh baby?… Expand

I just don't get Wes Anderson. If rasping away at ironically comic situations until they aren't even remotely funny is what he is trying to accomplish, then he has, with this tedious movie, proven his mastery. The laughs are few - even those subtle laughs you enjoy days later. The only thing I won't forget about this movie is my determination to not waste my moneym or more importantly, my time on another Wes Anderson film.… Expand

Self-consciously ironic, coldly artificial, almost completely unfunny and boring as hell. This isn't a real movie, it's like an idea of a movie. Anderson should set his sights on a fact-based story next time to get out of this arty quagmire he's mired in.

I love Bill Murray but this is one of the five worst movies I have ever seen! It's horrible!

Yes, it is quirky -- but boring nonetheless.

"The Lifeless Aquatic." Anderson is caught in a serious case of plagurizing, from himself. "Aquatic" recycles too many elements from his previous efforts, and the result feels like a half-hearted misfire. There's quirkiness, but no real humor. The characters fall flat, left adrift in a nearly nonexistent story. Anderson seems to feel like Murray's character, a man lost at sea with no passion for what he's doing. A shameful waste of talent all around.… Expand

Wanted to stab my eye out after 20 minutes. aweful movie.

ZZzZzzZzzzzZzzZzz....oh sorry, I was thinking about the movie. Definitely a snoozer. I could barely keep my eyes open. I didnt really see the humor in it either. All I kept thinking throughout the movie was...isnt it over yet? Oh AND....that shark thing they were trying to find....the thing that they based the plot on....I almost forgot about it half way through the movie, I think they did too. Then they were just like oh yeah...this movie had a point, maybe we should get to that. I hope I am never forced to watch that on video unless I have a bed at my disposal.… Expand

This is absolutley the worst movie I have seen. Ever. I chuckled a few times, but I was bored with the plot and characters and ready to leave halfway through it. I heard a few other people at the theater call it "artsy," and that's just a sad excuse to like the movie and pretend like you see something in it that isn't there. It's really bad that my favorite parts of Life Aquatic were the dog and the guitar guy, accounting for about 2 minutes combined of screen time. I understood what the director was trying to do with the film, but he failed miserably. I wouldn't even recommend watching this movie for free at a friend's house when it comes out on DVD.… Expand

'Twee' doesn't begin to describe this self-indulgent mess. Anderson doesn't know how to write comedy, but substitutes character detail and more whimsy than a bowl of radishes. The result is confused, confusing, and ultimately just lame. If it flops, will Hollywood finally wake up and smell the truth: faux hip is SO 1999....

I can't even remember the last time I walked out in the middle of a movie... it had to have been decades ago. I waited at least an hour an half, hoping that this piece of trash movie would get better, only to be disappointed, so I left. Thankfully, the theater manager gave me a comp ticket, since he agreed that this film was utterly horrid. I hated how it was trying to be all farcical & uber-hip & retro-chic. I like Bill Murray a lot... especially in Groundhog Day & Lost In Translation. It was sad to see him in such a flop. And what was Cate Blanchett doing in this? To be so highly-regarded, then to stoop to such lows... must have been offering her a pretty penny.… Expand

I was under the impression that comedies were supposed to make us laugh. This movie didn't. It tried to be so subtle and ironic that it just ended up not being funny or amusing.

Boring, vacuous movie, subsisting totally on the insults and snide remarks that one character makes about other characters. The remarks are to the other person's face, and behind-the-back. Neither are funny.

Never have I finished watching a movie that I felt like I deserved my money back as this. This theft should be a crime.

This is the most boring movie I've seen in years. My wife fell asleep. The three legged dog was the highlight.

Miserable movie, like watching grass grow.

Awful. Simply Awful. Did I say this was an awful movie? I'm very disapppointed that Bill Murray would take this script. I had high hopes after his great performance in "Lost in Translation". Very disappointing and lame.

Quite disappointing.. Ole' Wes really made a sucky movie this time. I usually like his films.. But this reeked like crap. I wish i had 2 sets of hands to give this one 4 thumbs down.