Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

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Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 01-02-2005, 12:01 AM:

Today, 7:00PM, Regal Cinema World 8 in Eugene, House #1. Slightly flickering xenon but otherwise OK presentation. Attendance around 75.

If you're in the mood for something original, offbeat, quirky, and sometimes pretty funny, this might be what you're looking for. Big laughs from the audience. Bill Murray rules. Willem Dafoe is kind of scary. Wes Anderson will never be accused of making cookie-cutter films.

Let's see -- 3.5 stars out of 5 from me.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 01-02-2005, 03:19 PM:

CINEMA: Century Belmar, Lakewood, CO
SHOW: 30-Dec-2004, 7:45pm
AUDITORIUM: 3
PRESENTATION: Dolby Digital/THX
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Bass cut-off seemed a bit high, making the sub sound a bit stressed, at least during the trailers.

Century Belmar is a new 16-plex that is part of an outdoor shopping center development where the Villa Italia mall once stood. They literally paved a shopping mall and put up a downtown with three-story mixed use buildings (first floor retail, second and third floor office and loft housing) built to the sidewalks. We've come full circle.

The new Century plex has a neato torch marquee that changes colors.

I had a Century gift certificate that was given as a Christmas present. The certificate was for $8.25, the price of an evening admission at my local Century. But Belmar charges $9. So I go to the box office and hand the gift certificate and 75 cents to the elderly woman selling tickets. “Oh dear!” she exclaims. “I can’t input 75 cents.” Century Belmar’s ticket prices are all even dollar amounts. So either they didn’t configure their ticket machines to handle anything but dollar amounts, or she just doesn’t know how.

So I ask “If I give you a dollar, can you enter that in?” “Yes, but I can’t give you change” as she shows me a literally empty coin drawer. At which point the guy in line behind me immediately offers a quarter. “Oh God Bless you!” she says as she snaps it out of his hand. But this doesn’t make any sense either. I had quarters. So while I’m formulating the wording in my head for “Can’t I just give you the 75 cents, then you enter a dollar, and it will say for you to give me a quarter, but you won’t really have to and your drawer will be even?”, she enters what she wants to, hands me my ticket, and sends me on my way. I hope that guy got his quarter back.

I enter the auditorium and am apparently a little early, because the credits are rolling from the previous show. No cleaning crew is in waiting and nobody stopped me from entering, so I sit down and fire up "Snake" on my phone while listening to Century's creepy generic background music which, for some reason, I love dearly.

The cleaning crew shows up a few minutes later and just works around me as if I’m not there. “Dude, 16 was a mess!” “I just cleaned 8. It wasn’t bad, but it’s BIG.” Some Girl walks in. “Hey guys, did you clean 16?” “Yeah. It was a mess!” A few other patrons show up, and that’s just fine with the cleaning crew. On their way out, one says “See you guys later. Enjoy your show!”

The first time I saw the trailer for this movie, I all but freaked out because "The Royal Tenenbaums" is one of my favorite movies. Then the reviews came out, and my hopes were dashed completely. But I ultimately liked this one. I think it would have been better if they cut every scene Angelica Huston wasn't in, but I still had a great time watching it.

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 01-12-2005, 12:21 PM:

I really liked this movie. I like the "different" comedy that Anderson writes/directs, and Bill Murray was obviously a perfect match for Steve Zissou. Interesting storyline, great acting, and just an all out funny movie.

4.5 out of 5