Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A must for Angelina Jolie fans, Worth seeing if you're not., May 28, 2002
The best way that I feel I can describe this movie is this: I liked it, but I'm not exactly sure how much. There are several reasons why I liked the movie but not a lot of reasons to make me think it's one of the best ever made. First off, any fan of Angelina Jolie shouldn't think twice about seeing this movie. She continues to prove time and again what a versatile actress she is. And if anyone else had played her role, this movie would have come across extremely boring. The rest of the cast was well chosen but they definitely weren't enough to carry the movie by themselves. The addition of Stockard Channing was a very fitting one as she did an excellent job of playing the network news equivalent of Jenny Jones meets Barbara Walters. And Edward Burns does an adequate job of playing Jolie's cameraman and part time love interest.The story itself had a lot of interesting elements to it. Angelina Jolie plays Lannie Kerrigan, a Seattle Reporter who is living the perfect life, or at least what she thinks is the perfect life. She has the perfect body, the perfect hair, a major league baseball player as her fiance, and is one step away from her perfect network news anchor job in New York City. Everything is running according to plan, when one day, while on assignment she is given some life altering news. A street prophet tells her that in one week she will die. At first she dismisses his prophecy as nothing to be taken seriously, but as his other predictions come true, her perfect world starts to unravel. She is forced to look at every aspect of her life and realizes that everything she thought was so important doesn't really matter. What follows is a mixture of sometimes funny and at times depressing series of events that teach her the true meaning of what a perfect life really is.
All in all a solid movie to go and see. The performances were all done very well, with Angelina Jolie being the bright spot in the whole movie. There were several memorable scenes, including the impromptu singing of "Satisfaction" during a bus driver strike. This movie was definitely a feel good comedy from start to finish, with a few sad parts that were necessary to bring the viewer back up. And my personal favorite scene was Jolie and her fiance taking batting practice. It just really cracked me up. This isn't a movie you have to see in theatre's by any means, but would be well worth the rental price sometime for a date night at home. The Breakdown:
1. Plot-8 (neat structure for a romantic comedy)
2. Characters-8 (very detailed and well developed)
3. Flow-9 (moved along quite nicely)
4. Atmosphere-9 (you can tell a lot of thought went into the setup)
5. Cinematography-8 (not a lot of creativity but didn't look low budget either)
6. Entertainment value-9 (surprisingly attention grabbing for such a simple plot)
7. Replay Value-7 (not a movie I could watch all the time but not necessarily one I would turn off either)
8. Casting/character depth-9 (Great casting for the most part and excellent detail to characters)
9. Relevance to genre-8 (hard to categorize but a good all around movie)
10. X-factors-8 (Angelina Jolie alone makes this movie worth seeing) 83/100
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Life or Something Like it - A wonderful romantic comedy!, February 13, 2004
After watching this wonderful romantic comedy one must simply come to the conclusion, if they haven't already, that Angelina Jolie has to be one of the best female actresses in the industry and has been for sometime. Every new film that I've watched her in just shows me more and more of what a versatile actress this beautiful woman is. I don't always purchase romantic comedies but with a lead actress the likes of Angelina Jolie, purchasing "Life or Something Like it" is a simple choice. Between the script and the performances given by Angelina Jolie and Edward Burns and the other supporting actors in this film, this film is a sure thing when it comes to entertainment value. Of additional note is the exceptional performance by Tony Shalhoub whose character provides much of the catalyst for this wonderful film. One only needs to click on the link for director Stephen Herek to see that given his past films, this film should be a very good one. He definitely deserves much praise for bringing this film together the way he did. The Premise: Lanie Kerrigan (Angelina Jolie) is an extremely ambitious and self absorbed local news reporter in Seattle whose star is rising and will soon have an opportunity to be elevated to the national level. The only thing in her way is her boss's insistence that she must do some camera work with Pete (Edward Burns) who is a former lover and their relationship isn't exactly a great one. As part of her work in Seattle, Pete takes her to meet Prophet Jack (Tony Shalhoub) who is a street bum with the talents of a prophet, hence his name. After she asks him whether she'll get the big job he tells that she won't because she's going to be dead on the following Thursday... What follows from there is one of the best romantic comedies that I've watched in quite some time that is made that much better by Angelina Jolie's wonderful performance in the lead role! I highly recommend this film to any and all that enjoys romantic comedies or just good movies in general! {ssintrepid} Special Features: -Full-Length Audio Commentary by Director Stephen Herek
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Something like life, April 22, 2002
I have seen this movie and it is quite good.
Angelina is just deep enough of an actress to pull off the deeper themes of reevaluating your life that run throught the film, but she is also out there enough to pull off slightly ditzi blonde with a plan and make it convincing. Edwards burns is just doing his classic look, "im scruffy, intelligent and cute" look. The chemistry between them, is quite apparant, which makes the romantical part ever so much more believable.
As for the movie itself, it is fairly well written, and some of the other charcters have depth that is there but never verbalized, and doesnt need to be, because thats how life is.
It is a great date movie or girls night out movie depending on your preference. It has it all for a sparkling late spring movie, lots of wit, some deepish themes, and a sprinkle of romance to move things along.
All in all one of the better movies i've seen this year so far. :) Enjoy!
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