Review of Life or Something Like It

Introduction

Lanie Kerrigan is your typical vacuous blonde tv anchor with a shot at the big time. With a boyfriend who is the star player for Seattle`s baseball team, life couldn`t be any better - even if she mostly gets the "and finally" pieces. Then one day she interviews a street prophet called Jack who tells her she only has a week to live, and she has to look at her priorities.

Angelina Jolie dons a bouffant blonde wig to play Lanie, a career "golden girl" of Seattle`s breakfast television show. She hates her know-it-all cameraman (played by Edward Burns) and dreams of doing big interviews with important people like her anchorwoman heroine Deborah Connors (Stockard Channing in SuperBitch mode), in this charming little romantic comedy about precogniscence.

Tony Shalhoub turns in his usual quirky performance as Prophet Jack, the street person who tells Lanie she will die the following Thursday. She sets out to prove him wrong, but everything that happens indicates she`s going to be worm food by Friday morning. Dumping her trophy jock boyfriend Cal (Christian Kane - the little lawyer bloke from "Angel"), she reappraises her life, gets drunk and does an interview with striking bus drivers that should get her fired. Perversely it gets her the dream job she was after and ultimately in the path of a stray bullet. Needless to say, this is a romantic comedy and Prophet Jack`s premonition proves to be misleading. Edward Burns makes an engaging off-the-wall romantic lead, making a cross-country dash to save Lanie when the one prophecy he thought had gone wrong comes together.

Video

Presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen, the image is clear, crisp and colourful. Transferred from a spotless original, there are absolutely no criticisms technically that can be levelled.

Audio

The movie comes with a DD5.1 soundtrack.

Features

This was the shock. With the exception of subtitles, this movie is completely and utterly void of extras. Nothing. Nada. Zip. It`s the sort of movie that should have dozens of fluffy little PR pieces stuck to it, but all the menu offers is language and scene selection options.

In an unpleasant move, Fox have chosen to put a 35 second locked message at the start of the disc ahead of the menu. This is part of their "retail only" strategy - basically the disc is for retail only and any shop renting out that particular disc is in contravention of Fox`s rental agreements. A phone number for you to grass the shop up is included.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this movie. It`s light and fluffy and won`t spoil your appetite between movies. Angelina Jolie is eminently watchable and this movie gives her the opportunity to do something lighter than her usual trade. If you`re looking for a movie to leave you with a smile on your face this is it.