LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Because of: sexual content, implications

Rated:

Angelina Jolie hasn't been blonde since Gone in Sixty Seconds, but this romantic comedy has nothing to do with car thieves. This time she's a peroxide blonde television reporter working her way up to the top with a little help from her winning smile and sharp suits. One day when interviewing a street prophet, Angelina's character Lanie is told she has three days to live. A threat? something to scare her? or a true prediction? These are the things Lanie must ponder as she quibbles with her new camera man and former ex-boyfriend, Pete, whom she is teamed up with to ready her for the "big brake," as a national reporter on the Seattle Morning Show.

Lanie is convinced that Pete had a hand in the "prediction," but he denies it. And suddenly she is terrified... her perfect life is about to go down the drain because "Prophet Jack" has never been wrong. She's a blonde bombshell with money to spare, a wealthy if superficial boyfriend, and a "perfect" family. But suddenly all of that is threatened... and Lanie begins to do some real soul searching amidst the silly pranks that Pete and his pals play on her... everything from tampering with her microphone to silly sophomore tricks. Of course, as she does this "soul searching," our superficial heroine becomes a little less superficial and her phony world a little more obvious. And naturally, she hooks up with ex-boyfriend Pete one more time. The pair become close just in time to face a startling moment of change.

Predictable perhaps, fun at times, but full of messages that could be a bad influence on the female teenagers that are flocking to the theater... and problematic material. The film suffers mostly from thinking that the audience will accept anything it feeds it. At times the plot seems downright silly... a reporter used to tackling cutie little stories and interviews is being promoted to a big spot on the national news? Since when did that happen? An ex-boyfriend famed for having bedded a lot of girls somehow worms his way back into Lanie's heart... and her bedroom? This blonde-from-a-bottle should be smarter than that. Of course, she also freaked out when she thought the prophecy would come true and went on a drinking binge. Fortunately she does get some of her priorities straight and manages to make some real changes in her life... like choosing family over fame.

But in the meantime, the audience is slammed with bad language (one spoken f-word, one bleeped by the TV crew, one mouthed, among other profanities), sexual references and situations (lots of innuendo, several glimpses of kissing and "after" shots with couples in bed), and alcohol consumption. The film isn't worth a full admissions price and I'd seriously reconsider a matinee. Like Legally Blonde, Life overdoes it on sexual references but also unlike the former, lacks the charisma, humor, and good lessons that it embodies... oh, yeah... and the true blue blondeness of its heroine. Yet another play on It's A Wonderful Life, the film suffers from overtly blonde tactics (assuming that the audience will be stupefied with obviously impossible situations and facts). But in Hollywood, that's Life or Something Like It.