Cinema surveillance images are loading at the bottom of the page

Life or something like it

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

What if you only had 7 days to live?

Lanie Kerrigan (Angelina Jolie), a feature reporter at a Seattle television station, leads the ultimate superficial life, even though she thinks she has it all, like a superstar boyfriend, Cal (Christian Kane), a gorgeous apartment, and a shot at a big network assignment. Her "perfect" world starts unravelling after homeless street seer Prophet Jack (Tony Shalhoub) tells Lanie that she leads a meaningless existence, and will die the following week. When his other predictions come true, Lanie begins to re-examine her life and priorities - which include rekindling a relationship with a cameraman, Pete (Edward Burns), with whom she has long been at odds.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film romance comedy love relationships woman career TV reporter supernatural

Persons of interest

Angelina Jolie .... Lanie Kerrigan
Edward Burns .... Pete
Tony Shalhoub .... Prophet Jack
Christian Kane .... Cal
James Gammon .... Lanie's Father
Melissa Errico .... Andrea
Stockard Channing .... Deborah Connors
Lisa Thornhill .... Gwen
Gregory Itzin .... Dennis
Max Baker .... Vin
Andromeda Dunker .... Mo
Jesse James Rutherford .... Tommy
Theron Zahn .... Steve
John Scott Shepherd .... Screenwriter
Dana Stevens .... Screenwriter
Stephen Herek .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Life or something like it official movie site
Life or something like it QuickTime movie trailers
Studios and distributors:

20th Century Fox * New Regency

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Girls can have their cake and eat it, too, as long as they do an extra 15 minutes on the treadmill.

Life or something like it is for and about the Cleo-reading, fully menstruating young woman of the new millennium who wants all the traditional married-with-children stuff that her mother had but also the power-suit career stuff that her father had. Common wisdom says you can't have both but now Hollywood is telling you that you can, and that you'd better settle for second best because you have to run with the rats if you want to win the rat race.

Angelina Jolie's semi-ditzy bleached blonde bombshell is a study in characterisation that's fun to watch even though you sometimes get the idea that Lanie doesn't quite fit the script (but on the other hand you also don't see Angelina popping up either). Edward Burns doesn't have to do much acting: he just has to walk on-screen and be himself (or, at least, the same character he always plays). Christian Kane's gormless but gorgeous jock is funny: you can almost see the smoke coming out of his ears as he tries to work out what's going on.

Despite the plethora of snappy one-liners between Lanie and Pete, Life or something like it is not a comedy, nor is it a romantic comedy, it's a drama in which the heroine can only be fulfilled by loving a man. That's somewhat sexist ["Somewhat"? - Director of Intelligence] but it merely reflects what the rest of the media says to young women. Because this is a chick flick the guy is handsome (as opposed to guy movies where the guy can be ugly as sin but still have babes falling all over him... just like in real life).

Life or something like it is nothing special but entertaining enough to pay money to see.