|

Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
83
Alexandra
43
Anamorph
35
Babysitters, The
32
Backseat
80
Band's Visit, The
62
Battle for Haditha
47
Bella
63
Blind Mountain
71
Blindsight
47
Boarding Gate
63
Body of War
58
Bra Boys
70
Caramel
54
Cashback
44
Chaos Theory
32
Chapter 27
69
Chicago 10
82
Chop Shop
46
CJ7
78
Counterfeiters, The
30
Cover
48
Dark Matter
35
Deal
61
Dhamma Brothers, The
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
58
Fall, The
43
Favor, The
58
First Saturday in May, The
57
Flawless
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
xx
From Within
44
Frontier(s)
59
Fugitive Pieces
41
Funny Games
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
61
Girls Rock!
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
57
Grand, The
58
Hats Off
68
Honeydripper
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
67
Jellyfish
xx
Kiss the Bride
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
72
Life of Reilly, The
50
Look
65
Married Life
35
Meet Bill
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
54
Mister Lonely
52
My Blueberry Nights
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
52
Noise
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83
Paranoid Park
55
Pathology
48
Penelope
90
Persepolis
62
Planet B-Boy
xx
Plumm Summer, A
67
Praying with Lior
46
Previous Engagement, A
72
Priceless
17
Prom Night
69
Redbelt
72
Roman de gare
48
Run, Fat Boy, Run
85
Savages, The
24
Sex and Death 101
66
Shelter
75
Shotgun Stories
40
Sleepwalking
67
Snow Angels
64
Son of Rambow
71
Standard Operating Procedure
76
Stuff and Dough
64
Surfwise
xx
Tashan
82
Taxi to the Dark Side
57
Teeth
56
Then She Found Me
55
Tracey Fragments, The
56
Turn the River
72
Tuya's Marriage
83
U2 3D
59
Under the Same Moon
76
Unforeseen, The
xx
Unsettled
91
Up the Yangtze
55
Vice
79
Visitor, The
64
Water Lilies
45
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
57
Without the King
74
Witnesses, The
63
XXY
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75
Young@Heart
45
Zombie Strippers
97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
91
Up the Yangtze
90
Persepolis
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Savages, The
83
Paranoid Park
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
82
Chop Shop
82
Taxi to the Dark Side
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Unforeseen, The
76
Stuff and Dough
75
Young@Heart
75
Shotgun Stories
74
Witnesses, The
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Roman de gare
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Life of Reilly, The
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Blindsight
71
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Caramel
69
Redbelt
69
Chicago 10
68
Honeydripper
67
Snow Angels
67
Praying with Lior
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
67
Jellyfish
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
66
Shelter
65
Married Life
64
Surfwise
64
Son of Rambow
64
Water Lilies
63
XXY
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
63
Body of War
63
Blind Mountain
62
Planet B-Boy
62
Battle for Haditha
61
Dhamma Brothers, The
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
Girls Rock!
59
Under the Same Moon
59
Fugitive Pieces
58
First Saturday in May, The
58
Fall, The
58
Hats Off
58
Bra Boys
57
Flawless
57
Teeth
57
Without the King
57
Grand, The
56
Turn the River
56
Then She Found Me
55
Vice
55
Tracey Fragments, The
55
Pathology
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
54
Cashback
54
Mister Lonely
52
Noise
52
My Blueberry Nights
50
Look
48
Run, Fat Boy, Run
48
Dark Matter
48
Penelope
47
Bella
47
Boarding Gate
46
CJ7
46
Previous Engagement, A
45
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
45
Zombie Strippers
44
Frontier(s)
44
Chaos Theory
43
Anamorph
43
Favor, The
41
Funny Games
40
Sleepwalking
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
35
Meet Bill
35
Babysitters, The
35
Deal
32
Backseat
32
Chapter 27
30
Cover
24
Sex and Death 101
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
17
Prom Night
xx
Tashan
xx
Unsettled
xx
Plumm Summer, A
xx
Kiss the Bride
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
xx
From Within
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Life or Something Like It
20th Century Fox Film Corporation
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, brief violence and language
Starring
Angelina Jolie,
Stockard Channing,
Edward Burns,
Melissa Errico,
Tony Shalhoub,
Christian Kane,
Lisa Thornhill,
and
Gregory Itzin
What's the most important thing in life? Is it love or is it your career? Is it work or is it your family? Lanie Kerrigan (Jolie) must ponder these questions after a street savant tells her that she will die in seven days. (20th Century Fox)
| GENRE(S): |
Romance
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
John Scott Shepherd (also story)
Dana Stevens
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Stephen Herek
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 15, 2002
Video: October 15, 2002
Theatrical: April 26, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
103 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The result is a worthy woman's film and Jolie's best showcase to date.

67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Manages to squeeze by on Angelina Jolie's surprising flair for self-deprecating comedy.

63
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
It's dispiriting to see Jolie wasting herself (and a good supporting cast) on a story that requires little more than an average pretty actress who can wear clothes well and laugh and cry on cue.

63
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
It's cheerful nonsense from blithe beginning to obvious end.

63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Affable, but, as something with more ambition, it disappoints. Herek has once again found the feel-good path to mediocrity.

60
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Amiably glossy if naggingly old-fashioned.

50
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
Life at least deserves a nod for supplying the mostly dramatic actress with her first starring comedic role.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
If the heroine really had seven days left, she wouldn't waste it watching stuff like this.

50
Miami Herald
Charles Savage
Pseudo-profound fluff.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
This is an excellent movie for watching Jolie, one of the more entertaining sidelines in recent Hollywood movie going. There are two firsts for her here: Angelina does blonde and, more importantly, Angelina does comedy.

40
LA Weekly
John Patterson
Jolie hogs the spotlight as usual, leaving romantic interest Ed Burns struggling to register and only Shaloub -- fetid, dirty, soulful -- with his dignity intact.

40
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
A banal message movie.

40
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Dimly entertaining, the sort of thing that doesn't insult you so much that you feel compelled to flee the theater, but it's too inert to be anything close to charming or compelling.

40
Variety
Todd McCarthy
A deeply metaphysical film by contempo Hollywood standards, this middlebrow trifle may engage the emotions of a certain tier of young professional women.

38
USA Today
Mike Clark
Life is a crock -- or something like it.

38
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
Partly a schmaltzy, by-the-numbers romantic comedy, partly a shallow rumination on the emptiness of success -- and entirely soulless.

38
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
The movie creaks and groans, weighed down by clichés.
30
Film Threat
Michael Dequina
Director Stephen Herek certainly doesn't come up with anything, and he fails to make the swings between silliness and schmaltz smoothly.

30
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
The relentless upbeatness of Life or Something Like It wrecks the possibility of either real laughter or genuine pathos.

30
Slate
David Edelstein
This mad prophet says it will die in a week.

30
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
It's difficult to concentrate on the story. Not that there's much to concentrate on anyway.

25
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Mostly about slapping together a bunch of clichés -- outdated clichés at that -- regarding the loneliness of ambitious women.

25
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
This film about a career gal's date with fate careers out of control.

25
Boston Globe
Renee Graham
Delivered with all the subtlety of a steel-toe boot, you may be galled that you've wasted nearly two hours of your own precious life with this silly little puddle of a movie.

25
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This is an ungainly movie, ill-fitting, with its elbows sticking out where the knees should be. To quote another ancient proverb, "A camel is a horse designed by a committee." Life or Something Like It is the movie designed by the camel.

25
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
To top it off, the ending is a clumsy cheat. Of course, I was rooting for the news gal to expire and the film to die a quick death.
20
Village Voice
Mark Holcomb
Cloaks a familiar anti-feminist equation (career - kids = misery) in tiresome romantic-comedy duds.

20
Chicago Reader
Joshua Rothkopf
In the hands of Preston Sturges, this could have been the basis for some snappy mordant comedy, but Stephen Herek (Mr. Holland's Opus) sees only fields of corn, winding up with one of those pseudodeep stories (e.g. American Beauty) that Hollywood takes for spiritual.

20
TV Guide
Steve Simels
The truth of the matter is that, given the thoroughly manipulative, red-herring plot twists that get her to the happy ending, most audience members will have ceased to care about whether she lives or dies long before the matter is settled onscreen.

20
New Times (L.A.)
Bill Gallo
Say what you want about Hollywood losing its way in recent years, there's something beautiful about moviemakers who paint themselves into corners this tight.
10
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Oh, please. Stop and smell the manure.

0
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Every now and then, though, a movie comes up with a scene of surpassing stupidity, and then builds from that defining moment to a climax of perfect ineptitude. Life or Something Like It is such an achievement.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.7 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Discuss this movie in our forums |