A Life Less Ordinary

1997 "Did they fall in love or were they pushed?"
6.3| 1h43m| R| en
Details

A couple of angels, O'Reilly and Jackson, are sent to Earth to make sure that their next supervised love-connection succeeds. They follow Celine, a spoiled rich girl who has just accidentally shot a suitor and, due to a misunderstanding, is kidnapped by janitor Robert. Although Celine quickly frees herself, she stays with Robert for thrills. O'Reilly and Jackson pursue, hoping to unite the prospective lovers.

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Reviews

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped
Micransix Crappy film
Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
kickingswearing I saw this film in theatres when it had just come out, much abuzz about both Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz. While not wholly disappointed by the film, I was left stunned. Two days prior to seeing this I had just watched on television Two of a Kind with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. I had read reviews saying this was an original story(ALLO) and a breath of fresh air. This is not so, I urge you to read the summary for Two of a Kind(don't see the film unless you like 80's garbage films) and see if the 2 contrast(they don't). While I'm all for a well scripted and acted romantic comedy, don't profess originality unless you know it to be so. I am still a huge Danny Boyle(Sunsine one of my personal favourites) and Ewan McGregor(Renton all time anti-hero) fan, this film just helps to remind me that no one is ever perfect.
RResende This is not a good film. It's enjoyable according to a number of things you can get from many other films. Conventional comedy values built around romantic stories. Escapism in recognizable form for anyone vaguely used to Hollywood. But this is a little bit more than that. It's part of a trilogy of films featuring a trilogy of interesting artists: Boyle/Hodge/McGregor. This set of films was important for it established the basis of 2 interesting and important careers (Hodge in the meanwhile seems to have deviated from interesting stuff, let's hope he comes back). What they did was what one might call experimentalism, or even theoretical experiments leaked onto practical products. Of the 3 films, this is probably the less interesting. It's not especially entertaining, and even as an experiment it's not especially interesting. The point was to pick up a specific genre, romantic comedy in this case, and twist it or at least give it a new edge. The result falls a lot behind what, say, the Coens did in Intolerable Cruelty. Still, McGregor would become a powerful actor, one of the best, and Boyle is always worthwhile no matter what he does, and he's done some impressive stuff since. So, this film becomes a sort of an historical artifact if you want to do archaeological research of their careers.What you learn here is that from the beginning Boyle trusts his intuition, and that vein prevails over how he rationalizes his film conceptions. Those intuitions may be really powerful or come to nothing (like here), but he's always willing to take the chance, and i appreciate him for that, i'll want to see anything from him. And you learn that McGregor, already back here was self-conscious as an actor. He knows he's acting, so the question is not so much to be "real" (as an obscene amount of actors always try to) but to deliver the acting while acknowledging it. That's probably the more fundamental theme of the art in the last century. As far as cinema acting goes, Ewan McGregor may be its state of art.But this film, unless you place it in the perspective of their makers future, is pretty much useless.My opinion: 2/5http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com
Claudio Carvalho In Los Angeles, the janitor and aspirant writer of trash novel Robert Lewis (Ewan McGregor) is fired and replace by a robot. He goes to the office of his boss Naville (Ian Holm) and has an argument with him, demanding his job back. When the security guards surround him, Robert abducts the daughter of his boss Celine Naville (Cameron Diaz) to escape from the building. The witty Celine convinces Robert to request a large amount for ransom to her father. Meanwhile, the fallen angels O'Reilly (Holly Hunter) and Jackson (Delroy Lindo) are assigned by their chief Gabriel (Dan Hedaya) to help Robert and Celine to fall in love with each other, otherwise they will never return home. "A Life Less Ordinary" is a highly entertaining romantic comedy with a crazy and funny story. Cameron Diaz is awesome in the role of the spoiled Celine, and show a wonderful chemistry with Ewan McGregor. They form one of the most unlike couples, forcing the angels to use unconventional methods to bring them together. I saw this film on 03 July 1999 for the first time, and today I have just watched it again on DVD. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Por Uma Vida Menos Ordinária" ("For a Life Less Ordinary")
WhereYourTreasureIs So, I felt the need to write a review considering that, despite this, at time of writing, only has 6.3 stars on IMDb, this is my favorite movie. Was it the first time I watched it? No, but I did like it. And I've been able to watch it many times over and still love it. I guess a lot of people don't get it or just don't like it, but this movie is perfect to me. I'm not sure exactly why I love it so much, but let's start with the cast: Ewan is absolutely adorable, Cameron plays her character well, and the angels are great. (Delroy is good, but Holly is just amazing - so hilarious). I also think that it's a clever concept presented in an entertaining way. This movie just totally clicks for me. It's a little strange (if I had to describe it in one word I would use "quirky"), but so am I, and so is life. I can't really think of any other movies to compare it to, but if you like a story about love, coupled with a bit of whimsy, I think you will enjoy it. I literally can't think of anything I would do to make it better (but I only rated it nine stars because I'm sure there's something). Oh, and Ewan sings :)