Cameron Diaz, Dan Hedaya, Delroy Lindo

Ewan McGregor stars as a cleaning man in L.A. who takes his boss's daughter hostage after being fired and replaced by a robot. Two "angels" who are in charge of human relationships on earth, offer som...( read more  read more... )e unsolicited help to bring this unlikely couple together. The "angels" are so successful that the daughter soon turns on her father in order to save her captor.

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58% liked it

49,404 ratings

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41% liked it

34 critics

R, 1 hr. 43 min.

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Release Date: October 24, 1997

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DVD Release Date: March 20, 2001

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  • October 18, 2009
    "a life less ordinary" is danny boyle's primary attempt to hit into american market after his smashing success of countercultural revolt in 1995's junkie cult "transpotting"...it was shot when ewan mcgregor still belonged to the trio of boyle/hodge/mcgregor screen team since "sha...( read more)llow grave", the art-house british channel 4 independent production before boyle sold him out in "the beach" by casting leonardo dicaprio in the role he was supposed to play, long before mcgregor's become commericialized star-war prop..it took place also when cameron diaz still played sassy hard-boiled femme fatale before "something about mary" sweetens and softens her screen persona as romantic lead..

    the scenario is goofy. it's about a stupid janitor who kidnaps his boss' daughter in a rage after he's fired and dumped by his live-in girlfriend..then these two fall in love absurdly. of course, even angels in the heaven are their guidances to the journey of celestial bliss despite the course involves mayhem and bloodshed. it's generally a mixed genre of romantic comeday and neo-noir. don't expect rationality and sensible plot-developments because the essence of this movie is a brazen cheer of slacker's hashish daydreaming and mcgregor's presented as a character of proteriat outrage in the oblivion of the generation x, a mutant divergence from his trainspotting persona. he fantasizes about writing a blatant trash-novel to redeem his miserable existence of ephemerality, and his ideal romance is a game-show called "perfect love", favored by a pampered brat who appreciates such weakling demeanors and even aids him to get the ransom from her abrasive father who insists on cutting off her allowances. they pretend they're pop-stars and cabret dancers along the melody of bob darin's "beyond the sea"...in spite of their slacker narcissism, they do have a naively sacred respect over the bond arranged by fate but their deterministic conventionalism's got to be rendered in their deviant imaginations like angels act like noir villains to help the course of destiny, blah blah blah...oh, bank-robbery could be a pleasant stimulus of passionate kiss..

    basically "a life less ordinary" is a celebration of "style over substance"..the costumes and location shots are particularly elaborated with a boyle trademark, such as mcgregor's mullet hairdo and floral shirt, diaz's bob-headed siren who high-hats men around..as for the location, i bet it's around the borderline of nevada and california where i've driven for several times while heading for las vegas, or it's around the woods in colorado??(i would be happy if anyone tells me where it's shot)...the valley cabin as the hideaway spot and the desolate driveway within the desert hills are well-selected and they all give you a otherworldly feeling of american universalism due to the unique perspective of a british director shooting america..

    audience might neglect it's neo-noir trying to act like romantic comedy, or the other way around, holly hunter and cameron diaz are the neo-femme-fatales who conduct themselves rough and ruthless like avenging fury with a pistol in well-tailored suit..diaz coaches mcgregor how to perform lethal dialogue to ask for ransom while hunter orders delroy lindo to murder mcgregor in the corder of dark woods digging a hole beforehand for the burial...the deliberate gender-reversal's gonna make you giggle..but eventually it's less a romantic comeday than dark farce since our hero only concedes his emotions to our heroine after someone persuades him with words "she's a glamorous pussy in heaven and you're a two-dime worker cleaning floor in hell, why bother to think too much over whether she's your type or not??" this movie has so many colors on its palette that it's too distractive to enjoy..but ain't the life-style of lovelorn slacker so? also, it has one of the coolest soundtracks ever like trainspotting since the soundtracks of danny boyle's movies always have a it chicness before he reached international fame by 28 days and slum millionaire.

    (ps) around the same year, alicia silverstone made a stupid comedy about love in the course of kidnapping with benicio del toro, called "excessive baggage"....the sketch of storyline does have a parallel but it's much less creative and much more mundanely melodramtic(should i just say cheesy?)...don't get mistaken by that.
  • September 25, 2009
    Was ok, hated the singing bit though! Was a bit of a letdown though after enjoying Trainspotting and Shallow Grave so much. I do think Boyle improved as a director during this film but he soon let himself down in The Beach. Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo stole the show in my opinion!
  • March 14, 2008
    O'Reilly: Our fee for the recovery of your daughter is... one hundred thousand dollars.
    Naville: That's a lot of money.
    O'Reilly: Five thousand in advance. The rest is cash on delivery - no daughter, no dough.
    Jackson: And naturally we'd operate a sliding scale, whereby if we onl...( read more)y bring back part of your daughter, we only get part of the money.
    O'Reilly: That's enough, Jackson.
    Jackson: No, I mean if he's cut her ears off and we can't find them, we'll knock a couple thousand off the tariff. More for a limb, obviously.
    O'Reilly: Jackson.
    Jackson: Sorry.

    Usually put in the lower half of director Danny Boyle's filmography, I have always enjoyed watching this film. It's a strange, dark romantic comedy that involves kidnapping and angels sent to ensure the love between two people.

    It also features an impressive cast, a very good alternative soundtrack (something not unfamiliar to a Boyle film), and plenty of style to make this film very interesting visually.

    Robert: They're replacing us with fucking robots!

    Ewan McGregor stars as a slacker, rocking a very strange hair cut, working as a janitor, until he is fired and his girlfriend dumps him.

    Cameron Diaz is a spoiled rich girl, who is at her father's (Ian Holm) wits end.

    McGregor eventually storms into his former boss' office and kidnaps Diaz.

    This is not too much of a coincidence, because two angels (Delroy Lindo and Holly Hunter) have been sent by their boss (Dan Hedeya) to bring these two together.

    The majority of the movie revolves around McGregor and Diaz bickering and hanging together, while the angels pursue them using strange means to bring them together.

    This was Boyle's attempt at making a mainstream film despite the strange setup, and so of course many did not like it when it first arrived, but for some reason I have found this to be an enjoyable film due to its oddities.

    The soundtrack in particular, I enjoy, largely due to it having my favorite Beck song.

    Along with the romance stuff, this film plays with balancing cliches against elements of a trash novel, something MgGregor's character is actually trying to write, and brings it up again and again.

    This is an enjoyable film for me, but its not for everyone.

    Jackson: What the hell did you do to her?
    Robert: I punched her in the face.
    Jackson: Oh, you punched her in the face. She's half your size and you punch her in the face?
    Robert: She had a gun!
    Jackson: Oh, she had a gun! So that makes everything all right, does it?
    Robert: No, I'm not saying it makes everything all right. I'm just trying to explain to you that for all I knew, she could have been a karate expert or something.
    Jackson: With a broken arm? WITH A BROKEN ARM?
    Robert: O.K., I'm sorry.
  • March 6, 2008
    Danny Boyle is a fantastic director...he's just getting his feet wet here...perhaps recovering after the exhausting Trainspotting
  • January 31, 2008
    fun fun fun fun fun
  • November 18, 2009
    A ridiculously well-made and honest romantic comedy. It boils down to a chick flick that a guy can actually enjoy. The acting from McGregor is great and same for Cameron Diaz (surprisingly). The directing was just perfect too because it gave it an edge that I don't think anyone b...( read more)ut Boyle could have pulled off.
  • November 4, 2009
    C'est vraiment bon, c'est drole et les personnages sont débiles!
  • October 31, 2009
    not a really good follow up from his work before this, trainspotting.,
    although this movie feels cheap sometimes, but i believe this movie still enjoyable for every boyle's fans, because this movie still provide boyle's wild imagination and his ironic sense of humor..
  • October 31, 2009
    i still can't believe,a man with such talent as Danny boyle could also got trapped into the typical rom-com genre..
  • October 28, 2009
    dumb - winning cast and excellent director. go figure - something sure as hell went wrong.

Comments


  • raechello
    March 30, 2008
    I absolutely loved this film!.
    One of my all time favourite lines(s) was when he got shot and he's bleeding in the back of the car while she is driving...
    (McGregor): "Please, don't take me to a hospital. I don't want to die in a hospital..Please"
    (Diaz): "I'm not taking you to a hospital"
    (McGregor): "What!?... Take me to a hospital!"
    It's hilarious!.
    And then when he's on the phone trying to make a ransome to get the father to pay for her(Diaz)life.
    But he keeps messing up the line... He was suppose to say to her father :"Look here asshole, I got your daughter here and if you don't pay the money I'll cutt her up....ect"
    But instead he calls the wrong number the first time says half of it and then realises it's a woman and he's like "OH no, sorry, I don't have your daughter.." and then on the next one he gets the right number and says "Look her daughter!, I got your asshole here..." Mixed the words haha. In the end TRUE LOVE :D hehe!

    It's a great film for some laughs :
  • LuvinShoes
    August 11, 2006
    nice...movie has a gr8-----everything nice story,starz,director an every otha thing that a nice movie shud have and i think that these sort of movies are nice fer watching while yu have nothing 2 do!(i am typing all this without knowing what i am typing actually i am typing to make it annoyingly long and long and long...something like the movie...loolol!)yea so like every performance of W\Ewan and Cameron is worth a watch(or is ewan's in this movie---worth a blink!?=S)gak..soz so don't sleep and read on k?i think that the movie shud have had more of...more of...more off...umm actually i told you i dunno wut i am typing..lol so move on and read on...kkk?get me???if you don't!!i am gonna kick yer ass(cuz i don't like it!)lol letz continue eventually the movie is surely woth a watch cameron's perormance waz more notable than inky-blinky Ewan's(looooool!)Peace Out
  • LoonyLeo0803
    June 5, 2006
    It's actually really funny.

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A Life Less Ordinary Trivia


  • Name the Rogue Trader who has A Life Less Ordinary, a Nightwatch shift, and lets his Little Voice out in Velvet Goldmine and Moulin Rouge.  Answer »
  • Ewan McGregor as a janitor who meets Cameron Diaz?  Answer »
  • "Are you taking me to a hospital? Cause i dont want to die in a hospital." "I'm not taking you to a hospital." "What, what do you mean you're not taking me to a hospital? I DEMAND to be taken to a hospital!"  Answer »
  • Which British actor had a part in all these movies? The Fifth Element Alien The Lord of The Rings A Life Less Ordinary  Answer »

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