A 1997 film by the producer/director team behind Trainspotting, and released by Channel Four Films. Attempts in parts to be a screwball / romantic / gunplay comedy. If that makes sense. Stars Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz.

McGregor plays a janitor (iminently to be made redundant by a very robust cleaning robot) who wants to become a writer. The plot revolves around the frustrated, ineffectual McGregor (in a natty Hawaiian shirt) kidnapping his ex-boss's daughter (Diaz). Unfortunately for him, she has a rather more forcegul personality than he does and decides to use the kidnap situation to her own ends. In tandem with their escapades there are some (rather perfunctory) scenes involving two angels who are assigned to making them fall in love (aaaah). And also quite a bit of throwaway violence.

The flick sports generally good acting, not great script, bombastic action scenes and an awesome soundtrack*. Also, the first thing on screen is a caption : "Miramax Entertaiment Presents" (sic). The biggest problem with the film is the execrable claymation sequence (by Aargh Animation) during the credits. There are even more Easter Eggs after the credits too, if I recall correctly.


*This is probably the best part of the film actually. R.E.M.'s Leave, Beck's Deadweight and Ash's A Life Less Ordinary among many other gems, and for once they're nearly all actually used in the film!

A Life Less Ordinary - 1997 - Danny Boyle

Running time: 99 minutes. Rated M 15+1.

Special features:

Technical features:

The extras aren't really that interesting, so there's probably not much point buying the DVD if you already have it on VHS (although it was cheaper than on tape).

The spelling error at the start mentioned by fondue isn't there on my region 2+4 copy - it's just a "PolyGram Entertainment presents..." message. Oh, and there's nothing after the credits - it just jumps back to the menu screen again.

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1 This is the Australian rating. I'm not sure what the equivalent MPAA rating is.

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