Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

I recently purchased ALLO having not seen it in a long time. I had fond memories of a number of scenes and the movie was really cheap in a second hand store.In the first hour all of the scenes I remembered popped up and I was thoroughly enjoying myself, whilst wondering why the film had a comparatively poor rating both with audiences and critics. The chemistry between the leads is good and there are a lot of funny moments as Ewan Macgregor's character struggles with his inability to be a bad guy and Cameron Diaz tries to manipulate the situation to meet her own ends. Holly Hunters playfully seductive angel is also perfect opposite Delroy Lindo.Unfortunately the bag swap comes about 40 minutes too early in the film and from here the wheels come off. We are given scene after scene, each one more ridiculous than the last, of the two would be lovers getting mad at each other. Although the fantastical elements of the film can be accepted, there is at least one scene where the inevitable repercussions cannot be ignored but are never addressed. For a film that has such a strong first half, the second half verges on boring. For me that's probably the worst thing that can be said of any movie.The soundtrack is no doubt great if you're playing the CD in the car. However the placing of the songs seems all wrong, like Boyle was simply trying to replicate what he had achieved in Trainspotting where the songs underlined the scenes perfectly. All in all, for me this was a typical Danny Boyle film (with the exception of Trainspotting). It promised so much yet was let down by some fatal flaws.

If the name of Danny Boyle is often synonym of success, the Englishman is also capable of directing more than mediocre movies such as this A Life Less Ordinary.It relies on a qualitatively low script. Everything is convenient, cliché, the plot unfolds really too linearly and is in the end little interesting. The fantastic touch, more boring than anything, doesn't help either.The Diaz-McGregor works difficultly and struggles to extricate itself from this mess where characters and situations are stereotyped.Even the direction is uninspired, not to mention the soundtrack that is almost ridiculous, which is a shame when speaking of Boyle.It is maybe the worst feature of the director, along with Millions, both movies sharing as a matter of fact the same mystical tone.

After rising to directorial fame with the very European Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, Danny Boyle decided to live a little and make his own American road movie A Life Less Ordinary. The film is the third collaboration between Boyle and actor Ewan McGregor. This time around McGregor plays Robert Lewis, a janitor for a large company who gets fired and replaced by a robot. In order to get back at the company he kidnaps the CEO's daughter, Cameron Diaz. An unlikely relationship develops between the kidnapper and kidnapee, a relationship helped along by two "angels" who are in charge of matchmaking human beings on Earth. It's a quirky romantic comedy with an unexpectedly violent streak running down the middle.It's hard to comprehend exactly what this movie is trying to accomplish. It's romantic but not exactly touching. It's comedic without being overtly hilarious. It's eccentric and violent without feeling like an exploitation film. This weird mix of clashing genres actually does the film some good though, as it really is a lot of fun. It's strange, it's offbeat, and it's plenty entertaining from start to finish. It's got that Danny Boyle style that courses so strong through the auteur's veins. Of course you can't expect Trainspotting from it because A Life Less Ordinary is substantially watered down, and doesn't have the kind of human element we see in a dark character study like Trainspotting. The story is nothing special, but it's fun and it serves its purpose.Again, I'm not sure what the point of A Life Less Ordinary is, but neither do I really care. Boyle has himself a fun little film here with enough quirkiness to keep it lively and interesting for an hour and 42 minutes.

Director Danny Boyle had established himself as a very credible British director with his first two films Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, but his third film went a bit the other direction. Basically in Heaven, Gabriel (Commando's Dan Hedaya) tells angels O'Reilly (Holly Hunter) and Jackson (Delroy Lindo) to go to Earth to bring two people together, and if they fail cannot return. These two people are Robert Lewis (Ewan McGregor) who lost his job as a janitor to a robot and is mad at his boss Naville (Sir Ian Holm), and the boss's daughter Celine (Cameron Diaz) who Robert kidnaps. Celine realises that Robert isn't experienced in kidnap at all, and she is actually interested in helping him for the money he can demand, so she makes him ask for a high price ransom. As time goes by and they stick together throughout everything the kidnap scenario is fading away as Robert and Celine may be developing feelings for each other, just as Gabriel had planned. O'Reilly and Jackson know that the best way to bring them even closer is to put them in jeopardy, and they get help from Celine's father in order to track them down and do this themselves, but they are foolish in how they do it. There is the point when they have an argument and split apart, and then the angels take Celine in order for Robert to be mad enough to go after her. In the end the dream that Robert had been having for some time about saving the life of Celine indeed becomes reality, and O'Reilly and Jackson return to Heaven as their mission was successful, the happy couple even get married. There is also a short bit of Claymation where we see them retrieve the suitcase of ransom money from earlier on and get a castle in Scotland, and there are bits and pieces of the other characters. Also starring Ian McNeice as Mayhew, Frank Kanig as Ted, Mel Winkler as Francis 'Frank' Naville and Stanley Tucci as Elliot Zweikel. McGregor was reasonable, Diaz was sexy and sassy, Holm got his moments, and Hunter and Lindo were indeed completely miscast, Boyle doesn't quite have a grasp on what to do in each scene, the road movie thing with angels chasing them is alright, overall, it is a film too silly to take seriously, a pretty daft romantic comedy. Adequate!