Life Or Something Like It (2002)

Define Flop

Life Or Something Like It looks like a B movie, doesn't it? Lanie Kerrigan is a successful TV reporter who leads a life she defines as perfect: good job, famous baseball player as a fiancé, great body... When she interviews a street prophet (Tony Shaloub) who tells her she is going to die in a week, she starts wondering if her happiness is just an illusion. Even though the movie features a respectable cast with Angelina Jolie in the lead, the characters are somewhat dull. The plot is pretty basic and leads to a predictable but good moral. Jolie scores the worst haircut of her acting career and her performance is slightly out of tune. I guess you can't always be on top of your game. This movie is probably not the grand following Jolie was expecting hardly 3 years after winning the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Girl, Interrupted. Despite those bad moves, the 40-million-dollar budget paid for a decent editing and nice cinematography. The sense of humor is all right and the rock-flirting-with-punk soundtrack makes the picture a bit spicier. I can still enjoy this film even if it's not a must-see. 

1 reason to watch it: the editing and cinematography are surprisingly nice

1 reason NOT to watch it: the worst haircut of Jolie's acting career

(I cannot find a decent trailer but you can find it on the imdb page)

In the Land of Blood and Honey / U zemlji krvi i meda (2011)

A Mixture of War and Love

As I am no expert on the Bosnian war, I cannot judge this movie from historical facts but I can tell you that In the Land of Blood and Honey is a very promising directorial debut for Angelina Jolie. She wrote, directed, and partly produced it. It is by definition an American Foreign-language movie as she made the logical but clever move to film it in Bosnian and Serbian with a totally local cast. In the Land of Blood and Honey is a story set in the heart of the Bosnian war that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 90s. It is a love story on a war background... Or is it the other way around? Both stories are intelligently tangled up together. The plot is simple: Danijel, a Bosnian Serb soldier, finds his former Bosniak love, Ajla who becomes his prisoner. I am definitely not a sucker for war movies but I have to admit that it is a poignant tale even if it's a bit slow at times. Jolie has the balls to show the atrocities of war and the treatments of prisoners during this specific battle (human shields and rapes among others). I thought that In the Land of Blood and Honey raised good questions. Mainly this one: what would I do in their position? You soon realize that both positions are complicated: being the persecutor of your former friends or lover among your hateful fellow soldiers AND being the prisoner of someone you used to hang out with. What would you rather be? I found out, I'd rather not have to choose. This movie shows brutal scenes: to watch with caution. I am blown away by Zana Marjanović's interpretation of Ajla. It might come from the fact that she has actually experienced this war. As I said before, actors who speak the language of the country where the story is supposed to happen is always the best option.

1 reason to watch: Angelina Jolie's directorial debut

English-speaking version of the trailer but I recommend you watch the movie in its original language