There's only one problem. A fortune-teller-for-hire homeless man called Prophet Jack (Tony Shalhoub) has predicted the baseball score for the next Mariner's game, a hailstorm for tomorrow and that she will die next Thursday. The first two prove perfectly accurate so what is she to do?

Since she's the trophy fiancée of Cal Cooper (Christian Kane), the Mariner's superstar, she wakes him on the road to talk about the meaning of their relationship. "Why are you calling me?" he asks, not used to having serious conversations with his blonde bombshell. "I'm really tired. It's too late for phone sex tonight."

Luckily for the viewers, the dull-as-dishwater Kane isn't the male lead. Unluckily for the audience, Edward Burns, who plays Lanie's disheveled cameraman Pete, turns out to be not much better. Neither Jolie nor Burns bring much to their roles, and their chemistry together is nearly non-existent.

Although the script contains a few good lines, about the only entertaining scene comes when Lanie, facing eminent death, lets her hair down and leads union strikers in an "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" songfest. The story's outline has promise, but, after about midway through, the movie starts losing energy with every frame. Only a miniscule part by Stockard Channing as a Barbara Walters type briefly reenergizes the film.

How about Julie Roberts and John Cusack? Or if you to go a little older, how about Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks? Those are many of the better casting choices for the leads that I found myself mulling over in my mind as LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT droned on.

LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT runs 1:39. It is rated PG-13 for "sexual content, brief violence and language" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.