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Blank Check with Griffin & David

A Life Less Ordinary with Janet Varney

Blank Check with Griffin & David

Blank Check Productions / Talkhouse

Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Comedy, Film Reviews

4.66.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2023

⏱️ 149 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After the smashing success of TRAINSPOTTING, Danny Boyle reteamed with star Ewan McGregor and writer John Hodge to…make a movie where Dan Hedaya plays the Archangel Gabriel, Stanley Tucci plays a cuck dentist, and Ewan has one of the worst haircuts in the history of cinema? Shockingly, 1997’s A LIFE LESS ORDINARY was not a hit. Actress and comedian Janet Varney (The Legend of Korra, “The JV Club”) joins us as we attempt to make sense of this bizarro road trip romance.

This episode is sponsored by:
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Transcript

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0:00.0

So you're telling me that successful podcasts are made in heaven?

0:27.0

Okay, watch this movie this morning. Yeah. I already don't really remember what you're

0:35.0

talking about.

0:36.0

Basically the last line of the film. It is the thing that is my virtual background on the

0:40.0

Zoom right now. When Cameron Diaz and you and McGregor are litigating whether it makes

0:45.1

life more or less romantic that love is a bureaucratic act committed by Dan Hadea in

0:55.0

a white office. The whole car you tell me that successful relationships are made in heaven,

1:00.0

not found on the daily practicality of two people being prepared to tolerate the imperfections

1:03.6

of one another. And he responds, it's not successful relationships, Celine, it's love.

1:08.3

And it comes from a strange and wonderful place that we don't know about. And that place

1:11.6

is an office.

1:12.6

Can I confess? I was I was feeling a little exhausted at that point in the movie.

1:18.9

Why is this a little bit worn out a little bit by this film?

1:23.4

Well, so this is also the top quote on IMDB. I'm just going to call you out right now.

1:28.0

Oh, absolutely. I opened up the I didn't even open up the quotes page. I scroll down to

1:32.6

IMDB where it always gives you the preview of the first quote. And I went. Why dig deeper.

1:37.3

Why not? Yeah. David, this is arguably one of the first examples of the modern wave

1:42.8

of slow cinema. Right. I would say this is kind of it. Yeah. Right. It's just like

1:46.4

watching a train go through Norway for 12 hours, definitely. Yeah. I was surprised

1:51.0

that this train's been in here. Yes. I have to say I think it was too slow to last

1:56.0

coming from me. Yeah. I also just wish he would have made some choices. There's nothing

2:02.0

about this. You don't feel Danny Boyle's fingerprints anywhere. It's like he's asleep

...

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