Somewhere in the midst of the mounds of “content” on Netflix servers are very good romantic comedies. The streamer is not too bad with regard to this particular genre, offering everything, of the classics of the beloved 90s such as “Notting Hill” with more modern successes such as Frisky and fun of Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney “Anyone except you”. Unfortunately, “life or something like that” will probably do no list of The best Netflix Rom-Comes Anytime soon – although there can still be hope.

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What is the earth “life or something like that?” Well, this kind of thing happens to the question with this film, that is to say that nobody saw it when he made his debut in theaters in 2002. With Angelina Jolie and Edward Burns, the film follows a journalist who interviews a supposed prophet, only so that her disappearance is imminent and is wasting her life. Yes, it’s a Rom-Com, I promise it. Directed by Stephen Herek (“Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, “The Mighty Ducks”), “Life or Something Like It” was not only a commercial failure but also a critical point, marking a low point in his career as a star and director.

Now, however, the forgotten Rom-Com in Jolie receives a little reprieve. The film goes up in the Netflix charts around the world and currently dominates the United States, where streaming viewers apparently lend the case for this film to be considered among the best Roma novels in the platform.

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In “Life or Something Like It”, Angelina Jolie plays television journalist Lanie Kerrigan, who is shocked to be informed by Jack (Tony Shalhoub), a man who claims to be a prophet, that his life is essentially devoid of meaning and that she had only one week to live. The ambitious Lanie suddenly revives his priorities and proposes to try to experience a more significant existence – something that, as you can expect, leads him to start a romance with Pete Scanlon (Edward Burns), a camera that shows Lanie a new way to approach his life.

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Critics may not have been impressed by all of this in 2002, but Netflix viewers, who recently passed out for Sofia Carson’s new Rom-Com, are certainly. “Life or something like that” arrived on Netflix on April 13, 2025 and immediately caused a meaning, hitting the graphics of streamer in the world the next day. FlixpatrolA site that follows and aggregates the data from streaming viewers, reports that the film made its debut at number three in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden on April 14, but only succeeded in number six in the United States. However, on April 15, “life or something like that” race to take first place in the United States. The film also managed to reach the number two in seven other countries and, at the time of writing, is traced in 13 countries around the world, including the United Kingdom (where it took third place).

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How will this 23-year-old Rom-Com-Comage move forward? Time will tell us, but it is about to enter the world top 10, so it will be interesting to see if “life or something like that” continues to hold the attention of viewers and becomes a real world blow almost two decades after having bombed in theaters.

When “life or something like that” made his debut on April 26, 2002, he was met with an icy response. The film is just $ 16.8 million On a budget of $ 40 million, losing 20th Century Fox, as we know before the acquisition of Disney 2019A lot of money. Critics have also added to the misfortunes of the film. The film has a 28% critical partition on Rotten tomatoesWith Rex Reed of the observer being particularly frank in his evaluation of the film as “formula, delusional and about as precise a representation of life in television information (or something like that) as cooking of pills”. Roger Ebert was not much more impressed, writing “This is a unsightly, poorly adjusted film, with his elbows that come out where the knees should be.”

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The film turned out to be a real Nadir for almost all the people involved. After “Life or something like that” and its dull beginnings, Stephen Herek directed “Man of the House”, a 2005 comedy with Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas Ranger who went under-covering as an assistant coach to keep an eye on a group of pom-pom-girls who witnessed a murder. Hey, guess what? “Man of the House” was not very good either, and Herek would work afterwards on TV movies and direct DVD prices such as “Into the Blue 2: The Reef”. In 2024, however, he directed The Christmas film by Lindsay Lohan “Our Little Secret”, which dominated the Netflix charts to his release.

Now, however, it seems that enough time has spent that “life or something like that” is due to reassess. Not only does the film lead the Netflix graphics, but contemporary criticism on LetterboxD Also more positive are, suggesting that Jolie and Herek were simply ahead of their time. The only way to discover for sure is to join the Netflix Renaissance and try.

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