Living the Life (2000) With Comments

Living the Life (2000)  With Comments


Throughout history, Hollywood has taken many great works of literature and literally trashed them, making horrible movies out of them. The same is also true of adaptations of lesser works of fiction. One novel in the latter category is Lynne Ewing’s 1998 young adult novel “Party Girl” the rights for which were bought by a movie company that proceeded to make the subject of this review that was allegedly based on Ewing’s work.

Living the Life starring Jay Hernandez and a bunch of untalented hack actors and actresses has almost nothing in common with Ewing’s novel except that it is set in a neighborhood in a rundown area of Los Angeles. Not only does the movie have a different name than the novel, but most of the character’s names are different and the plot is almost completely different. Whereas Ewing’s novel was about a teenage girl whose life revolved around partying, Living the Life is about some hispanic teenage girls whose aspirations are limited to becoming prostitutes, strippers and drug dealers. One of the girls also wants to become a professional hitwoman and be not only the girlfriend of the leader of the local brutal youth street gang, but also the 2nd in command as well.

The focus of the movie is on gang banging and street violence in general. Up and coming actor Hernandez is only in the movie a short time and hardly recognizable with the goatee they have him wearing. The plot of this movie, to the extent that you can actually discern a plot, is stupid and unrealistic. The producers of this movie evidently envisioned this movie as being a teenage girl ganster flick. This movie’s advertising focused in on the fact that the girls go to a nightly dance competition, but in the movie that aspect is only a silly subplot that only wastes more time and serves no purpose. These dance competitions feature teenage girls dancing in what look like the kind of outfits that prostitutes wear which makes you wonder just what kind of people were sponsoring them in the first place.

One strange aspect of this movie was that these girls were not even old enough to graduate from high school and yet, except for the gang leader’s girlfriend, they were all pregnant. And yet they partake in street gang violence and dance competitions whilst preparing to give birth down the line. One can only wonder just what the producers were smoking when they thought this angle up.

One partucularly striking aspect of this movie was the lack of older men as positive role models. For the two main female characters, there was no father, uncle, cousin, no man who espoused constructive ideas. Instead, there are gangbangers who abuse their own girlfriends. This helps to make for a dull movie because in order to have drama, you need conflict between competing ideas.

Living the Life is poorly made, poorly directed and except for Hernandez, poorly acted. The cinematography is especially poor in this movie. The colors are bleached out.. The picture is never crisp, and always seems out of focus. The colors fade and blur instead of being deep and rich. This movie is also poorly edited. At one moment, a girl’s hand is cut bleeding profusely, the next moment, she is as good as new without even a scratch on her even though she lives a life of almost daily violence with her boyfriend’s street gang.

The sound editing in this movie is especially bad. The dialogue levels go from clear to inaudible and sometimes crackle. Oftentimes the soundtrack music is played so loud you cannot understand what the actors are saying. Just why anyone would release a movie that is in this condition is incomprehensible.

Living the Life is a movie to avoid like the plague.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 26th, 2005 at 7:35am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

12 Responses to “Movie Review: Living the Life (2000)”
emily says:
August 3, 2005 at 10:27pm
well….let me just point out some of your mistakes. ONE girl in that movie was pregnent…just one…..and of course there was a lack of “positive male roll modles”…dont you realize what type of people this movie is trying to show? and the main “gang leader” if thats wut u would like to call him, Pocho…he is no ones boyfriend. Ana, the girl who dies, HAS a boyfriend from another gang. and Kata, the other main girl, is more like his sister then anything. perhaps u should have paid more attention to this moive. in my opinion, i liked it. and so did my friends. but also, that might be because we too have very few “positive male roll modles” and we too are in gangs. maybe we can relate to some things in this movie. and you right, the actors werent well known…and ur right, most of them werent all that great. but its good to see a flim where the main person isnt living their happy little life in hollywood. dont knock someone elses view on movie making…and believe it or not, some people actually liked this movie. thanks.

Kayleigh says:
August 26, 2005 at 6:46pm
i love this movie! who ever rated this movie was COMPLETELY WRONG!! there was only one girl pregnant, just like emily said.. nd yea there life was limited to drugs, and gang-bangers stuff but thats because it has a main purpose! I liked this movie, and too a few of my freinds it inspired them not to join a gang cuz they see what really does happen.. so whoever wrote critics on this is STUPID

Devon says:
February 19, 2006 at 12:42pm
Oh yea… I liked the music in this movie alot… But when I went to look for it online I couldnt find it…The song is called Danger Zone…Its the first song the girls dance to…Its sounds like it would be chinese at the beginning.

Charles Rector says:
February 20, 2006 at 7:06pm
So if you are “completely in love with this movie” that means that nobody can disagree with you? What a small mind you must have.

Michelle says:
July 27, 2006 at 12:32am
I LOVE THIS MOVIE SO MUCH!! ITS MY FAVORITE SO FAR, AND STILL!! AND LIKE SOMEONE SAYD THEY COULDNT FIND THE SONG DANGER ZONE, ME EITHER. I LOVE THAT SONG. THE RATERS ARE DUMB AND WRONG. JUST BECAUSE IT DEALS WITH THAT KIND OF STUFF DOESNT MAKE IT A BAD MOVIE, A LOT OF PEOPLE LIVE THAT WAY, IITS A WAY OF LIFE. I BEEN THROUGH IT. WOULD THAT MAKE ME A BAD PERSON?? ANYWAYS, I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS MOVIE WHETHER YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH ME!!!!

KaRiNa says:
August 16, 2007 at 6:43pm
who ever critisized this movie is so WR0NG! This movie is the best! it shows wat real life is all about! and seriously the critic him self needs to watch the movie him self…he dont even got the facts straight…well i love this movie && it look like lots of people liked it! so so stop talking bad!

DiANA [&] KiARA --HOUSTON,TX says:
September 3, 2007 at 12:04am
EXCUSE ME MR.”MOViE CRiTiC” WHERE DiD U GET UR COLLEGE DEGREE FR0M TO BE TRYiNG TO ANAYLZE A MOViE THAT U WOULDNT COME CLOSE TO UNDERSTANDiNG. THE HARDSHiPS OF STREET GANG MEMBERS, iTS NOT ONLY ABOUT SEX, DRUGS, AND CRiME. iTS A LiFESTYLE THAT SOONER OR LATER TEACHES YOU WHO U TRULY ARE, SOMETHiNG THAT A BOOK CAN’T TEACH YOU.SO WHY DO U THINK U KNOW HOW REALiSTiC iT iS? YOU DONT HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE ON THE SiTUATiON TO BE SPEAKiNG YOUR MiND FREELY ON iT. WHAT LED YOU TO BELIEVE THAT THE DIRECTORS WERE SMOKING SOMETHING, JUST BECAUSE YOU NEVER EXPERIENCED THE HARDSHIP THEY DELT WITH DOESNT MEAN iTS A FANTASY WORLD. OBVIOUSLY YOU DIDNT PAY MUCH ATTENTION TO THE MOVIE AS WELL , BECAUSE THE ONLY ONE THAT WAS PREGNANT WAS ANA AND NOT THE OTHER FEMALES. THiS iS WHAT THE SUPPOSLY “MOViE CRiTiC” SAiD WHICH MADE HIM CONTRADiCT HiMSELF… “…except for the gang leader’s girlfriend, they were all pregnant” ALSO LET ME STRESS TO YOU THAT YOU SHOULDNT BE THE ONE TO SAY WHATS RIGHT OR WRONG IN A CERTAIN SITUATION, EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN MENTALITY, JUST BECAUSE ITS NOT LIKE YOURS DOESNT MAKE IT WRONG. THE ACTORS EVEN THOUGH THEY ARENT KNOWN, THEY DiD A GOOD JOB OF PORTRAYiNG THE CHARACTERS LiFESTYLE! G00D DAY! ~”iF U STARE UP AT THE STARS LONG ENOUGH ANYTHiNG SEEMS POSSiBLE”~

pamela says:
June 25, 2008 at 5:20am
whoever wrote this review must be some white junkie whos never personally seen the life and srtuggle of a young woman coming up in a barrio. i thought this movie captured what being in a gang is like and all the crap that comes along with it. this movie is a modern Mi Vida Loca and it represented a chola’s lifestyle.

so for the person that wrote this shitty critique, get your head out of your ass and learn about the real LOCA culture watch the movie again (and this time pay attention) you are not watching The fucking Hills.

LP says:
December 16, 2008 at 3:34pm
Hey, i really liked this movie a lot….i really really want to find that stupid danger zone song! but i cant anywhere, i know a lot of other people said they couldnt but if u know what its called and where i can get it. let me know!

Someone says:
March 15, 2009 at 8:03pm
Gooood movie!!

who sings that song danger zone?
does anyone know where I can get the soundtrack??

Jus Me says:
August 21, 2009 at 11:13am
Ugh!! I just need to find that damn song “Danger Zone”!! It’s drivin me crazy!!!if u know it plz send it to rishacharley@yahoo.com

stephanie says:
September 18, 2009 at 9:41pm
omg i need to no the song danger zone!….its been months since ive been wanting to know…one of my fav song in the movie….

email me at fanimoreno_246@hotmail.com