Life (1999)

New York Times
"...Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Murphy are an entertaining team..." 04/16/1999 p.E9

Box Office
"...LIFE is a well-written, beautifully cast and very funny buddy movie that perfectly matches the talents of its two leads..." 06/01/1999 p.68

Chicago Sun-Times
"...The movie is ribald, funny and sometimes sweet, and well acted by Murphy, Lawrence and a strong supporting cast..." 04/16/1999 p.31

Apollo Leisure Guide 0 of 10
[Eddie] Murphy and [Martin] Lawrence both give substance to roles as innocents sentenced to life in prison for a murder they didn't commit. Claude Banks (Lawrence) plays an honest New York bank teller taken in by the small-time hustler Ray Gibson (Murphy). After they run afoul of a club owner named Spanky (Rick James), they find themselves trying to pay him back smuggling hooch in Mississippi. The cocky northerners get more than they bargained for with the southern hicks, eventually being framed for murder. The film follows them through sixty years in prison. There are, needless to say, some oddball characters in the big house. And through it all, Banks harbours the predictable resentment toward this so-called friend of his who is responsible for his sudden change in lifestyle. While the film is funny, it's not hilarious. And that's as it should be. Director Ted Demme (Monument Ave., The Ref, Beautiful Girls) does another fine job. The look of Life is authentic and he includes a sixties montage that adds depth and sadness... [Regardless of some weaknesses,] I liked Life. As in Murphy's Nutty Professor, special make-up effects artist Rick Baker has done an awesome job. Murphy and Lawrence are perfectly believable both as sixtysomethings and ninetysomethings. In fact, I couldn't help but wish we'd see a whole movie with the two of them as Grumpy Old Men. - Guy MacPherson
 
The New York Times 0 of 10
Life packs Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence off to a Mississippi state prison and lets them trade quips while doing hard labor. It's hard to miss the basic unfunniness of this situation. (Nobody who saw last year's prize-winning prison documentary The Farm: Angola U.S.A. is liable to be in stitches.) But this mild-mannered comedy proves more likable than it sounds. Much of the humor springs from the curmudgeonliness developed by Claude Banks (Lawrence) and Ray Gibson (Murphy) over 60-odd years of needling each other. The two actors have this down to an art form by the time they are elaborately aged and grizzled by Rick Baker's makeup effects and have reached the point of arguing about Jell-O... Murphy in particular develops a more substantial personality than might be expected here. As he evolves affectingly from a fast-talking hotshot into an old man with the growl and gait of a venerable blues singer, he seems to be reaching for a greater acting opportunity than this lightweight material can offer. It's a performance that feels solid even when the film is at its most formulaic, or when it vacillates strangely. At one point, Life goes straight from a comedic moment to a sentimental dance to a suicide. At another, one montage spans 28 years by mixing up the characters' fates and important historical milestones in the manner of a self-important music video. Lawrence and Murphy make an entertaining team. And they are surrounded by a supporting cast that makes the prison setting more pleasant than it has any right to be. While the place seems to grow so cushy that it's only a matter of time before the inmates take up golf, actors including Brent Jennings and Miguel A. Nunez Jr. turn stock roles into fairly fresh ones... As out-takes over the closing credits indicate (a cell phone ringing in 1932?), the actors seem to have had a good time. - Janet Maslin