Life with Eddie Murphy: DVD Cover

    Life Director: Ted Demme Cast: Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Obba Babatunde, Ned Beatty

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    • DVD Release Date: 10/19/1999
    • Rating: Rated R
    • Sales Rank: 17,482

    Viewer Rating: (2 ratings)

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    • Overview
    • Editorial Reviews
    • Scenes
    • Customer Reviews
    • Cast & Crew
    • Full Product Details

    Scenes

    Features

    Spotlight on location; Feature commentary with director Ted Demme; Outtakes; Director's edits; Rock Land/Interscope soundtrack presentation with K-Ci and Jo Jo and Maxwell music videos; Universal showcase; Production notes; Cast and filmmakers; Theatrical trailer; DVD-ROM features

    Full Product Details

    Scene Index

    Side #1
    0. Chapter List
    1. Main Titles [:22]
    2. Finally Free [:20]
    3. Harlem, 1932 [:01]
    4. Spanky's Deal [1:41]
    5. Way Down South [:21]
    6. Under the Hill [1:12]
    7. The Suspects [:02]
    8. Life [4:22]
    9. Tough Guys [:28]
    10. Ray's Boom Boom Room [2:30]
    11. The Escape [5:06]
    12. 12 Years Later [:11]
    13. Who's the Daddy? [:59]
    14. Getting Out [2:24]
    15. 28 Years Later [5:40]
    16. The Real Killer [:13]
    17. Claude's Plan [4:10]
    18. End Titles [1:27]

    Scene Index

    Editorial Reviews

    Comedians Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence team up for a story that wouldn't appear to have many immediate humorous possibilities -- two men serving life sentences in prison for a crime they did not commit. Life opens in Harlem in 1932, where Ray Gibson (Eddie Murphy) is a small-time con man in debt to Spanky, a gangster (Rick James). Ray spots would-be bank teller Claude Banks (Martin Lawrence) at a gambling spot and, figuring him for an easy mark, lifts his wallet -- only to discover Claude is broke. Ray and Claude's mutual need to raise some cash brings them together when Spanky offers them a job bringing back a load of moonshine from bootleggers in the deep south. However, things don't go well for Ray and Claude, and they're arrested by a sheriff in Mississippi who recently killed a man and needs someone on whom he can hang the charge. Since Ray and Claude are black, from out of town and have been caught red-handed with a load of illegal liquor, the sheriff figures they're easy pickings and frames them for the murder. Soon the two men are inmates in a Southern work camp, where they spend the next 55 years learning to get along with the other inmates, avoiding the wrath of the guards, seeing younger prisoners come and go and never losing hope that someday, somehow, their innocence will be proven and they'll be released. Life is the second screen pairing for Murphy and Lawrence, who also shared screen time in 1992's Boomerang, and was scripted by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone from an original idea by Murphy. The supporting cast includes Ned Beatty, Clarence Williams III, Bernie Mac, Nick Cassavetes and R. Lee Ermey. Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

    Customer Reviews

    • Viewer Rating:
    • Ratings: 2Reviews: 2

    Lifeby Anonymous

    Reader Rating:
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    March 04, 2007: Once upon a time in America, life in prison meant precisely that. There was no early parole, no time off for good behavior. If you were sentenced to life, you could pretty much count on dying a prisoner in some godforsaken camp, farm or prison. Eddie Murphy is a small-time crook in Prohibition-era New York trying to get out of debt to a Harlem mobster. He sets up a scheme of driving some Mississippi moonshine to the mobster's speakeasy in New York. He ropes in as his driver Martin Lawrence, a bank teller who has also fallen afoul of the mobster because of an unpaid gambling debt. Murphy's character's weak nature gets the better of him and after receiving the liquor shipment, he decides to do some gambling in a rural club. He gets cheated by a local card sharp who later mouths off to the town sheriff, who murders him. Murphy and Lawrence have the misfortune of discovering the body, and being seen with it. They get, you guessed it, life in prison. The two, initially antagonistic to one another, are forced to rely upon each other in the brutal work camp to which they are sentenced. Time passes and they dream of the freedom it seems will be denied them for a crime of which they aren't guilty. There are a lot of moving moments in "Life" and with Murphy and Lawrence, even more funny ones. There is social commentary in the form of how black men are treated in the South, but it isn't strongly told or terribly compelling. Other movies explore that subject in greater depth and with greater insight. The problem with "Life" is that the filmmakers aren't sure whether they wanted to make a comedy, an examination of prison life in the Deep South of, say, 50 years ago, or a political/social commentary on the shaft given African Americans. They decide to do all these things, and in fact their reach exceeds their grasp. "Life" really doesn't give you any new insights into anything. It's mainly an excuse to pair two of the brightest comic minds in America. Watching the two at work individually is fascinating, but Lawrence and Murphy don't generate enough chemistry to hold any interest as a team.

    Lifeby Anonymous

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    August 25, 2000: Life was one of the funniest movies I have seen. Though I watched it at least 10 times each time it gets funnier. It's definetly a great movie to have at home. GO GET IT!