Life (1999)

Directed by

Ted Demme

Genre

drama film, prison film, buddy film, action comedy film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 44m

Rated

R

Rating

6.7 of 10 from 879 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Two friends are wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in the 1930s. The movie shows their long friendship inside prison over many decades.

warmfunnytenderbittersweetslow-pacednostalgicseriocomicresilient

What happens

Life is a 1999 American buddy comedy-drama film directed by Ted Demme. The film stars Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. It is the second film featuring Murphy and Lawrence together (the first being Boomerang, in 1992). The supporting cast includes Ned Beatty, R. Lee Ermey, Obba Babatundé, Bernie Mac, Anthony Anderson, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Bokeem Woodbine, Guy Torry, Michael Taliferro and Barry Shabaka Henley. The film is framed as a story being told by an elderly inmate about two of his friends, Ray Gibson (Murphy) and Claude Banks (Lawrence), who are both wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. It received an Oscar nomination for Best Makeup at the 72nd Academy Awards. Life was released by Universal Pictures on April 16, 1999. The film was considered to be a box office bomb as it only grossed $73.4 million against an $80 million budget, and received mixed reviews from critics. The film later found a strong cult following among Murphy and Lawrence's fans, establishing Life as a cult classic. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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