Lebenslänglich

After reading the user comments on this movie, it appears that the main complaint is that it is not the rollicking laugh-a-minute comedy that fans of the two leads expected. Once you let that expectation go, this is a great movie! It succeeds as a drama with comic tone. There have been some great ones that do this, and we mistakenly classify them as comedies. For example, M*A*S*H, Mr. Roberts, It's a Wonderful Life. These are pictures that provide comic overtones to people struggling to get through a very serious and overwhelming event: war, contemplated suicide, and in the case of Life, life imprisonment.

I was surprised at how good Murphy is in this flick.Not one of my favorites, he convinces as he ages and grows under the burden his character carries, that of an entire life stolen from him. And he survives with a certain dignity. Lawrence is almost as good, but he does labor a bit with the dramatic parts, seeming a bit uncomfortable shedding his comic bent. Note that when these characters are shown as old men, Murphy actually becomes an old man, Lawrence is still a young man in oldster's make-up.

Let's not overlook an interesting small role expertly understated by Ned Beatty, and the charm of Bokeem Woodbine as Can't Get Right. Life is well-mounted and the sets are as convincing as any I've seen. Comedies are rarely as dirty and sweaty as this movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed this picture, realizing early on that it was a very serious movie wrongly hyped as a comedy.

Continuing my plan to watch every Eddie Murphy movie in order, I come to Life (1999)

Plot In A Paragraph: In 1932, two strangers (Murphy and Lawrence) are wrongfully convicted and develop a strong friendship in prison that lasts them through the 20th century.

This is the last movie starring Eddie Murphy, that I chose to go see at the cinema!! That is not counting voice work, I went to see with my kids. This reteams Murphy with his Boomerang costar, Martin Lawrence. 7 years ago, Murphy was a huge star, and Murphy was relatively unknown. Now they were on an equal footing. Ned Beatty (Deliverance) has a small but important role.

I enjoy this movie, and consider it to be under rated. I usually watch this every couple of years. Murphy and Lawrence had genuine chemistry and some out takes and ad libs are actually in the movie. I think this is probably Murphy's last good comedy!! It's not a laugh riot, but it's a seriously touching movie. Probably in my Top 10 Murphy movies.

Life grossed $63 million at the domestic box office, to end the year the 34th highest grossing movie of the year.

Sure,Eddie Murphy has gotten credit over the years for being the comic genius that he is,but he does not always get proper credit for his movie work.1999's Life is a good example of Murphy getting overlooked.He does great work here,along with Martin Lawrence(whom I am not a huge fan of, but I must give him due credit here)as two men wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment.This is an excellent story,and casting Murphy and Lawrence in the lead roles is nothing short of a perfect idea.I never would have thought of them as a great team,but I was pleasantly surprised here.A must see for any die hard Eddie Murphy fan.

Underrated been in my dvd collection for years. Watched it about 100 times classic

Excellent, simply brilliant.

One of the most funniest films I have seen.

I have seen this so many times and I don't understand why it has only scored a 6/10!

I always think that story lines that cover a large chunk of the characters' lives are always very interesting as the audience gets to see how they evolve and change with age. All of the characters pull this off - over the years we see Ray (Eddie Murphy) change from a young confident individual who never gives up hope to a tired old grouchy man who is hard of hearing; but its never sad. Even when the characters are riddled with old age the humour is still fantastic.