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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.

Looking forward to my next viewing of this. Martin Lawrence once again proves that given a co-star to work off he can deliver, and here he does as he gets Eddie Murphy on prime form to work with. It's a very funny and bittersweet picture, a tale of friendship under duress. A great supporting cast fills out the other convict characters. 8/10

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.

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.

If you're not a fan of Eddie Murphy's humor, then skip this one.

The movie begins in modern times, 1997, with the main characters' funerals. The movie then flashes back to 1932 to begin telling their story, and continues as they age in prison in Mississippi.

They were "petty criminals" but were sentenced to life in prison for a murder they did not commit. However, being black in 1930s Mississippi did them no favors. The story that unfolds is irreverent and funny and has enough twists along the way to keep things very interesting.

I can't understand why the average rating of this movie is below "6". I give it "8" of "10" for its overall entertainment value, plus a few "life's little lessons" thrown in. I think it is one of Eddie Murphy's best movies.

OCT 2020 edit: I just watched it again after 20 years, this time on DVD. While most of it was somewhat familiar I had forgotten the last scene in Yankee Stadium.