Home :: DVD :: African American Cinema  

Blaxploitation
Breakthrough Cinema
Comedy
Documentary
Drama
Series & Sequels
Soul Cinema
TV & Miniseries
Life

Life

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.98
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 >>

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: THIS IS LIFE?
Review: This movie was a complete waste of time. It was 1hr and 49min but it felt much longer because it shows Eddie and Martin grow old in the prison. I felt that this movie was not funny or entertaining. Sure there were some mild belly laughs but no laugh out loud laughs that allot of people long for. Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence were awful. I think they were desperate for a movie role. This movie was a great dissapointment to me. Take my word for it Life sucks. You will have waste your money on a movie about stupidity.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Eddie and Martin... A top-notch comic team.
Review: When I first saw the trailer for this film, I was very sceptical. I simply didn't beleive it would be funny. (even though I adour every other Eddie movie) But I made myself go and see it and I loved it. It never dwelled on the fact that they were in their for life, It was constantly funny, especially the out-takes at the end, they were hillarious.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Murphy's best since the Nutty Professor......
Review: I watched Life last night on DVD and found it entertaining and hilarious. This light hearted comedy takes Murphy and Lawrence from 1930s Harlem to the Mississippi prison system. Through the decades, their antics, hard luck and views on life kept me laughing from start to finish. I would rank this as one the best comedies of 1999.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Hilarious"
Review: i couldn't stop laughing through the whole thing. "Atleast he ain't get my cornbread claude."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the very best comedies of '99
Review: I've seen "Life" twice thus far, and I must concede that it has to be one of the best films to ever cast Eddie Murphy. He and Martin Lawrence are just as emotionally poignant as they are downright hysterical in this memorable comedy/drama of two Prohibition-era guys from Harlem NYC who inadvertently become framed for murder in the Deep South while on a bootlegging run for the local crime boss they each owe debts to back home. They are soon enough sentenced to life imprisonment in a Mississippi chain gang where they share a "Felix and Oscar"-esque relationship that spans 65 years through thick and thin times (including numerous escape attempts). However in the end, they literally become friends for life as they come to terms with their imprisonment. The make-up done by 6-time Oscar winner Rick Baker to transform Murphy & Lawrence from young to old over the course of so many years is the true showstopper of "Life". I wouldn't be the least surprised if Mr. Baker garners Oscar #7 come 2000; he and Murphy have been quite a dynamic duo since "Coming to America". A definite must-see!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This is the movie that has, once again, proven to me that these two gentlemen are wonderful actors. Don't be fooled, this is not merely a comedy movie, it is a heart-warming look at a life long friendship through hardship and pain.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Typical Murphy/Lawrence Comedy ...
Review: This is one hysterical movie/DVD. I have just seen the DVD (released early in Australia) and it has many features, outtakes, and deleted scenes. Keeps you laughing for hours on end. Though, well written, a few comments are typical (and are expected) of Eddie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sad yet funny
Review: murphy and lawrence, doing time for a crime they did not commit, getting along with one another, murphy hoping that one day he could own his own night club (the boom boom room) and being very high spirited and lawrence doing everything for his self realizing he needs murphy and disagree's with every plan for an exscape, but after all those years together they become the best of friends and they finally make it out

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A serious movie that also happens to be pretty funny
Review: Yes, this movie has plenty of funny moments, but there is a very real and sometimes rather touching story that takes precedence over everything that happens. You can't get through the most serious of situations without the palliative of laughter now and again, and Life actually does tell a serious story. Eddie Murphy proves once again that he is a great actor, and Martin Lawrence was surprisingly good as the more serious of two men sentenced to life in prison for a murder they didn't commit. One night in 1932, fate brought Rayford Gibson (Murphy), a smooth-talking hustler with big dreams, and Claude Banks (Lawrence) a respectable fellow about to start a good job, together in a New York nightclub. For entirely different reasons, both guys have to face the displeasure of the club owner's wrath; and so it is that Gibson and Banks end up going on a bootlegging run to Mississippi. One dead man later, and both men are sentenced to life in prison for murder. Since Banks blames Gibson for getting him into all this mess, there relationship varies in quality as the years go by, but gradually a real friendship develops between them. They try to escape several times but end up spending basically their whole lives in prison. Along the way, we meet with several sub-plots involving some of their fellow inmates, but the movie never strays far from the lives of Gibson and Banks. The passage of time is marked by clips of historical events, and some excellent makeup works makes both men look old and worn out as they advance into their senior years.

This is not a prison story of hopelessness, however. While no pardon ever comes their way, justice has a way of willing out eventually, and the final ten minutes of the film are just terrific. Since the story does take place in Mississippi in 1932 and beyond, race plays a major part in the film, but it does not define the movie by any means. There are a number of funny scenes, especially those involving pie and cornbread, and Eddie Murphy will definitely make you laugh - Martin Lawrence sort of plays the heavy here to Murphy's periodic antics. Some familiar faces pop up in the movie: Rick James plays the New York club owner, Bernie Mac has a relatively minor role, and Heavy D plays a small but important part. Wyclef Jean contributes an original score for the film. The whole cast is excellent, and a very good script keeps the film on pace and lively.

This isn't Stir Crazy; there are plenty of laughs, but I wouldn't call this a comedy - Life the movie is funny in the way life itself can sometimes be - laughter can get us through the hard times, but it doesn't hide the fact that the hard times are there. This movie really deserves more attention than it has received; with its serious underlying quality, it ranks among Eddie Murphy's most impressive films.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the very best comedies of '99
Review: I've seen "Life" twice thus far, and I must concede that it has to be one of the best films to ever cast Eddie Murphy. He and Martin Lawrence are just as emotionally poignant as they are downright hysterical in this memorable comedy/drama of two Prohibition-era guys from Harlem NYC who inadvertently become framed for murder in the Deep South while on a bootlegging run for the local crime boss they each owe debts to back home. They are soon enough sentenced to life imprisonment in a Mississippi chain gang where they share a "Felix and Oscar"-esque relationship that spans 65 years through thick and thin times (including numerous escape attempts). However in the end, they literally become friends for life as they come to terms with their imprisonment. The make-up done by 6-time Oscar winner Rick Baker to transform Murphy & Lawrence from young to old over the course of so many years is the true showstopper of "Life". I wouldn't be the least surprised if Mr. Baker garners Oscar #7 come 2000; he and Murphy have been quite a dynamic duo since "Coming to America". A definite must-see!


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates