Life (1999)
Directed by Ted Demme
Two men in 1930s Mississippi become friends after being sentenced to life in prison together for a crime they did not commit.
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16 films that influenced Life
What critics say influenced Life
Can't match the best prison movies like "Cool Hand Luke" or "The Shawshank Redeption" but has element of both.
The movie plays off any number of scenes familiar from a host of chain-gang movies, the most obvious a fight scene that closely mimics the Paul Newman-George Kennedy beating from Cool Hand Luke, with Murphy as Newman.
Once they land in ��Camp 8,�� the story takes on echoes of Cool Hand Luke and Stalag 17, as the two men make their place among a colorful assortment of inmates and officers.
Even such an accomplished prison film as The Shawshank Redemption fell for this sentimental view of life behind bars (I much prefer the balls-to-the-walls spit and snarl of HBO's Oz), and now there is Life, which tries to turn the subject into a comedy vehicle for Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence.
Let's just say the movie, which has some passing similarities with "The Shawshank Redemption," spans two lifetime sentences.
It starts off as a wacky period piece set in the Prohibition era of 1932 (with echoes of Eddie's '89 bomb Harlem Nights), but then it turns into The Shawshank Redemption.
Dragging its feet between I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (released the same year that Life finds its "murderers" caught up in the criminal injustice system) and the camaraderie and bleakness of The Shawshank Redemption, Life instead is a sailboat stranded in a windless sea, a comedy slant on The Bridge on the River Kwai sinking without the bridge or the river.
While most are dramatic -- think of Paul Newman in "Cool Hand Luke" and Clint Eastwood in "Escape From Alcatraz" -- some of have been funny -- such as "Stir Crazy" (Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor) and "The Longest Yard" (Burt Reynolds) -- while others are nothing short of outstanding -- such as "Papillon" (Steve McQueen) and the incomparable "The Shawshank Redemption" (Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman).
In something like 1994's "The Shawshank Redemption," this idea worked because the subject matter was treated with a realism and intelligence.
Once they land in ��Camp 8,�� the story takes on echoes of Cool Hand Luke and Stalag 17, as the two men make their place among a colorful assortment of inmates and officers.
I certainly wouldn't hold up 'Stir Crazy' as a comedy masterpiece, but there are scenes in it I remember after 18 years -- Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder's famous "We bad" entrance; Wilder spending a stretch in the hole, then being disappointed upon getting let out ("I was just beginning to find myself"); a bald, fearsome, gargantuan convict starting to sing in a soft, high, lovely voice.
While most are dramatic -- think of Paul Newman in "Cool Hand Luke" and Clint Eastwood in "Escape From Alcatraz" -- some of have been funny -- such as "Stir Crazy" (Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor) and "The Longest Yard" (Burt Reynolds) -- while others are nothing short of outstanding -- such as "Papillon" (Steve McQueen) and the incomparable "The Shawshank Redemption" (Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman).
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While most are dramatic -- think of Paul Newman in "Cool Hand Luke" and Clint Eastwood in "Escape From Alcatraz" -- some of have been funny -- such as "Stir Crazy" (Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor) and "The Longest Yard" (Burt Reynolds) -- while others are nothing short of outstanding -- such as "Papillon" (Steve McQueen) and the incomparable "The Shawshank Redemption" (Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman).
Dragging its feet between I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (released the same year that Life finds its "murderers" caught up in the criminal injustice system) and the camaraderie and bleakness of The Shawshank Redemption, Life instead is a sailboat stranded in a windless sea, a comedy slant on The Bridge on the River Kwai sinking without the bridge or the river.
As such, they end up playing something of the imprisoned, African American version of "The Odd Couple" that appropriately later turns into "Grumpy Old Men" as their characters get older.
Perhaps Eddie and Martin realized that the scene opened a can of worms labelled Kiss of the Spider Woman, because beyond that, the question of men lovin' men is mostly avoided.
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Dragging its feet between I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (released the same year that Life finds its "murderers" caught up in the criminal injustice system) and the camaraderie and bleakness of The Shawshank Redemption, Life instead is a sailboat stranded in a windless sea, a comedy slant on The Bridge on the River Kwai sinking without the bridge or the river.
Rick Baker, who did the excellent makeup for The Nutty Professor, and designed Martin Landau's Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood, makes the actors look 90 with some of the very best age makeup I've ever seen.