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Life
Universal
Starring Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence

Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence star in a comedy that is desperate to pull laughs from a concept that I didn't find terribly funny.

Murphy is Ray, a small-time crook and con artist and Lawrence is Claude, a generally good guy who is preparing to start a new life with a new job as a bank teller. The story starts in the 1930's as the two men bump into each other in a New York nightclub. They think nothing much of the original meeting, but by the end of the night they find themselves both facing having to pay back a debt to a local gangster(Rick James). To pay back the debt, the two drive down to Mississipi to pick up some alcohol to take back to the clubs of New York City. When a local small time criminal turns up murdered, Ray and Claude are framed for the crime and find themselves facing "life"(hence the title) in jail.

The script of the film seems to do battle against the tone that the filmmakers are trying to accomplish, though. I felt that the film was trying to blend comedy and drama into a generally heart-warming "serious" film, but once the two men find themselves in jail for a while, the script seems to become more about showcasing the two comics in sort of a dual stand up performance in various "episodes": the criminals put together a baseball team, Ray tells all of the other cellmates about his dream of opening a nightclub. The script also occasionally realizes that jail isn't this hilarious and throws a dramatic scene in every so often. A pattern begins to form: comedic episode, dramatic scene, comedic episode, dramatic scene. I was very happy to see that the film was trying for something more than average, but the film generally doesn't work at all as a drama because there really aren't any supporting characters that rise above the level of stereotypes and also, we don't even get fully-written main characters. There are lines alone that are certainly funny here, but we don't really learn anything about the characters themselves enough to really care terribly much about them.

It's definitely not the fault of the performers here. Lawrence and Murphy are at their best here, trying hard to make each joke work. They try to make the jokes work, but they don't do anything for the plot. Throughout, the film is happy to let Murphy and Lawrence just stand there and argue with each other in very R-rated dialogue, or try to escape in new ways. I found the begining funny and enjoyed the end of the film, where the two find themselves still arguing at age 90(thanks to the makeup work of Rick Baker), but the middle of the film becomes increasingly predictable and therefore, slow. The film is funny for moments here and there, but it simply can't decide what it wants to be: it tries to be both comedy and drama and doesn't try to mix the two together, it just lets the seperate elements stand alone by themselves and as such, the shifts in tone seem jarring and slow down the film. The profane dialogue also begins to grow tiresome after a while.

Above it all, I really think the general plot keeps the film from being really funny. I just generally don't find the story of two completely innocent people spending their entire lives in jail very funny. Just a personal opinion, I guess.

Occasionally, I found "Life" funny, but these funny moments weren't part of the film as a whole: lines here and there, a scene or two. All in all, it's a fairly good try, but I don't recommend watching this "Life".
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