Life

Director; Ted Demme
Starring; Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence
Genre; Drama/ Comedy
Year; 1999
Release; UK Cable

Hmmmmm, this is odd. Eddie (3 good films and a voiceover) Murphy, and Martin (why am I famous?) Lawrence, team up in this comedy drama. Starting in 1932, the pair head on South, to pick up a truckload of hooch, get framed for murder, and sentanced to life imprisonment. Basically the film is about their life, on some kind of prison farm type deely. It's not really funny, it's rather cliche'd, rips off every other prison movie made, the ending is crap, and not a great deal really goes on.
Why do I like it? I caught it starting on cable, and couldn't drag myself away, and I'd seen it before.
Maybe it's Murphy, he is good at being Murphy, but I think that's the films major problem. The basic story is ok, and there's potential here. If Murphy could stop being Murphy and act ( he can, you know, it shows in small bursts), this could have been a really good film. It's certainly not Lawrence, never could get on with that git. I can't explain it, it's the best thing Murphy has done since Beverley Hills Cop, but that's not hard, as everything else (barring the Donkey voiceovers in Shrek, but they're Murphy being Murphy again) is turgid shite.
I know I have a passion for shit films, but thats stuff like Godzilla and chop socky. I should hate this, and I don't. It has something, what I don't know, but something.