LIFE (1999)

 

Directed by: Ted Demme

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Obba Babatunde, Ned Beatty, Bernie Mac, Miguel A. Nunez Jr, Clarence Williams III, Barry Shabaka Henley, Brent Jennings, Guy Torry, Nick Cassavetes, Bokeem Woodbine, Anthony Anderson, Michael Taliferro, Sanaa Lathan, O'Neal Compton, Noah Emmerich, R. Lee Ermey, Ned Vaughn, Heavy D, Kenn Whitaker, Bonz Malone, Lisa Nicole Carson, Poppy Montgomery, Johnny Brown, Don Harvey, Leon Turner, Rick James

109 minutes

(R - strong language, adult themes, adult situations, violence)

PLOT:

In the mid-1990s, two inmates bury the burned bodies of two lifers at Mississippi's infamous Parchman Farm; a third old-timer relates their story. They'd served 65 years for a murder they didn't commit, framed by a local sheriff while buying moonshine whiskey for a Manhattan club owner to whom they owed money. In flashbacks we see this odd couple thrown together (Ray is a fast-talking con man, and Claude is a serious man about to start work as a bank teller), the loss of Ray's watch (sterling silver, from his daddy), the murder and trial, the hardships of Parchman, and the love-hate relationship of Claude and Ray as they spend 65 years bickering and looking for a way to escape.