"Life" deserves a better rotten tomatoes rating

Unlike B.A.P.S, there was a film called "Life", a 1999 film that starred comics Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence in a comedy buddy film about two men wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. While they were in prison, they befriended each other and other inmates in prison as well. This film received 52% rotten tomatoes. I watched the film for the first time and honestly, the rating could've been better. Here's why.....Now this isn't the first film Eddie and Martin worked on the two comic duos had worked on Boomerang.

Warning: This article's story has spoilers. Spoiler Alert!!!!!

The film opens at a graveyard near the institution with two inmates (played by Heavy D and Bönz Malone) burying the bodies and Old Willie who knew the men they were burying (played by Obba Babatunde). He tells them a story about Ray and Claude. It started in the 1930s's which is the Great Depression era at a club where we met Ray (played by Eddie Murphy), a broke pickpocketer enters the club, and Claude (played by Martin Lawrence) and his girlfriend (played by Sanaa Lathan) wine and dine in at the club making future plans. The two meet in the bathroom, and Claude tries to ignore him anyway Ray pickpockets even though it was too late since Claude has already been pickpocketed by two men whom he owes. Ray and Claude both couldn't afford were close to their "deaths" until Spanky (played by Rick James) made a deal with them to send them to Slimm to bring Spanky's booze to the club. The funniest surreal part of the film is when Ray and Claude walked into a white-only restaurant and Claude asks for pie and coffee but obviously, the white employers deny their service and threaten to turn them into "n" word pie.

They made it to their destination and two went to another bar. Slimm tells them about a bar next door. Ray decides to go and Claude follows just to keep an eye on him. While at the bar, Ray starts to gamble with a group of men including Winston Hancock (played by Clarence Williams III) at the table while Claude meets a sexy hooker named Sylvia (played by Lisa Nicole Carson) Ray bets all of the money including his father's silver shiny watch until he lost to Winston and Claude dumb self gave his last two dollars to the hooker that tricked him with the money. Hancock gets his reward when he is about to leave until he meets Sheriff Pike (played by Ned Vaughn), a racist sheriff, and gets murdered by him. The two bump into Winston's bloody dead body leaving them stunned until a group of white men sees them with Winston's dead body and takes them leading them behind bars. The next day, the two were sentenced to life in prison without evidence proving the murder. While they were in prison, they meet Willie, Bisicit a gay inmate (played by Miguel A Núñez Jr.), Jangle Leg (played by Bernie Mac), Bisicit's lover and creepy gayboy, Goldmouth (played by Michael Taliferro) a big dark man with gold teeth in his mouth, Pokerface (played by Barry Shabaka Henley), Cookie (played by Anthony Anderson) the prison's chef, and Radio (played by Guy Torry). The most exciting part of the film was the imagination of Ray's club he wanted to own "Ray's Boom Boom Room" All of the inmates imagined what Ray's Boom Boom Room would look like filled with jazz music, gambling, food, and women. The two try to escape but the two fail leaving them to spend a night in the hole. Fast forward, to 1944, and the two are still in the pen, they meet Can't Get Right(played by Bokeem Woodbine), a muted talented aspiring ball player throughout the film he never says a word but he listens. He starts to play baseball with them. Outside of the superintendent's mansion, the inmates start painting glancing at his white grown daughter looking gorgeous. Can't-Get-Right glances at his daughter and the two lock flirty eyes at each other however Ray and Claude forbid Can't-Get-Right to make a flirty move or even come near her obviously he would risk "serious trouble". The Negro scout watches the inmates including Can't-Get-Right who were playing. The scout watches them to find a negro scout to recruit for the leagues. The superintendent's daughter was pregnant which I will get to the nervous part. Ray and Claude had a talk with the scout who was impressed with Can't Get Right's baseball skills and wanted him in the league so he made a deal with them promising to pardon them and Can't Get Right.

The nervous part was when her father brought his black grandson in front of the inmates believing one of them until he got to Can't-Get-Right's face, the daughter surprised me when she pleaded with her father to give her baby back instead of saying he was "raped" by him like every typical racist white girl would say in films. The superintendent looks at Can't Get Right smiling at the baby obviously he knows he is the father confronting and asking who the father of the baby is until half of the inmates start claiming that they are the father of the baby just to protect Can't-Get-Right sadly, they drove off and were never seen again.

Another scene got sadder when Biscit got a release form but he was afraid to leave because of being judged for his sexuality so he ran through the gunline to commit suicide. Everybody went silent since Biscit's death until Can't Get Right got released not Claude and Ray leaving them to remain behind bars. It was emotional to watch when the two stopped speaking to each other and years passed by during the cell, the film shows archive footage of what happened during the 1950s and 60s that Ray and Claude had missed, inmates getting old and grey fading to invisible whether they had died or had been released from the pen, the graveyard where the inmates have been buried and Ray had attempted to escape alone unsuccessfully without Claude.

1972, Willie, Ray, and Claude got older and are still in the pen, Willie is in the wheelchair, and Ray and Claude are still no longer on speaking terms. Claude starts trouble when he sees the pies and tries to steal them. He ends up being punished by standing on the empty beer bottles and the Sergent convinces Ray to shoot him dead but refuses and joins in on the punishment finally talking to each other. The two transferred them to the superintendent's mansion to do all the housework. The superintendent hires a replacement driver to pick up the new superintendent. He sees the racist sheriff, now older, and the new superintendent who framed Ray and Claude for murdering Winston. Claude tells Ray that he saw the sheriff and he is the new superintendent until Ray sees his daddy's watch from him until he takes the shotgun and tries to kill him he convinces the superintendent that the sheriff (new superintendent) murdered Winston and took his father's watch unfortunately the sheriff felt no remorse for what he did to Ray and Claude.

Ray and Claude fight over the shotgun to kill the former sheriff until he is shot and killed by the superintendent and Ray takes back his father's watch. The superintendent lies to the authorities that the shooting was "accidental" so that way Ray and Claude wouldn't get in more trouble. He promises them that he will pardon them to be released until he dies of a heart attack in the bathroom leaving the two still behind bars. Ray still believes that Claude and him both aren't going to get out and both of them are going to die in prison but Claude thought of a plan to get them to escape. At night, the penitentiary catches on fire causing everyone to evacuate except for Claude. Concerned Ray goes back in to save Claude but it was too late. The two ended up burned to death however that's not how the story ends it ends with a beautiful bittersweet ending. It turns out the two escaped and were freed and watching the baseball game at Yankee Stadium. Such a bittersweet beautiful ending.

This film tells an incredible comic story about systematic racism, discrimination, and lack of empathy. The film is inspired by the Scottsboro case, the Central Park case, and the other cases of men accused of a crime landing them behind bars until they were proven innocent. I love how they ended the film with a happy ending instead of a sad tragic ending.

Here's my article story on men who were convicted of a crime until they were declared innocent and set free.

Director: Ted Demme

Writer(s): Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone

Producer(s): Brian Grazer, Eddie Murphy

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Ned Beatty, R. Lee Ermey, Obba Babatundé, Bernie Mac, Anthony Anderson, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Bokeem Woodbine, Guy Torry, Michael Taliferro, Sanaa Lathan, Rick James, Heavy D, Barry Shabaka Henley, Ned Vaughn, Bönz Malone

Cinematography: Geoffrey Simpson

Editor: Jeffrey Wolf

Music: R. Kelly, Wyclef Jean

Production Company: Imagine Entertainment

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Year: 1999

Time:109 minutes

I am working on creating an independent production company called GWM Entertainment (GWM ENT.). GWM Entertainment is created by myself where I present Documentaries, Short Documentaries, Dou-series, Animation Films, Short Animation Films, Short Films, Feature Films, and Live Theatrical Play Productions developed by myself whether it is plays and musicals that I have produced, written, or directed. Some plays are originals and some are based on real-life events and some adaptations. I have been trying to start my short films, skits, some documentaries, and a web show I plan to film in the spring of 2023 or summer of 2023, or maybe Fall of 2023 in my hometown in Maryland. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any filming equipment and no filming crews. Obviously, everyone wants to be paid for their work. I am planning to work on my plays White Mama, Boys Like Us, Jean of the Joneses, and my podcast Innocent or Guilty.

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