Honestly, if you ask someone to name the best Eddie Murphy flick, they usually default to Beverly Hills Cop or maybe Coming to America. It makes sense. Those are the loud, flashy blockbusters that defined the 80s. But there is a massive group of us who will argue until we’re blue in the face that Eddie Murphy in the movie Life is actually his finest hour. Released in 1999, it didn't exactly shatter the box office, but it has lived a dozen lives since then on cable and streaming. It’s a weird, beautiful, depressing, and somehow hilarious epic that covers 65 years in the lives of two guys stuck in a Mississippi prison camp.
It’s not just a comedy. Not really.
Think about the setup. Rayford Gibson (Murphy) and Claude Banks (Martin Lawrence) are total opposites. Ray is a small-time hustler with a mouth that moves faster than his brain. Claude is a straight-laced guy just trying to start a job at a bank. They get framed for a murder they didn't commit in 1932 and end up at Parchman Farm. What follows is a decades-long saga about friendship, aging, and the absolute absurdity of the American legal system.
The Chemistry That Shouldn't Have Worked
On paper, putting Murphy and Lawrence together in 1999 was like a supernova. They were both at the top of their game. Usually, when you put two titans in a room, they fight for the spotlight. They try to out-shout each other. But Eddie Murphy in the movie Life shows a version of the actor that is surprisingly restrained. He lets Lawrence play the "straight man" who slowly loses his mind, while Ray remains the eternal optimist, even when he's ninety years old and can barely walk.
They actually hung out a lot before filming to make sure the rhythm was right. Director Ted Demme—who we sadly lost too young—basically let them riff. If you watch the scene where they’re arguing over the "uprising" while eating cornbread, that isn't tight scripting. That’s two masters of the craft just being present in the moment.
Ray Gibson is a complex cat. He’s responsible for getting Claude into the mess, and he knows it. That guilt drives the character for sixty years. It’s a level of depth we didn't always see from Murphy during his "Nutty Professor" era. He wasn't wearing a fat suit here (well, until the end), but he was wearing the weight of a life stolen.
Parchman Farm and the Reality of 1932
The movie takes place at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, known as Parchman. It’s a real place. A brutal place. While the movie uses humor to make the pill easier to swallow, it doesn't shy away from the fact that for Black men in the Jim Crow South, life was cheap.
The production design is gritty. It feels hot. You can almost smell the dust and the sweat coming off the screen. By grounding the comedy in a very real, very dangerous historical context, the stakes feel higher. When Ray and Claude try to run, you aren't just laughing at their incompetence; you’re terrified they’re going to get shot in the back.
Rick Baker’s Makeup Magic
We have to talk about the aging.
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Most movies mess this up. They put some flour in the hair and a few latex wrinkles on the forehead and call it a day. But for Eddie Murphy in the movie Life, they brought in the legend Rick Baker. The transition from 1932 to 1997 is seamless.
Murphy and Lawrence spent hours—sometimes six to eight hours a day—in the makeup chair.
- They had thin, translucent skin.
- The liver spots looked real.
- Their posture changed.
- The way they used their hands was different.
By the final act, you forget you’re watching two superstars in their thirties. You really believe you’re watching two elderly men who have spent their entire existence behind a fence. It is some of the best prosthetic work in cinema history, period. It’s subtle. It doesn't distract from the performance; it enhances it.
Why the "Pie" Scene is Legendary
You know the one.
The "Can't have no hop in your step" scene.
Ray is trying to explain the psychology of survival to the younger inmates. He talks about the "white man's pie." It’s a hilarious, improvised-feeling monologue that is secretly the thesis of the whole movie. Ray survives because he refuses to let the system break his spirit. He keeps his "hop."
This is where the movie moves from being a buddy comedy to a character study. Most people think of Murphy as a guy who does funny voices. But in Life, he uses his eyes. There’s a scene late in the film where he’s looking at a picture of the life he could have had. The humor drops away completely. It’s heartbreaking.
The Supporting Cast is a "Who's Who" of Talent
While Eddie and Martin get the top billing, the ensemble is what makes the world feel lived-in. You’ve got Bernie Mac as Jangle Leg. You’ve got Anthony Anderson, Michael Taliferro, and the incredible Barry Shabaka Henley.
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Bernie Mac, in particular, steals every single second he is on screen. His interactions with Eddie Murphy in the movie Life provided some of the most quoted lines in the culture. The dynamic of the "camp" feels like a real community. They have their own rules, their own hierarchy, and their own legends.
The Ending: A Masterclass in Payoff
No spoilers here for the three people who haven't seen it, but the ending of Life is one of the most satisfying "long games" in movies. It manages to be cynical and hopeful at the same time.
It acknowledges that they lost their youth. They lost their families. They lost everything.
But they had each other.
It’s a love story, really. A platonic love story between two men who hated each other for the first five minutes and then became each other’s entire world for the next sixty years.
Why Critics Got it Wrong in '99
When it first came out, critics didn't know what to make of it. The New York Times and others were expecting a straight-up riotous comedy. They found the prison setting too grim and the pacing too slow.
They missed the point.
The pacing is slow because life in prison is slow. The movie makes you feel the passage of time. It makes you feel the decades slipping away. If it had been a fast-paced 90-minute romp, it wouldn't have had the emotional gut punch that it delivers in the final ten minutes.
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Today, the movie has a 52% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, but an 82% from audiences. That gap tells you everything. Real people recognize the heart in this story. They recognize that Eddie Murphy in the movie Life was doing something special.
How to Appreciate the Film Today
If you’re going to rewatch it (or see it for the first time), don't look at it as a "comedy." Look at it as a period piece that happens to have funny people in it.
Pay attention to the background. Look at the way the prison changes over time—from the brutal manual labor of the 30s to the slightly more "modern" (but still soul-crushing) 70s. Look at the costumes.
And specifically, watch Eddie’s hands. As Ray ages, his movements become smaller, more economical. It’s a masterclass in physical acting that gets overshadowed by the jokes.
Practical Takeaways for Movie Lovers
If you want to dive deeper into the world of this film or similar performances, here is what you should do:
- Watch the "Behind the Scenes" on the makeup process. Seeing Rick Baker transform Murphy into a 90-year-old is a lesson in movie magic.
- Compare this to "The Shawshank Redemption." Seriously. They cover similar themes but from completely different cultural perspectives. Life handles the racial politics of the era with a much more cynical, yet arguably more honest, lens.
- Listen to the Soundtrack. Wyclef Jean produced it, and it’s a banger. It captures the soul of the South perfectly.
- Check out Eddie Murphy’s later work like "Dolemite Is My Name." You can see the seeds of his "elder statesman" acting style being planted right here in Life.
There is a reason this movie is a staple in Black households across the country. It’s because it captures a specific kind of resilience. It says that even in the worst possible circumstances—wrongly accused, forgotten by the world, aging in a cage—you can still find a reason to laugh. You can still find a way to outsmart the people who think they own you.
Ray and Claude didn't just survive. They lived.
That’s the legacy of Eddie Murphy in the movie Life. It’s a testament to the idea that as long as you’ve got a friend and a "hop in your step," they haven't beaten you yet.
Go back and watch it again. It’s better than you remember. I promise.