April 16, 1999
Web posted at: 3:14 p.m. EDT (1914 GMT)

By Reviewer Paul Clinton

(CNN) -- Here's a confession that will probably haunt me forever: I'm not a big Eddie Murphy fan. I respect his talents. But a little Murphy and that braying-donkey laugh go a long, long way with me. Yes, I know his films make millions, but that doesn't necessarily make them good movies -- "Doctor Dolittle" left me underwhelmed.

But his latest effort, "Life," is a pretty good flick. So in all fairness, I have to mention that the concept for this film came from Murphy himself. And it works mainly because this is a comedy with heart and because he and Martin Lawrence make a good team.

Murphy fans, beware. This movie is being promoted as your typical Murphy fare and it's not. That doesn't mean he's made any huge change in style, but he's toned it down and actually acts more than he mugs.

"Life" spans 60 years in the lives of two men falsely convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1930s Mississippi. This is not your typical yuk fest with Murphy standing center stage every minute yelling, "Look at me!" Instead, it's a wonderful character study that's both funny and poignant.

We're introduced to Murphy's character, Ray Gibson, and Lawrence's character, Claude Banks, at their burials in the prison graveyard. There, an old-timer begins to tell the two young prisoners doing the digging about the men they're putting six feet under.

The movie then flashes back to the 1930s and we follow Gibson and Banks through their brief lives in crime as reluctant bootleggers; the murder they didn't commit; and then the next 40 years as an innocent pair serving a lifelong sentence.

In the first 12 years, their friendship goes through many phases as they gradually adjust to life in prison. Then there's a jump forward in time -- that's all you need to know -- and we're later reunited with our two heroes. But these two don't live in a vacuum and the interplay with their fellow prisoners adds a lot to the overall success of this story.

It also doesn't hurt that the supporting players in this film are wonderfully portrayed by Miguel A. Nunez Jr., who played Little Richard in "Why Do Fools Fall In Love"; Bernie Mac as a man called Jangle Leg; and Nick Cassavetes (son of Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes) who plays the camp's main guard, Sgt. Dillard.

Dillard is with the prisoners until the end. His strange bond with Banks and Gibson, the men he's sworn to keep imprisoned, provides some nice pathos to the rhythm of comedy and tragedy inherent in the film.

"Life" is a heartfelt and touching movie that's also funny with character-based humor rather then heavy handed in-your-face comedy. Murphy and Lawrence, reunited for the first time since the 1992s "Boomerang," make a great team. Lawrence is the straight-laced, straight man to Murphy's conniving con. Imagine "The Odd Couple" in prison uniforms. Their unlikely union results in warm, witty and sometimes hilarious moments.

Most of the film is contained within this small world of a prison work camp, while the real world is seen in montage. World War II comes and goes, the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and the space program all change society, but things never change for these two men whose existence was frozen when their freedom was wrongly taken from them.

In many ways, this film is a tragedy as well as a comedy, but director Ted Demme walks that thin line and delivers a film that gives equal time to both emotions.

The age makeup designed by five-time Academy Award winner Rick Baker is, hands-down, the best I've ever seen in film. Aging people in a realistic way is much harder then creating special effects makeup for alien characters, zombies or whatever. Not only do Murphy and Martin believably go from young men to men in their 90s, but all the men around them age, too. It's a remarkable achievement. If the makeup hadn't worked, the film wouldn't have, either.

Don't expect the typical Murphy film: There aren't any sight gags and the mugging is kept to a minimum. But if you have a heart -- and like humor that's character-based -- you may want to put a little "Life" into your life.

"Life" is rated R (the "n" word is used endlessly in this film). 101 minutes.