I saw Life last night with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence.
Even with shades of Shawshank redemption, it’s a gem of a little movie.
And even with Murphy doing his old fast-talking-bad-mouthing schtick that’s getting pretty old, I really enjoyed it.
But I couldn’t help wondering why I’d never heard of it.
Was it because it was an all-black cast, for the most part?
Was it because there were only a few whites portrayed in good terms?
There was a scene that I thought was completely gratuitous. It’s set during prohibition and they go into a diner with a sign that says ‘no coloreds allowed’ and they started arguing about getting some pie. That just wouldn’t have happened.
They would have known you couldn’t do that.
And the fact that it was the more timid fellow (the Martin Lawrence character) doing the arguing, just didn’t make sense.
I wonder if the script writers just forget what their characters are like sometimes.
Apparently it did win some oscar for best make up. The scenes where Eddie Murphy and Lawrence are old, are amazing. You’d swear they really had aged forty years!
But still, I’d never heard of it, there just wasn’t the buzz that other movies seem to get.
The last oscars I bothered watching was where Murphy was up for some part in Dreamgirls. I just remember how he stormed off when he didn’t win.
And honestly I couldn’t blame him.
I haven’t seen Dreamgirls but judging from the parts that Murphy’s taking on it seems like he’s pulling a Jim Carrey and wants to be taken seriously as an actor and not just a goofball.
Maybe people really do get fooled into thinking comedic actors are as dumb as the characters they play.
And those comedic actors just want to be taken seriously.
I don’t know.
I just know that Life was a real gem of a movie! Highly recommend it!