This is a surprisingly thoughtful comedy, one that manages to address serious topics while still having moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity. As the world passes them by, the two men dream and plot their escapes, surviving with a group of fellow eccentric prisoners, and as their friendship goes through ups and downs over the years and decades, Ray and Claude must find a way to keep their spirits up as they keep trying to find ways to get back to New York City. Ray and Claude are to serve a life sentence of hard labor in the infamous Parchman Farm, where they will stay for the next 65 years.

But when Ray is cheated at cards by a man named Winston, they realize that they're being played for suckers and try to leave, but while heading for their truck, they find Winston's body, and shortly after, the corrupt sheriff immediately frames Ray and Claude for the murder. They encounter segregation at a diner, and then after getting the delivery, the two men go to a local juke joint so Ray can drink, play cards, and have fun. They hit the road, but their troubles begin as soon as they enter the South. He nominates Claude as the driver, and it's a chance for him to make things right. While Claude is getting dunked in the water and Ray is on the verge of getting killed, Ray offers to pick up dozens of cases of the finest Mississippi moonshine and deliver it back to Harlem in the hopes of making things right. Ray is also in trouble with the mob boss, and the two men are forcibly removed from the club and taken to the docks where the mob boss awaits. While in the rest room, Claude encounters two henchmen representing the mob boss to whom Claude owes money, and then has a run-in with Ray ( Eddie Murphy), a fast-talking conman who pickpockets Claude's wallet. In LIFE, it's the 1930s, and Claude ( Martin Lawrence) is at a Harlem nightclub with his girlfriend, celebrating his recent hire as a bank teller. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails. While there's raw comedy throughout and some graphic violence, the movie also has some surprisingly serious and thoughtful moments, addressing issues such as wrongful imprisonment, institutional racism, segregation, and homophobia. A character has an affair with the White daughter of the warden, resulting in pregnancy and a situation in which he cannot admit to being the father. A gay prisoner on the verge of parole opts for the suicide of getting shot and killed by a guard while trying to escape rather than facing the shame and disapproval of his family because of his sexual orientation. One of the lead characters is shown hanging upside down, tied with rope, and dunked into the ocean by mob henchmen at a New York City dock. Violent and bloody fistfight between two prisoners. In the previous scene, this sheriff's face gets sliced with a switchblade by the Black man as he tries to stand up to the sheriff's racist bullying.

Expect strong language throughout, including the 'N' word (used by White and Black characters), 'motherf-ker,' and 'f-k.' Gun violence, including characters getting shot and killed at close range, and a Black man killed, his body left on the street bloodied by a corrupt Mississippi sheriff. Parents need to know that Life is a 1999 comedy in which Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence play two Harlem men wrongly convicted of murder serving time in a Mississippi work camp for over 60 years.

Life 1999 dvd