Life
Short description
Rayford Gibson, a small-time hustler, and Claude Banks, a bank employee, meet in a New York nightclub in 1932. Both owe gambling debts to the club's owner, and they agree to settle what they owe by driving a truckload of bootleg liquor up from Mississippi. On the road they are arrested, wrongly accused of murder, and sentenced to life in a state penitentiary, where they spend decades together as unlikely friends.
Ted Demme directed the film, the fourth of the five features he made, following Beautiful Girls and preceding Blow. Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone wrote the screenplay, and Brian Grazer and Eddie Murphy produced. Eddie Murphy plays Rayford opposite Martin Lawrence as Claude, with Obba Babatundé, Nick Cassavetes, Anthony Anderson and Barry Shabaka Henley among a credited cast of sixty-five. It was released in April 1999 and runs 108 minutes.
The production had a budget of 80 million dollars and took in about 74 million dollars worldwide, less than its cost. On IMDb it holds 6.8 out of 10 from roughly 61,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 out of 10 from around 910 votes. A critics' rating of 5.8 out of 10 from 57 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Despite the film being set in Mississippi, it was filmed in California.
- Rick James (1948-2004) didn't act out his limp; the scene was filmed after the actor had hip replacement surgery.
- When Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence stand on a box of liquor bottles, Claude, played by Lawrence, says his toe got stuck in a bottle. This actually happened during the filming of one of the takes, and Murphy's laughter here is completely genuine, not acted.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
