Synopsis
Two men in 1930s Mississippi become friends after being sentenced to life in prison together for a crime they did not commit.
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Cast
- Eddie MurphyRayford Gibson
- Martin LawrenceClaude Banks
- Obba BabatundéWillie Long
- Nick CassavetesSergeant Dillard
- Bernie MacJangle Leg
- Michael TaliferroGoldmouth
- Anthony AndersonCookie
- Barry Shabaka HenleyPokerface
- Miguel A. Núñez Jr.Biscuit
- Bokeem WoodbineCan't Get Right
- 80
L.A. Weekly
Demme (Monument Ave.) brings a sure hand with pace and structure to the soft-at-heart script by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone, allowing Murphy, Lawrence and company to sit back and focus on the job at hand -- making us laugh. - 80
Los Angeles Times
Gracefully bittersweet and balanced. [16 April 1999, Calendar, p.F-1] - 75
Christian Science Monitor
No show-business tradition is sturdier than the two-man comedy team, and no contemporary stars are better suited to the format than Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. Pairing them was a terrific idea. - 70
The New York Times
Lawrence and Murphy make an entertaining team. And they are surrounded by a supporting cast that makes the prison setting more pleasant than it has any right to be. - 70
Variety
Careens from decade to decade, and from relative dramatic realism to frequent hilarity, in often-winning fashion. - 50
San Francisco Examiner
If it's difficult to find straight laughs in a colorblind prison movie (It's difficult enough to find a colorblind prison movie), finding straight laughs in a black one is almost impossible. - 50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The result is a movie that's both odd and mediocre: not as bad as doing hard time, but not a particularly good time, either. - 50
Entertainment Weekly
Life desperately wants to let Murphy and Lawrence be actors, but it can't imagine them as anything more than rowdy showmen. That's a kind of prison as well.