Harlem Nights (1989)

Harlem Nights (1989)

3/10

Starring

Eddie Murphy

Richard Pryor

 

Directed by Eddie Murphy

 

In the '80s, Eddie Murphy was walking on air and making too much money. Having his name on a movie was a guaranteed money-maker. Having him headline your show was also a guaranteed crowd-puller. So, it’s understandable that someone gave him the green light to make this movie, without caring if it would make any sense or even matter.

Talk about a boring, long, overbearing movie with no comedy. How anyone could give this movie a good rating is amazing. There’s nothing funny going on in this movie; it just claims there will be a showdown in the end, but when that time came, there was nothing worth showing.

If it were that easy to con a known gangster, there would be none left. They got away with his money by just carrying it with some corrupt cops on their side. Plus, they must have been clairvoyant to see what the antagonist was thinking before he even made a move.

But neither of them is clairvoyant. A man losing control of himself because of a woman like that? I must testify I’ve seen that happen before. But the cop corruption—flipping some of the gangster's loyalists left and right—was not something you'd expect, and it seemed too easy. The movie didn’t even try to make anything complicated, which only added to the forgetfulness of the plot.

Quick (Murphy) was just too slick, to the point it became annoying. Sugar (Richard Pryor) was somewhere in this movie, which is sad because he was a more seasoned actor than Murphy by 1989. In this movie, Pryor plays a character in such an un-iconic way that when the movie ends, you can’t even remember seeing him.

The plot takes place in Harlem in the 1930s. Sugar has a club called Club Sugar Ray, which he runs with his adopted son Quick. Quick was a young man who used to run errands for Sugar until he saved Sugar’s life and became his adopted son. Together, they built the club and were making a lot of money.

During that time, there was a gangster named "Bugsy" Calhoun, who owned almost all the clubs in Harlem. He was jealous of the take-ins of Sugar and wanted them out of business. He made them an offer to take more than 60% of what they made weekly if they were to remain in business, knowing they would turn down the offer, close up shop, and leave Harlem.

Instead, Sugar decided not just to leave Harlem, but to take down Calhoun as well.

The plan was flimsy and too easy. I guess that’s what you get when you have a movie written, directed, and starring Eddie Murphy himself.