Review of Harlem Nights (1989) by Richard D — 14 Mar 2018

Richard Pryor runs a successful nightclub with his adopted son Eddie Murphy. Gangster Michael Lerner tries to shake them down for protection money with the help of corrupt cop Danny Aiello, but Pryor pulls an elaborate con on him.

So the big draw here is that it's Murphy's debut as a writer/director and he co-stars with both Pryor and Redd Foxx. Quite a few things go wrong here. First of all, Murphy goes to quite some length to create a believable period setting, and then most of the actors just act and speak like contemporary folks.

It's like a big game of dress-up and it's pretty distracting. The pace is also oddly sluggish and it simply isn't funny. Pryor in particular just seems completely off his game here. (He had just been diagnosed with MS, which he was keeping secret.

He subsequently claimed that his preoccupation with his diagnosis threw him off.).