Fantastic!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I Loved Harlem Nights Della Reese, Redd Fox should also be mentioned more in this ALL Star Cast, Brilliant writing & Producer Eddie Murphy did a Wonderful Hilarious film that should Be rated a 10 in my book, Every Chance I get I Watch it my Husband also and we still laugh at the Comic Vocabulary. Really does Everybody have to be so serious that they can not see the Comic Ways this show was written? Great Job Eddie when another one coming out? Also I'm a white women and I see Great Comedy All the time but Hey let's be Real this was the 1930s in Harlem do you think everybody were Angels back then. The whites surely weren't this is the First coming from a Black view and it wasn't prejudice either. Just a Very Funny Movie with an all star cast!

Harlem Nights is an ostentatious late-eighties crime comedy written and directed by the affable Eddie Murphy during the apex of his career. The film details the rags-to-riches rise of a crime boss named Sugar Ray (Pryor) and his high swinging Harlem jazz club during the 1920's and 30's. Branding himself as a bit of a bon vivant, Ray willingly embraces illegal hooch, prostitution and gambling. To help him, he takes the young Quick (Murphy), a street tough-turned second-in-command, under his wing. Unfortunately years of easy success brings un-welcomed competition from New York mafia head Bugsy Calhoune (Lerner) and envious scorn from corrupt cops and the white establishment at- large.The plot then hinges on what the denizens of Harlem's bootlegger class will ultimately do to save face. Ray, a fair-minded and uncommonly cautious miscreant wants to gather his chips and skip town while Quick is itching for a fight. Much of the film's moral messaging is dropped in the fast-paced conversations between Ray and Quick - Ray of course being the voice of reason. "What are they gonna put on your tombstone? 'Here lies a man, 27 years old. He died, but he ain't no punk.' Hey man, that's bulls**t." Ray's words tower over the movie like a totem.The mood of Harlem Nights veers wildly from low-brow comedy to a fiery mobster film, even within the same scene. All the while, Eddie Murphy's motor-mouth delivery, Richard Pryor's innocuous bumbling and the gruff inclusion of Red Foxx, keeps the seams of this film from popping open with reckless abandon. It's an uneasy mix. One which nearly breaks its ability to transport in tone-deaf scenes that include Arsenio Hall as a bereaved hood and Della Reese as Sugar Ray's resident madam. It's easy to see why Harlem Nights was initially panned given three generations of comedic giants are on screen yet none go for the big titters.Yet what Harlem Nights accomplishes goes beyond a cursory look at the film's rocky production history (rumor is Pryor and Murphy did not get along). With this film comes a time capsule - a lovingly developed recreation of the Harlem Renaissance as told by those who have a stake in seeing that period on the big screen. Being enveloped by Harlem Nights means visiting the busy epicenter of a foreign country that no longer exists. It's overwhelming, jarring and even a little scary but you can't deny its vibrancy.Thus the language may be a little blue, but it does come with unfettered urgency. The humor may be too broad and mean but it dozily leans on some incredibly lush world-building. There are no big comedic payoffs in the traditional sense, but there is a heart to this picture that channels the oral-history, stubborn divergence and tumult of the Harlem Renaissance. Surely we can give a film a second chance based on that alone, cant we?

Putting Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx in the same movie clearly wasn't a bad idea. Instead, the bad idea came in the form of Murphy deciding he could write, direct and produce that movie.Everyone in this film felt like they were wasting their talent. There's something about Della Reese saying "kiss my ass" for the twentieth time that makes it not funny anymore.As for the plot, its dramatic and comedic parts conflict with each other, as if Murphy got the script to a really bad mafia movie and then decided to put some lousy jokes in it.The movie should have been subtitled "Three Iconic Black Comedians Get Outclassed by Arsenio Hall Crying and Screaming for Five Minutes."

First off, if you have "virgin ears," this isn't the movie for you AT ALL. But even if you don't mind a little profanity, this flick is over- the-top with it.One IMDb trivia post says "The F-word and its various derivatives are spoken 133 times." I haven't counted the uses in the many times I've watched the DVD of this movie, but I wouldn't doubt that total at all. And that's to say nothing of the other profanity liberally spoken besides the F-word.That having been said though, this movie is one of my favorites. (Of course, I love any movie with 1920s an 1930s gangster type plots, old time cars, machine guns and fedora hats.) But, I dig this one out a couple times a year and rewatch it. Here's why:* Even with all the profanity, it's just a great movie! * All the actors gave command performances. * Some of the dialogue and one-liners in it are just real rib-cracking funny! (Della Reese's "Kiss my ENTIRE a**!" has me cackling with laughter every time. And "The Champ's" comment to the other fighter "Try not t-t-t-t-o t-t-take this ass whippin' uh-uh-uh personally" is another one that busts me out laughing every time!) * And Lela Rochon is H-H-H-OTTT!!!!The amazing way they end it and wrap up the plot was masterful. Doubtful you'll see it coming.