Synopsis
'Sugar' Ray is the owner of an illegal casino and must contend with the pressure of vicious gangsters and corrupt police who want to see him go out of business. In the world of organised crime and police corruption in the 1920s, any dastardly trick is fair.
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Cast
- Eddie MurphyQuick
- Richard PryorSugar Ray
- Redd FoxxBennie Wilson
- Danny AielloPhil Cantone
- Michael LernerBugsy Calhoune
- Della ReeseVera
- Berlinda TolbertAnnie
- Lela RochonSunshine
- Jasmine GuyDominique La Rue
- Christopher JacksonCrapshooter
Recommendations
- 50
Chicago Sun-Times
People may go to see Eddie Murphy once, twice, three or even six times in disposable movies like Harlem Nights, but if he wants to realize his potential he needs to work with a better writer and director than himself. - 50
Boston Globe
The best thing about the film is the way it allows Richard Pryor to rise above the demeaning buffoon roles he's been playing for the last few years and finally play a character with dignity and style. [17 Nov 1989, p.89] - 38
USA Today
I don't mind that Nights is a potty-mouth benchmark; crude verbiage is appropriate to the leads, as well as the film's subject matter. This is, however, an amazingly mean two hours. Even the funniest gag involves Murphy's fatal shooting of three men. [17 Nov 1989, p.6D] - 25
Chicago Tribune
In Harlem Nights, Eddie Murphy continues his one-man war against the female gender. Those women he doesn't kill outright are punched, maimed and slugged with garbage cans. But apparently they deserve it-there isn't a single female character in the film who isn't a prostitute. [17 Nov 1989, p.A] - 20
The New York Times
Harlem Nights is not the disaster some people might have been expecting. Mr. Murphy has appeared in far worse films written and directed by people much more experienced. - 10
Variety
This blatantly excessive directorial debut for Eddie Murphy is overdone, too rarely funny and, worst of all, boring. - 10
Washington Post
Unfortunately, entertainer-for-life Murphy, directing for the first time, seems to have spent his energies on topping the bill rather than on the bill itself. - 10
Washington Post
Eddie Murphy's directorial work is amateurish at best. And as a performer he looks as if he is in agony, as if his mother made him stand in front of the camera for punishment.
