Saturday, January 23, 2021

Movie Review: "Harlem Nights" 11/17/89

This is a movie review for "Harlem Nights", released November 17, 1989. We watched this in March 2020 (because Pryor and Murphy).



Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama

Run Time: 1 Hour and 56 Minutes





Official MPAA Rating (According to IMDB.com):

G / General Audiences

PG / Parental Guidance Suggested

PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned

R / Restricted

X

Not Rated







Trailer







Notable Cast


Eddie Murphy ... Quick

Richard Pryor ... Sugar Ray

Redd Foxx ... Bennie Wilson

Danny Aiello ... Phil Cantone

Michael Lerner ... Bugsy Calhoune

Della Reese ... Vera

Berlinda Tolbert ... Annie




Plot


In Harlem, New York City, New York during the 1930s, a group of friends own a club (and illegal gambling operations). To stay afloat, they have to make deals, find a way to stay ahead of the cops, and manage to get past the mafia without being killed or, worse, put out of business. For Quick and his boss/friend/mentor Sugar Ray, life is anything but quiet. How do they stay in business? Will they get run out? Will they be able to survive?




Rating Criteria

0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.



4/5 - *SPOILERS*

This movie can seem very slow sometimes but it is interesting. I didn't find it super mega funny but it kept my attention.


Murphy and Pryor have a very good interaction between their characters and it keeps the movie moving forward in an enjoyable way. Murphy's character (Quick) tends to be rash and explosive whereas Pryor's character (Sugar Ray) tends to be calm-headed and fatherly towards Murphy's character. Between the two, it is interesting.


The two of them, at the end, come together with a plot that benefits everyone in their clique in a way that doesn't seem to be planned out but had been by Quick and Sugar Ray. The end of the movie has everyone just laughing going "Yeah, we did that. We're good". Because of this, I would personally like to watch this movie at least once more to see if I could catch on to it before the end.


Though it was at times boring and slow, I would recommend this movie. Not necessarily for children, but decent.


Also, RIP to Della Reese as she passed in 2017. She was one of the angels from "Touched by An Angel" and I loved her acting.


Anyways, that's my movie review. Thank you for reading. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions. More reviews to come eventually, so keep an eye out for them!



~ Gracie Mae DeLunac



Contact me?


Twitter @gracie_delunac

Email graciemaedelunac@yahoo.com

Facebook https://facebook.com/GracieMaeDeLunac/

Skype gracelyn2019@yahoo.com






490.



No comments:

Post a Comment