Father and son team Sugar Ray (Richard Pryor) and Quick (Eddie Murphy) run a successful gambling establishment which in turn causes them to upset local mobster Bugsy Calhoune (Michael Lerner). Sugar Ray and Quick's lucrative business is netting them between $10,000 and $15,000 and upon learning this, Calhoune demands two thirds of their takings in order for Sugar and Quick to continue trading. Sugar and Quick refuse to give in to Calhoune's unreasonable demands and hatch a cunning plan to take down the notorious mobster.
Murphy has certainly put a lot of effort into giving this a 1920's/1930's feel to it; the set designs, vehicles etc all look pretty authentic. It's a shame really that he didn't put as much thought, care or effort into anything else in the film.
The first thing I noticed about this film is that Murphy never really seemed sure about what direction he wanted to take the film in; I initially thought that this was going to be some kind of parody of mob life and gangsters (the name Bugsy Calhoune is presumably a play on 'Bugsy Malone'), but aside from the amusing opening scene the film isn't actually very funny and a lot of the time it's far too serious for it to work as an out and out parody. The story in itself isn't a bad one, but Murphy offers very little in the way of tension; the idea of a mob boss who runs New York coming after two small-time business men should present an intimidating scenario, but Calhoune is not a particularly terrifying presence and even when he's supposed to be intimidating Sugar and Quick I never really felt scared for them.
The film also takes a very long time to get going and the first half of the film seems a little self-indulgent - there's a lot of fighting and squabbling and lots of things happening in the first half that do little to move things forward - I personally felt that a lot of these things were done for their amusement rather than ours).
I think the thing that probably ruined the film the most for me was Arsenio Hall; after putting in a great performance in Coming To America he literally puts in a 'nails on the chalkboard' performance in Harlem Nights. His whiny, irritating character and embarrassing overacting almost single-handedly ruined the film. It could also be argued that Murphy didn't get the best performance out of Richard Pryor either; Pryor is at his best when he's given a character to work with and when he's able to act daft, but Murphy has Pryor playing his character a little too straight and this also makes this a lesser film in my opinion. Like Pryor, Murphy underplays his character slightly and shows more restraint than we're used to seeing from him, but this also works slightly against the picture and results in it being more dull than it should have been. By contrast Danny Aiello probably gave the best performance and seemed to have fun, but without hamming it up.
The bottom line is that it falls short on laughs, the dramatic aspects don't work too well and the film lacks any real menace or intensity. Even if you're a fan of Pryor or Murphy I'd still suggest that you skip this one.
Murphy has certainly put a lot of effort into giving this a 1920's/1930's feel to it; the set designs, vehicles etc all look pretty authentic. It's a shame really that he didn't put as much thought, care or effort into anything else in the film.
The first thing I noticed about this film is that Murphy never really seemed sure about what direction he wanted to take the film in; I initially thought that this was going to be some kind of parody of mob life and gangsters (the name Bugsy Calhoune is presumably a play on 'Bugsy Malone'), but aside from the amusing opening scene the film isn't actually very funny and a lot of the time it's far too serious for it to work as an out and out parody. The story in itself isn't a bad one, but Murphy offers very little in the way of tension; the idea of a mob boss who runs New York coming after two small-time business men should present an intimidating scenario, but Calhoune is not a particularly terrifying presence and even when he's supposed to be intimidating Sugar and Quick I never really felt scared for them.
The film also takes a very long time to get going and the first half of the film seems a little self-indulgent - there's a lot of fighting and squabbling and lots of things happening in the first half that do little to move things forward - I personally felt that a lot of these things were done for their amusement rather than ours).
I think the thing that probably ruined the film the most for me was Arsenio Hall; after putting in a great performance in Coming To America he literally puts in a 'nails on the chalkboard' performance in Harlem Nights. His whiny, irritating character and embarrassing overacting almost single-handedly ruined the film. It could also be argued that Murphy didn't get the best performance out of Richard Pryor either; Pryor is at his best when he's given a character to work with and when he's able to act daft, but Murphy has Pryor playing his character a little too straight and this also makes this a lesser film in my opinion. Like Pryor, Murphy underplays his character slightly and shows more restraint than we're used to seeing from him, but this also works slightly against the picture and results in it being more dull than it should have been. By contrast Danny Aiello probably gave the best performance and seemed to have fun, but without hamming it up.
The bottom line is that it falls short on laughs, the dramatic aspects don't work too well and the film lacks any real menace or intensity. Even if you're a fan of Pryor or Murphy I'd still suggest that you skip this one.