Harlem Nights

Man, they use the word "motherfucker" in this movie a lot. If Samuel L. Jackson had been in it, it might have achieved some critical mass and who knows what would have happened. Either the word would have exploded, never to exist again, or it might have collapsed in on itself and formed some entirely new word.

Anyway, Richard Pryor runs a night club, and Eddie Murphy plays his protege. The big wheel in New York who runs most of the night clubs decides he wants theirs, either under his thumb or out of business. And he has the guns, the clout, and the corrupt cops (including Danny Aiello) to make it happen.

Murphy wants to fight, Pryor wants to rob big wheel blind and use it to start up somewhere else. There's a brief, but good, discussion between the two of them where Pryor points out it's stupid to die young to prove you're a man, or whatever. That the real win is living well and dying peacefully at an old age surrounded by loved ones.

The tail end of the movie turns into one of those caper flicks with a lot of misdirections. Where you think the plan has gone wrong, but no, everything is working just fine. Prior to that, it's more focused on the generational gap in how they want to handle things, plus just the reality they face being black in this situation. Yeah, they are technically criminals, but so is the guy pressuring them. Except, he's a white criminal, with white cops on his payroll. White cops who very obviously resent the fact that these black people make a lot more money than him, live in much better homes than him, wear tailored suits while he buys off the rack. And there's not a lot of direct action they can take.

The heist revolves around the betting on the big heavyweight fight between Jack Jenkins (who I'm guessing is supposed to be a stand-in for Joe Louis), and the latest great white hope, some dumpy Irishman. Aiello brings in a raid on Pryor's club while Jenkins is there, and kind of extorts an autograph out of him. I'd think, being heavyweight champion, Jenkins would have a little more sway, but he stands just as stiff and still as Pryor does, no sudden movements, no big outbursts of emotion, while Aiello sits confidently on the edge of Pryor's desk and generally struts around the office like he owns it. Even being a world famous celebrity gets him only so far.

The middle of the movie is a little weak. The subplot with the Dominique la Rue character resolves kind of abruptly and without any real emotional heft to it. There's a whole bit where Arsenio Hall thinks Eddie Murphy killed his brother and they have a car chase through the city with Arsenio sobbing and screaming, and generally being completely over-the-top the entire time. That bit was too dumb for me. But Redd Foxx and Della Reese are both pretty great, especially Reese's constant insults about Foxx' terrible eyesight. The fight between her and Murphy cracked me up.