Harlem Nights is badly directed (by Eddie Murphy) but hilariously written (by Eddie Murphy). The jokes are really funny, and all very much in Murphy's vein of humor. I laughed out loud a lot, but this is not a good movie at all. Mostly because it's just so uneven. The tone is really off. Even though it's an absolutely hilarious movie, entire sections seem filmed to be serious. And while the costume design is exquisite, the production design truly makes no sense. Richard Pryor also seems miscast. Della Reese is incredible – as are most of the cast – but Pryor isn't really holding his own here. He was probably already quite ill when he made this, and so watching him is rather sad, and he seems not to understand that he's in a comedy. It's an odd movie that I quite enjoyed all the same.
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