Trading Places (1983)

Trading Places is a very funny comedy that I enjoyed a ton. It's a cross between the stupid 1930s comedy $1000 a Minute and Calderón's classic La Vida Es Sueño, and it works. The cast is excellent. I fucking love Eddie Murphy and there's just no getting around it. He is so goddamn funny, and this shows off his talents perfectly. There is an unnecessary blackface scene, and Murphy says faggot too many times, and there is also a male/male rape joke involving a villain in a gorilla suit, but listen, this is a funny movie, unlike some garbage like Splash or something – a movie that has plenty of its own problems, mind you. I thought this was great.

Look for tons of excellent actors in very small parts, including James Eckhouse as a cop and Giancarlo Esposito as one of the guys in jail with Eddie Murphy. 

I watched Trading Places on DVD, but I am sure it must be available via VOD.

Harlem Nights (1989)

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.