HARLEM NIGHTS (1989)

According to the trivia for Eddie Murphy's time-period gangster flick HARLEM NIGHTS, the humor on set between himself, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx and Della Reese were funnier than anything in the movie... That's more than trivia, it's an outright admission that NIGHTS suffers from being too complicated a plot for these comic actors to be able to pull off their characters while at the same time, being funny...

In BEVERLY HILLS COP, the fact that Eddie Murphy's best friend was murdered meant nothing during scenes when he would, for example, argue with a hotel manager about getting a room, or argue even harder with employees at a warehouse about why he's snooping around... There aren't many pockets within the rather cliche old-school gangster flick involving gangsters and crooked cops wanting to move in on the main characters (THE GODFATHER ring a bell?) for comedy geniuses like Pryor, Murphy or Foxx to do their thing... Being constantly stuck within the story, HARLEM NIGHTS is as claustrophobic to the audience as it was to the actors... a shame since there are some worthwhile moments and potential to be had... But Murphy was obviously over his head, mainly as director... His timing was off in both the performance and cadence/timing of the overall picture... So John Landis would have been a far better choice to put everyone else's pressure off Murphy so he can shine: see COMING TO AMERICA, another Eddie Murphy production, for all the proof you'll need...Or watch Ted Demme's LIFE, set during the same era only taking place in prison, and with a dream sequence involving a similar nightclub and you'll see that Murphy's juggling too many plates to serve-up a satisfying main course. Rates: **1/2

CRITICAL CONDITION

title: CRITICAL CONDITION

year: 1987

cast: Richard Pryor, Garrett Morris, Rachel Ticotin, Bob Dishy, Randall "Tex" Cobb, Joe Mantegna, Silvia Miles, Bob Saget, Joe Dallesandro, Jon Polito, Wesley Snipes, Brian Tarantina

director: Michael Apted

rating: ***1/2

A very skinny, somewhat riddled looking yet highly energetic Richard Pryor is a con artist who, instead of going to jail where he'll surely be killed by a mobster who thinks he set him up, fakes crazy and is shipped to a mental ward, located in the basement of a large general hospital. The hospital loses it's power during a big storm and Pryor ends up posing as a fly-by-night head doctor. He and the rest of the ensemble cast has to keep the electricity going during the storm-caused blackout and the patients alive, while Pryor alone must sustain his ruse, which isn't easy since he can't operate or even read charts. More of an edgy-action with humor than a comedy; a side-plot involving a psychotic killer (Joe Dallesandro) on the prowl builds effective tension. No wonder they played this on HBO all the time in the late eighties: it's a perfect time-filler.

BREWSTER'S MILLIONS

title: BREWSTER'S MILLIONS

year: 1985

cast: Richard Pryor, John Candy, Peter Jason, Pat Hingle

director: Walter Hill

rating: ***

In this Walter Hill comedy (who's usually known for action), a whole lot happens, but not much lands. Although it doesn't seem to matter. The stuff that happens is entertaining enough, and things move as briskly and fast-paced as if this were an action film. An action-comedy. I don't mean "action-comedy" in the "Midnight Run" sense - meaning there's no actual adventure going on - but the comedic timing, the delivery of lines, and the running-around-frenzy of the characters provide enough movement to cover up the main flaw: that it's not very funny. Richard Pryor plays a minor league baseball player who inherits a lot of money and has to spend a million dollars a day for thirty days without having any assets to show for it, and then he'll inherit 300 million. The plot itself will keep the viewer drawn: will he reach the end of the rainbow with success?