The degree of ineptness with which this film is made must finally amount to some form of contempt for the audience.

| Original Score: 0.5/4 | May 9, 2023

Instead here lies the rare relish of seeing bonafide comedy legends Murphy, in his first directing jaunt -- he also wrote it -- and Prior play father and son.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 14, 2022

Look, this is a better film than Dick Tracy, and almost as interesting aesthetically. This also has Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor and Redd freaking Foxx on the same screen.

| Jul 17, 2022

Murphy has mastered the goings on behind the camera as well as he has in front.

| Mar 29, 2022

Scoring high marks alternatively for repellent dialogue, staging and characterizations as well as deadly boredom, Harlem Nights may well be the worst major movie of 1989.

| Mar 26, 2019

''Harlem Nights,'' it's worth remembering, is a comedy, though as the body count piles up and entire reels go by without a joke in sight, it's also easy to forget.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 26, 2019

"Harlem Nights" is billed as an action-comedy, but it doesn't blend the two very smoothly.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 26, 2019

If he's going to confine himself to bad movies like "Harlem Nights," it's probably better that he writes and directs them himself.

| Mar 26, 2019

Harlem Nights offers a depressing answer to that not entirely pressing question, "Will success spoil Eddie Murphy?" It looks as if it has.

| Mar 26, 2019

What this film suffers from is lack of fun.

| Mar 26, 2019

The plot exposition gets laborious in spots, the period flavor is only occasional and approximate, and the direction tends to be clunky, yet the strong secondary cast helps to take up some of the slack.

| Mar 26, 2019

The plan was to make a latter-day version of a 1930s gangster movie; the result has some nifty costumes, luscious sets and neat music, but, on almost every other count, it's a mess.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 26, 2019

Unfortunately, a real comedy needs a decent plot, interesting characters and some kind of creative context to work out of.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 26, 2019

If only it had played funnier.

| Mar 26, 2019

The plot is a standard recycling of rival gangs battling for turf, and the stunner is why Murphy found any interest in his own script.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 26, 2019

In the end, there's no soul to be had in this city of appearances.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 26, 2019

The story, spread thin over two hours, owed something to better films but is entirely devoid of charm, wit, acting skill or excitement.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Mar 26, 2019

Murphy wrote and directed this period piece which doesn't hold back on the strong language and profanity... but to humorous effect.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 26, 2019

Despite a flimsy script and a vain director, some of the supporting cast give spirited performances.

| Mar 22, 2019

Murphy's writing is about as snappy as a Sunday school lesson. The constant obscenities become a distraction and an eventual turnoff, and seem to be used when the writer and director can't invent something more creative.

| Jun 12, 2018