Harlem Nights

Day 257 - 9/14/09 - Movie #257

BEFORE: My tour of New York City takes me north to Harlem (and back in time to 1938), for this film from my wife's collection. I would say it's one of her favorites, but apparently I can only say that she enjoyed it at some point in time.

THE PLOT: "Sugar" Ray is the owner of an illegal casino, which contends with the pressures of a vicious gangster and corrupt policemen who want to see him go out of business.

AFTER: Like the last film, it's something of a "caper" movie, but I've seen more clever capers. And it's a comedy, but I've seen funnier comedies. Funnier Eddie Murphy movies, and funnier Richard Pryor movies.

Again I feel like there are a lot of pieces to a plot, that don't seem to coalesce and form a coherent whole. Either I've picked a run of films that have this problem, or I'm suffering from some sudden inability to connect the dots. Possibly getting burned out from watching too many movies - memory must be almost full...

In addition to Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor (making his 3rd appearance in my movie year), the film stars Redd Foxx (in his last movie role), Danny Aiello (last seen in "City Hall"), Della Reese, Jasmine Guy, Arsenio Hall (in a tiny role) - but I want to give a shout out to character actor Michael Lerner, who played Bugsy Calhoune. He's one of those guys you've probably seen in at least a dozen films, but you may not know his name. Once you notice him, though, you tend to see him again and again, he usually plays gangsters or movie executives (is there a difference?) - this year I've seen him in "Barton Fink" (movie exec.), "Safe Men" (gangster), and "Radioland Murders" (police lieutenant), but his biggest role was probably as the NYC Mayor in 1998's "Godzilla". And it looks like I'll be seeing him again some time next week...

RATING: 5 out of 10 tommy-guns