The Pinky Toe Shot Heard Round Harlem: Harlem Nights (1989) Artwork

Reel Talk & Banter

Ever wanted to just sit around and make fun of an old movie with your friends? That's exactly what Reel Talk & Banter is all about. Join best friends Omari Williams and Jay Richardson as they rewatch movies that came out at least a decade ago. It's a mix of a film review and a comedy roast, where they discuss everything from the plot to the terrible acting, and even if the film has stood the test of time. Get ready to laugh and hear some hot takes on your favorite (and least favorite) classic films.

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Reel Talk & Banter

The Pinky Toe Shot Heard Round Harlem: Harlem Nights (1989)

May 16, 2026 • Omari Williams & Jay Richardson • Episode 22

0:00 | 1:06:36

Harlem Nights should be an automatic win: Eddie Murphy on the director’s chair, Richard Pryor as the veteran counterweight, and Red Fox walking in and stealing oxygen from every room he enters. Then we hit play and immediately split. One of us has a blast with the chaos and the cult classic energy, and the other can’t stop seeing the missed potential and the scenes that feel like they belong in a different movie.

We talk through the big reasons the film stays so divisive, including the huge gap between critic reviews and audience love. The opening sequence sets up a dark, clever crime comedy, but the tone keeps swerving into exaggerated slapstick, and we debate whether that unpredictability is the charm or the problem. We also dig into the period piece side of things: 1930s Harlem aesthetics, dialogue that sometimes feels more 1980s than vintage, and the behind the scenes context that changes how we read Richard Pryor’s performance.

Then we get into the moments everyone remembers: Vera versus Quick, the switchblade escalation, and the pinky toe shot that somehow becomes a punchline. We break down the endgame con with Bugsy Calhoun, the boxing bet, Sunshine’s role in the setup, and the switch and bait within the switch and bait. Finally, we score Harlem Nights across our five categories and explain why we land where we land.

Subscribe for more deep dives on movies at least a decade old, share this with a friend who still quotes Harlem Nights, and leave us a review with your score: classic, guilty pleasure, or hard pass?

Welcome And First Impressions

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Hello and welcome to the Real Talk Adventure Podcast, the movie podcast where we discuss and review films that are at least a decade old. I'm Omari Williams.

SPEAKER_05 0:40

And I'm Jay Richardson.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

And today we are discussing Harlem Knights, a 1989 Eddie Murphy movie.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Oh, okay. Okay. I didn't know what you were discussing. I don't know. I was just introducing the movie, telling people what we're what we watched.

SPEAKER_05 0:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

And we did watch it. What'd you think?

SPEAKER_05 0:59

I thought it was great.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Great for real, or would you be sarcastic?

SPEAKER_05 1:03

Sarcastic as hell.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Oh, you hated it?

SPEAKER_05 1:05

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Okay. It was interesting.

SPEAKER_05 1:07

It was yeah. It was mid.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Mid. It was interesting. I don't know. Did you not have fun watching it?

SPEAKER_05 1:11

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

I had fun as hell watching it.

SPEAKER_05 1:13

Yeah, it was fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

I never heard of that movie though.

SPEAKER_05 1:16

Hollow Nights? Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

I know. I was like. Like just an obvious blind spot for me here because I I didn't know what I was getting into. I didn't know who was in the movie. I mean, when I when I when I, you know, of course I saw Eddie Murphy on the cover when I went to go play, hit play, but no idea. So I was pleasantly surprised. Went in no expectations and had a fun time.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

Yeah, it wasn't too bad. Um Yeah, so on paper, this should be a no-debate classic. I mean, you have Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, and Red Fox, like three of the comedic giants of the 80s and 90s. So um, yeah, it should be a no debate classic. I I don't know if I necessarily agree with that now that I've watched it. I've never watched it before. This is my first time. I knew about it at least, though. Um, but I never actually watched it. So um let's get into it. So this is kind of like the Avengers of comedy. You see several people in here. Um, I could go over the set list a little bit. We already talked about Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Red Fox. You have Michael Lerner, Dela Reese in there, Stan Shaw, Jasmine Guy was in there for some reason. Um the reason. Uh yes, that was definitely her only reason. Arsenio Hall was in there, uh Charlie Murphy, Miguel Inunez Jr. was in there.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

An underutilized Charlie Murphy, by the way.

SPEAKER_05 2:56

Yeah, he had like one-liners throughout the thing, but I mean, you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Um, and Mary had other um, don't forget, Leela Rochon Fouqua.

SPEAKER_05 3:08

Mmm, sunshine. Oh my god. Sunshine pussy.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Sunshine indeed. Yes. She was gorgeous.

SPEAKER_05 3:14

She was.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

And then I realized I was Antoine Foucault's wife. What the hell?

SPEAKER_05 3:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

No idea. Damn. I didn't even know who she was, to be honest.

SPEAKER_05 3:22

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

So I was like, whoa. Better find some more movies with her in it.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

Ah, yes. Um that's a highlight. Um, so yeah, we're we're in this. We're we're there. Um, this is set in 1930s, Harlem. Um, we got mob ties, we have nightclubs, and there's hustling, there's money, everything is there. But again, I feel like it should have been a lot better than it was. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Like I so I'm getting that you're down on this movie.

SPEAKER_05 3:57

I'm not down on it. I'm not down on it.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

I actually I really like this movie.

SPEAKER_05 4:00

I'm giving it what it deserves. So I guess we this is gonna be a argument.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

I can already feel that we're on opposite ends of the spectrum.

SPEAKER_05 4:08

Alright, that's cool. That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

I was really high on this movie.

SPEAKER_05 4:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

I stopped myself from scoring it though, because I could feel that I was too high.

SPEAKER_05 4:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

So I'm probably gonna score and reel. There's I have a couple scores in right now where I knew for sure what I wanted, but um, I'll be scoring while we do this. But yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:26

Yeah. I'm not sh okay, listen. I'm not gonna shit on the movie. Okay, it's entertaining. We we gotta talk about it. Um, so it's the directorial debut, one and only, of Eddie Murphy. Um, Eddie Murphy wanted to do this movie uh because of two things. He wanted to do a time period piece and he wanted to work with Richard Pryor, um, who he credits as his biggest influence. Um but outside of that, that's all he's done.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah, no. I mean, I I figure so after watching the movie, I did do some research, try to look it up, and the critics hated this movie. Yeah. And um it was it was I mean, they made it known to to Eddie Murphy. So because I even see his reviews on it, it's like, yeah, no, that was back in the day, it didn't go the way I wanted, and such and such. Like the reason I believe that was his first and last movie directed was because the feedback was terrible. Oh I don't know, but then did you look at the Rotten

Rotten Tomatoes Scores

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Tomato scores?

SPEAKER_05 5:31

Wasn't it like 26% or something?

SPEAKER_01 5:33

So it's 27% from the critics, but the fan score, do you know what the fan score is?

SPEAKER_05 5:37

Like 90 something, it's 80%.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, such a wide chasm, and I get it though. Like I'm I'm in that fan category. I really like this movie.

SPEAKER_05 5:46

Oh, okay. Yeah, all right. So we're gonna go into the opening scene, uh, kind of sets expectations. Um if you're not a fan of Red Fox and Richard Pryor, or have you not you've never heard of them, like these guys are again the titans of com black comedy, especially. Um they were out there, they were obscene, they were just like motherfucker this, motherfucker that, and I mean Oh my gosh, shooting from the hip. Shooting from the hip. And I liked it. I like the I like the beginning. I like the the first scene where uh we get introduced to Quick, yeah, who decides to Okay, so let's get into it. Uh they're running some kind of uh backroom gambling type of thing, you know. It's again, it's n you know, 1930s, 1920s, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

So it's 1918 at this point. Right, right.

SPEAKER_05 6:43

Right. Yeah, exactly thank you. So yeah, 1910s, and then 20 years later, 1930s. So yeah, so 1910s, so they're running, you know, backdoor gambling or whatever. Uh man's uh is in there on some kind of shriek, I guess, until a young child walks in.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

An orphan boy.

SPEAKER_05 7:01

An orphan boy does walk in. Um now um uh Sugar Ray, which is Richard Pryor, does say, oh, you know, he does those little things for me, whatever, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 7:12

Little errand boy.

SPEAKER_05 7:12

Yeah, a little errand boy, whatever, you know, gets me cigarettes, blah blah blah. Uh but the guy who's shooting crafts at the time won't have it. According to him, kids are his bad luck. Not only that, but he absolutely hates kids, and he will stab this kid if he doesn't leave immediately.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

This fucking guy, right? Like, I heard him. We all heard of the first, the second, even the third time. He did. But I after a while, it was like, even because even like Sugar Ray was like, What's your problem, dog?

SPEAKER_05 7:43

Like he didn't just a kid, yeah. He was really upset. He's kids bring him bad luck.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

I'm pretty sure a kid like like murdered his family and burnt his house down for that. So it makes sense, it makes sense. The disdain he had for this kid in particular, and I guess for all children of freaking earth, yep, it was way too much. Like at first, it was like a little funny, like, oh yeah, yeah, fuck these kids, you know, get these kids out of here. Yeah, but then you saw and heard the hate, you saw the disdain behind his eyes, and it was like, Yeah, whoa dude, I get it. Fuck these kids. However, it's way too much. It was way too much.

SPEAKER_05 8:20

At first I thought he was gonna say, hey, like, this is no place for a kid, because it's not, you know. Correct. Yeah. I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, yeah. Get him out of here. I understand. But no, it was just pure hatred for children. Um, definitely. Uh he proceeds to pull a knife or a little switchblade on Richard Pryor, aka Sugar Ray, and um, but you know, they're they're they're criminals. Sugar Ray has his his weapon there. Get in, and then searching for it for a million years. I I don't know. I'd be like, hey, what you looking for? Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Like, yeah, you uh searching for it for a million years.

SPEAKER_05 8:59

He finally gets his hand where it should be, and the weapon is missing because the young kid that he hated pulls the gun. Oh my gosh, shoots him in the head.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

We we we get several other other demonstrations of quicks um uh uh acumen with a firearm. And I'm like, is this uh bullseye or a deadshot origin story or something?

SPEAKER_05 9:28

Because that would have made sense.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

This boy shot this man square in the head. Um it was very shocking and stunning to say the least. Um I I will say that opening scene is very indicative of like the kind of movie we're about to have.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

You're constantly on a roller coaster ride.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

And even when you think you're going one way jerks you to another w direction with varying levels of success, you know?

SPEAKER_06 9:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Um there's one large, long ass set piece uh scene that I I do not like in the in the movie. Like we'll get to it. But for the most part, it's just it it was like unpredictable. It was unpredictable in like a fun way as well, because a movie's gonna be very pred predictable to a sort of four million I'll follow. But then sometimes the unpredictability was so jarring, it was like, what what is happening? Like, why did that just happen? You know? So when that opening scene, and then and then they hit us with a 20-year-later time skip. So I was like, all right, I was like, okay, whatever. I guess we'll see what happens here. Yeah, but that was crazy.

SPEAKER_05 10:36

Yeah. Uh like I said, uh there's just a ton of dark humor in it. It's clever, it's done right. Like the opening

The Opening Scene Sets The Tone Then Says Nahhhhhhhhhh

SPEAKER_05 10:45

scene is done the way I think the entire movie should have been done, but it like it gets muted somehow. I I don't know why. I didn't do a I didn't get a chance to do a deep dive into it, but and even if I I did a little bit of research and um Eddie Murphy himself said that a lot of the jokes that they were saying backstage was funnier was funnier than what got on the script, which is just kind of weird. Like, why? Why didn't they? This is Red Fox, Richard Pryor, and Eddie Murphy. We should have been rolling from like head to toe.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

But so did you not find the movie funny? No, I found it funny.

SPEAKER_05 11:20

Okay, I found it funny, so it's just like I was expecting way more.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

I didn't think it was I read the same thing you read after I watched the movie, which was puzzling to me because and I guess this is why the movie's not rated well, because I guess he was intending for it to be uh a laugh fest the whole time. Watching the movie in real time, I just figured he didn't intend for it to be that funny.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Because Richard Pryor's character and stuff was pretty much a straight man. He was like, see, he had his little one-liners and stuff. Like, so for example, in this same scene, he asked the kid, like, where's your mom at? Oh, she dead, where's your dad at? Oh, he's dead. Did you kill him? Did he kill him? Like, that shit was so funny. But like, so I laughed. Those are the level of jokes though, where it's like Richard Pryor wasn't just standing up, just like in a killing feel of just firing jokes, uh, you know, a joke per minute or whatever. But I thought that was intentional. So now realizing it wasn't intentional, I guess they were expecting us to be rolling all the time. Yeah, so with that perspective, I understand why the movie, I guess, is a bit of a failure. Um so yeah, I don't know. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_05 12:24

So um let's talk about Benny Wilson.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 12:29

Which is Red Fox's character. Um we open up in 20 years later, um, where they have a much bigger, uh, I don't want to call it speakeasy, but I guess that's what essentially it is. No, speakeasy is like a club. Like, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 12:44

That was a club they had, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:45

So they had gambling and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

And a brothel in the back or whatever. So it's a nightclub, I guess. I think it started as a speakeasy and then became a full-blown nightclub, you know. Okay. But because a speakeasy would be more discreet.

SPEAKER_05 12:56

Yeah. Like, I mean, it was. You saw at first I didn't know when he said he was a candy store man or manager or owner. Yeah, I didn't know they literally meant that. Like, have you did you see the front? It literally looked like a candy store.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

So, okay. You can't just Did you see how big inside that was? Wait, where was it? Where was the rest of that at? In a basement. You mean zoned in and stuff like that? I just accept it as a speakeasy nightclub spin.

SPEAKER_05 13:27

Speaky nightclub that's like quite large. I don't know where it's fit.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Like where it's we never even saw the brothel.

SPEAKER_05 13:34

We didn't, but there is one.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

You know, there's at least some rooms back there where you know people are having sex and stuff. And then there's offices and everything. Yeah, fuck. I don't know. Whatever.

SPEAKER_05 13:44

Um but they're in this room or this large casino-esque type area, um, where they have full-fledged um uh uh um roulettes and craps, and you know, they're playing cards and blah blah blah. So all this is happening. Um we have Brett Fox who's there. Um he's one of the dealers, or not dealers, he's uh I don't know what he call them exactly, but the the guy who's managing the the craps table and they're shooting craps and manages just calling whatever the hell he feels. He sees like a seven, he's like, Oh, it was a five. They're like, What? Nah, it's a seven. I'm like, oh they throw a nine, you know, it was a four. You're like, what? No. They're like, yeah. So we find out apparently he needs glasses, and they throw this magnifying-esque damn glasses on this man.

SPEAKER_06 14:36

Glasses, like the phrase. That is it. Oh my god. That is it.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Like, I literally wrote him, I was like, no, I see why he doesn't wear them. Like, I wouldn't wear them either. You couldn't find better glasses for this guy that those were like quadruple focals.

SPEAKER_05 14:48

Like, I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

I guess people can't see me.

SPEAKER_05 14:52

Yeah, they cannot. Yeah, I I wouldn't wear them either. I don't care what anybody says. That man has a headache every time he put those on. There's no way. Um, but every time he's on screen, I love Red Fox. I loved Red Fox. He was great. I loved him on there. He killed it for me. Yeah, so I'm just gonna go over the characters and then get back into the clock, uh, the plot. So the main characters are we have Benny Wilson, which is Red Fox, absolutely steals it. I love him in this. Uh, you know, he's a little bit older at this point, but he absolutely holds his own.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

A lot bit older.

SPEAKER_05 15:27

He passes away. But uh he holds his own. I love him absolutely. We have Vera, uh, who's Delareese. Also, Vera, also, I think when we have to when we talk about who's MVP, also she's kind of leading for me there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She gets into a fight scene with Quick. Um, she beats the shit out of him, like completely.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Um that was a bad shit scene. I know we're gonna discuss it, but that was a bad shit scene.

SPEAKER_05 15:56

Okay, we'll get more into it when we get to the actual scene. Um, she came in swinging in like more ways than one. I I absolutely love her character as well. Um, she was the the madam for the whore house. She was uh she was an honest whore. Uh, we got Tommy, whose name is Tommy. This man's name is always Tommy.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Risa was couple with it, but it's like he's Tommy and Martin. I was like, I don't know, I don't know. His name is Thomas.

SPEAKER_05 16:23

This man's fucking name is Thomas, but always Tommy. Like, it's just hilarious. Um, he has his own little part in there, which is just pretty much cackling half the time.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

I mean, yo, I his introduction was the most baffling experience I've ever seen in a movie show in my life. He walks in there and he's like, Oh, hello, Mr. Quick.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

So it's like dying with a laughter.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

I'm like, weird.

SPEAKER_05 16:49

He said he said half the joke in his head and cackled.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Oh my gosh. This man's It was funny when um Richard Park came and was like, hey man, how's the laugh? Did you jokes are way more surgical than you would expect, but they were surgical in like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:05

That shit laugh, they made me laugh so bad. But yeah, his half his lines were just him cackling. I don't know what, like mouth open cackling, but I was like, alright, whatever. Um it made me feel like it wasn't supposed to be like realistic and real. Because it's like, who's really gonna be that person? Especially it's not like he was some kind of low-level person. He was actually kind of big in whatever organizational structure there is. So I'm like, okay, there's no way Calhoun would trust this kind of guy with his money and whatever else.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

He did apparently.

SPEAKER_05 17:38

Um, fine. We got Arsenio Hall. Um what?

SPEAKER_01 17:45

He gets an uh Oh he gets an F in my Arsenio Hall. He's yeah, the worst character in the fucking movie. That's that's Tommy's brother, right?

SPEAKER_05 17:54

Yeah, Tommy's brother, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

No, he gets an F, man. I I didn't care for any of that.

SPEAKER_05 18:01

That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

It was unserious, is like the thing to say. It was like a fucking cartoon or something. Yeah, yeah. And it was so tonally jarring for the from the rest of the movie. Right. Like and I understand. So the unevenness in the movie is like there's a times where like the movie's

Character Highlights And Slapstick Whiplash

SPEAKER_01 18:20

like taking itself very seriously, you know, and it's like, oh, this is a crime drama. It feels like they're trying to do that. And then it's like, no, no, no, this is a slapstick comedy. And it's like you can't do both of them. You have to pick a lane, exactly. Very different.

SPEAKER_05 18:34

He had to pick a lane, and he didn't. It's like it's like he got to know the end and he was like, Oh, we're not funny enough. Let's throw some shit in here. And like, oh, okay, and now we have this shit.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

And to me, it was ruining the movie. Like, honestly, the the crime drama, like black comedy, where it's like dark comedy, the subtle comedy, the quick like stuff. I was fine with that version of the movie. When they put any slapsticky stuff and it's like over the top, like so. When I asked you about, like, oh, when did you think they're trying to make us laugh? I think that they thought we would be cackling the entire time with that whole car chase card scene. Yeah, I was not. I was so off put. I was so disgusted at that scene. You know what I did laugh during the scene. Did you laugh at all during the scene?

SPEAKER_05 19:18

No, I did laugh.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Do you know when? Remember when you laughed, or did it stand out to you?

SPEAKER_05 19:23

I laughed. I laughed when they were they were shooting the Tommy guns, and then the one dude with the single gun fire. I was totally I laughed that part because they were empty and colored. That was the funniest part of the thing. Knocking shit. And man just banged with his one uh revolver.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

So I I literally have uh I said laughing myself the drivers trying to conserve bullets. It's hilarious for some reason. That man fired seven shots. I counted all his shots because there wasn't that. He's fired seven shots total. Yeah. I was dying. I don't know what, but everything else around it was so absurd. I was I was put off. And then we went home, Mike came in and like bang.

SPEAKER_04 20:04

He only got six shots. He can't be firing.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

One in the chamber, apparently. Well, no, was it a revolver?

SPEAKER_05 20:10

I thought it was a six-shooter, so I don't know how you got seven.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Well, he fired seven. I counted. I counted. Ah, okay. Well, I mean movie crap, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um yeah, man. So that and then even like when I didn't know how to read the movie. Like this scene, if you take this whole scene out, like I feel like it would play better. But um, when he's being chased, and then he like rams them with his car and he jumps out. I was like, why? Why did he do that? I don't know. That didn't even make them crash or anything.

SPEAKER_05 20:36

That's what I thought I thought. I thought they were gonna cut back and they're gonna be like crash into like a telephone pole or something, and like, okay, cool. But nope, they just stopped the car and then they got out.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

A couple times where it's like the scene should have already ended.

SPEAKER_05 20:49

Alright, so we kind of already broke down the characters and what's happening. It some things fall flat, um, some things, some specific people are just killing it, and the movie's just going. So the entire plot really comes down to um they're doing this kind of speakeasy underground casino thing. They're pulling in 10 to 15,000 a week, which must be crazy money in the 30s.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Or is it 15 to 20?

SPEAKER_05 21:13

Listen, every time they said it, they had a new number.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Have you guys actually seen the books? Or are you just like look at eyeballing people and they just eyeballing it?

SPEAKER_05 21:22

Yeah, I don't know. They every time they guess, they come up with another number 10 to 15, 15 to 20, whatever it is. They're ten ten thousand by itself a week is crazy money. So they're they they're liking it. So there's this um gangster um named Bugsy, uh, who decides uh he owns all the other underground nightclubs or whatever. Um, so generally they kind of leave the other ones alone, the smaller ones, but they they decide that um Sugar Ray is making too much money too much, way too much money, and uh he wants a piece of that.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

So he sends uh his oh you think it's shocking that he's not making money at the pity.

SPEAKER_05 22:00

I was like, what the fuck is that? Bro. And then when they showed it and the mus Oh my God. I was like, who the fuck is going there? I was so No wonder they're not making any fucking money. That's embarrassing. Like Jesus. I guess he's I guess they're focused on quantity and that quality. They just have a bunch of them, so they make the money they need.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Sure, yeah. Yeah, gotta be.

SPEAKER_05 22:23

Versus uh Sugar Ray and Quake. They have one club, so they're pouring all their stuff into that, and they have quality people showing up.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

That club was lit.

SPEAKER_05 22:31

It was lit. And people are just spending money. They're like, oh, you know, it's crazy. Um so back to the plot. So Bugsy, who's the gangster, decides that he wants some, he's part of the mafia, so you know, you know, it's it's a little scary, quote unquote. Like, well, we don't want to even mess with him and whatever, whatever. Which I found that kind of weird. Like, obviously, uh Sugar Ray's character was more of the he just you know, he just didn't I I wanna say he don't he didn't have that dog in him, but he kind of didn't. Like he just immediately was ready to talk tail. And I was just like I don't know, like that felt he wasn't willing to fight for it at all. Like he was immediately like, we gotta leave.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Because it didn't make sense. I mean he didn't have the manpower, he didn't have the resources.

SPEAKER_05 23:24

Fine.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Okay, so because we ha we actually have not spoken about Richard Pryor really at all.

SPEAKER_05 23:30

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

So, like, how would you feel about his character, his portrayal, and everything? Steamaker not sold on it? Is that correct?

SPEAKER_05 23:37

No, no, I like Richard Pryor. I like Richard Pryor's um character. Okay. Not that I'm not sold on it, I just thought, and they they did come up with a you know a scheme at the end to get it back. So I guess he's just not like that punch in your face, which is what Quick was supposed to do.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

And I think that's what they were trying to show us the juxtaposition between the two men. Um all right, yeah, so Richard Pryor, I really like the way he handled the sugar sugar ray character, right? And I know we talked about the movie not being just completely hilarious the whole time. But I think that caught me off guard because I don't think I've seen any or many Richard Pryor movies. I've seen Zero. Yeah, I do I don't know if I've seen Superman, is he in three or four? Three. So that might have been the one maybe I've seen parts of or just clips of. But I haven't haven't watched Richard. Richard Pryder is so before our time. You know, yeah, he's he's he's an old guy, he's an old comic, but we know of him.

SPEAKER_05 24:35

Yeah, I know he's a comedic giant, but I can't like tell a Richard Pryder joke right now.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

I'd be like, I've heard clips, but yeah, I'll go ahead and tell one. Nothing is committed to memory. Actually, you just cut me off the seriousness, I guess I saw within the role. Um, because the I like the dramatic foil of Quick and Sugar Ray. Although we did hint at a mention that Quick didn't have his arc didn't go where I expected it to go or wanted it to go. Um but I did appreciate how they were playing off of each other and just how Richard Pryor was just operating as this mature person who's been in the life. He said to him, he's like, dude, like you're he said he said you're a big fish in a small pond. Like there's a whole world out there that you don't know. Like those moments, I thought every serious moment he had with Quick was very poignant and like it resonated with me. And I just I didn't know Richard Pryor had chops chops like that, like acting chops like that. And um I just thought he'd just be a silly dude, you know, he's a comedian, one of the f like you said, one of the the giants out there. But um I I just I like I liked how he handled approach to the sugar ray character. There was something oh sorry, I'll let you respond to that first. I agree. Okay, well, hair to hair first, folks. So I did see that because you mentioned how Eddie Murphy talked about um his goals when this movie was one, I wanted to be a director, um, two, I wanted to do a period piece, and three, I wanted to work with Richard Pryor. Yes. But he did talk about how it wasn't what he thought it would be. Did you see that?

SPEAKER_05 26:27

No.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Yeah, so so apparently Richard Pryor had MS.

Richard Pryor has MS

SPEAKER_01 26:30

I didn't know that. Did you know that?

SPEAKER_05 26:31

I had no idea. I had no idea. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Yeah. So apparently during this time, he had already was dealing with it. Oh. Eddie said he didn't know. I don't know if it was public or not, but I guess it wasn't public if Eddie Eddie didn't know. Eddie Burffy did not know he had MS. He didn't know. Because I saw in it, uh like I read a transcript of an interview. He said, looking back at it, uh initially he said that it wasn't what he expected to experience. Like he expected it to be more of like a partnership, like he's working with this idol, and he thought that like Richard Pryor would come in and you know, help punch up the jokes or give him these tips and stuff. And instead he said Richard would just come in, read his lines and shit, and then go home.

SPEAKER_05 27:12

One of the one of the um things that the critics were saying with this audio or um with the script was a lot of the dialogue was not authentic to like the 1930s. It was like the 1980s in 1930s. So a lot of it was feeling like that's not how people in the 1930s talk. Like that's the 1980s, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

That makes sense. I did, which that's a big demerit. You wanted to do a period piece, then you have to be about it. Right.

SPEAKER_05 27:42

You know, so I read that that it felt it was just people dressed up in costume, kind of just like it was a play or something. Yeah, like a play, but you know, you and I go to a Halloween costume and we're dressed as 1930s gangsters. Yeah, yeah. Obviously, I don't know how to speak like a 1930s gangster, so I would just talk like me.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Oof. That recontextualizes things for me a lot. There you go. It does. I didn't I ignored the era, just like Eddie Murphy did.

SPEAKER_05 28:09

Well, you didn't write and direct it.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

So I'm like, oh, that dialogue is realistic, but as you said, for someone in the 80s for black people, a black family in the 80s.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Oh yeah, that's huge. That's yeah, you can't ignore that, especially when you made a point to say you're making a period film. Exactly. When out of your way to set it in the 1930s. Yeah. I think I saw something too about like the set pieces and stuff. I thought it looked great, but I also don't know what New York looked like in 1930. You know, it was convincing to me. I like all the old timing cars and stuff. I thought that shit was cool, but I did see someone complaining about that. Yeah. Um, what'd you feel about them saying it was sexist? The movie was sexist.

SPEAKER_05 28:48

I didn't read that, but I mean, I mean, it's a brothel. I expect a union for whores. This is 1930.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

I thought it was weird. So we kind of talked around the Vera quick fight. We didn't really get into it.

SPEAKER_05 29:03

Yeah, we I know, I know, I know, I know. We've we've been bouncing around between the plot and the things that are wrong or right and stuff like that, but all right, we can go back to Vera and quick. So let's set the scene. Um they're counting the money at the end of the night, right? And each the different group, the bar, the the door, the uh crap stable, whatever, they're telling their how much they've made for the night. So Vera comes in with everybody else. I guess everybody's kind of like their boss of their area, whatever. Vera's the madam. She comes in and says that uh her girls made $200. Eddie Murphy immediately, or I'm sorry, quick immediately says, $200? They've been back there all night. I made $200. Vera's like, you calling me a thief? You calling me a liar? He's like, Well, I mean, you know, I ain't nothing else.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

It's like arithmetic don't add up.

SPEAKER_05 29:52

She's like, all right, we gotta fight this up because you disrespect me. Yeah. Everybody immediately like, oops, okay. All right, we're gonna go outside. So they go outside. This is Vera. She's gotta be like 280, 300.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:11

She's a big lady. She's big. She's tall. She's tall. So it doesn't look like, you know, she doesn't look like rotun rotun or anything, but she's a big lady. She gotta be 280, 300.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Probably 240 or something.

SPEAKER_05 30:20

240?

SPEAKER_01 30:21

No.

SPEAKER_05 30:22

Okay. She between 240 has to be. I'm really not either. I'd be like, oh, you 10 pounds. I'd be egregious with it. I'm like, oh, 10 pounds. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not good with weight guessing either. Oh my gosh. All right. Anyway, Eddie Murphy's like 120 something wet. Like, he's small. Whatever.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:46

Um, so they go out back and start fighting. Um, Bear is ready. She is ready. She's playing 100%. She immediately throws two quick jazz, punch, punch.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_05 30:57

Eddie eats him. Yeah. Oh. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Eddie decides that he's uh he's getting serious too. Yep. Right? And starts swinging back.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Punch her in the face. First in the gut, then in the face.

SPEAKER_05 31:09

I think I think first in the face, and then he hit her real hard in the gut. And then that's when she was like, Oh, you ready for real?

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:16

And all that was a power-up. I don't know what that was.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

It was terrifying.

SPEAKER_05 31:21

She was terrifying. I would have backed away.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Listen, I'm glad she was though, because when she said, Come on, whoop your ass, this girl in the back. And he when that's when he did his like, like Eddie Murphy laughing or whatever. I was like, are we really about to watch this man fight this woman for real? Like, so I was like anticipating the level of cringe just to be way too much because I'm like, I don't know if I can handle it seeing him just punching this fucking like beating this woman, you know, fight this woman. And um, I think they played it really well, where all notions of that are the whole sexism thing, or oh, you can't fight this woman. Like, I think it was written well enough and acted well enough where it's like this ain't a man and a woman thing, these two human beings about to fucking settle a disagreement, you know. And Vera was so scary, and she took that one punch and she looked up and she's like, Okay, yeah, now you you hear the play now, you know? Yeah, I'm ready. And uh, that was crazy. So I think, but to me though, it should have ended after she was on top of him, like punching him when he was underground.

SPEAKER_05 32:33

No, from the time she she hit him in the stomach and he doubled over, so she did an uppercut. I was like, that's lights out, yeah. That is lights out, like stop. There's no way he's on the floor, like, oh like no way.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

So they extend the scene because then he hits her with a trash can cover and throws a trash can at her, you know. So now I'm like, now we're approaching

Vera, her switch blade, and officially too much

SPEAKER_01 32:50

back into cringe territory for me. Because I'm like, uh-oh. And um, but Vera gets up, he starts to walk off, and Vera gets up and has this menacing look in her face. She whips out a switch blade or the razor, and I'm like, now I'm just like, why is it so fucking unhinged? Like, what is going on? Like, what is supposed to be that is are they supposed to kill each other? Or like, what is it? Like, what is the end? So he pulls out a gun, and now I'm like, oh my fucking this is too much now. Now it's officially too much. Yeah. And when he's like threatens to shoot off her pinky toe or whatever, I was like, he's not gonna shoot her. And he does.

SPEAKER_05 33:23

And that's what also to be fair, she shoved her foot out. I was like, Yeah, go ahead, do it.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

No, 100%. She did egg them off. She egged him out. She did, let's go or whatever, right? And and then they kind of just like ignored it going forward, right? I just I feel like the only reason to extend the scene so long where he draws his gun or whatever is just one, I thought we were I thought we were making commentary on his his trauma from when homeboy pulled the knife on them 20 years ago, and then showing him like running to the gun, the pistol to like solve his problems or whatever. That's why I thought the movie He gave me way too much credit. Way too deep. That's a deep cut. I wasted too much brain cells trying to analyze this thing because I think this has to be meaningful right now. And it wasn't. It was just I think I thought it was just a funny cool scene where Eddie Murphy gets his ass whooped by this woman and then he shoots a pinky toe off. Yeah. And it's funny.

SPEAKER_05 34:16

You shot my pinky toe. I just think I think it's surface level.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

It is. I had I 100% agree. And it I think the scene would have seen suffer a little bit too is and I was this is what confused me in the movie is the reluctance to show blood. Yeah, they didn't show the when he got shot in the head, no blood.

SPEAKER_05 34:35

I was like, what the f bro, bro, bro, bro. That shit took me out for a second. I had to pause. I had to pause and collect myself.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

I did too.

SPEAKER_05 34:42

I was like, so no blood at all. It's too early for that.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Like even and okay, fine. They didn't want to shoot because there are rules for that when you talk about the ratings and stuff. And I was like, it's the 80s.

SPEAKER_05 34:51

That's gotta be a rated R movie. It's got there's way too many buckers in there.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

It has to be, it has to be. So, yes, correct. But I don't know what the um I don't want to call the wrong organization. Is this the FCC? Or FCC's um who does the ratings? I'm blanking on them right now. But I don't know what the because their rules have changed a lot over the past like 30, 40 years.

SPEAKER_06 35:16

That's fair.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

That's fair. And there were rules about how you do blood and all this shit or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

That's fair.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

It shouldn't matter if you say because this has to be a rated art movie, I'm sure it is. But they didn't show the blood. But then not only did they show the blood, which there are different rules when you show blood coming from a wound, versus like let's say when they picked him off the table, there was it was in a pool of blood all of a sudden. They didn't even give us that. No, they didn't. So with the fight to she's laying into him, he didn't get bloodied at all. So I decided, okay, this movie just not gonna give us any blood.

SPEAKER_05 35:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

But then when they went to kill Tommy later, he got punched in the face one time. His lip was all bloody.

SPEAKER_05 35:51

Yeah, his uh I think he had to knock out his tooth or something.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

Yeah, and then later on when Quick found the body, we saw the blood from the neck. So I'm like, oh my god, did you save all the blood for this scene?

SPEAKER_05 36:04

Maybe we only had one quarter blood. They're like, shit.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Oh my god. And then and then in the fight, we saw the one boxer, he was bloodied up too.

SPEAKER_05 36:11

Oh, he got his ass kicked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

So, and that's just practical makeup. So maybe you just didn't want to put makeup on Eddie Murphy or something, but it's like, how are you gonna have these people out here fighting in the streets, you know, throwing trash cans at each other and stuff, punching each other in the face, and no bruising?

SPEAKER_05 36:26

And I had no zero bruise. So I was ha I was half expecting her to not have a limp or anything and just be walking around completely fine. Same. Because same the way Eddie, especially from the Eddie Murphy fight, like he was getting ass kicked, punched directly in the face, and he was just like, oh, oh, narry a scratch. Yep, okay. So I'm like, oh, okay. I guess we don't bruise. I don't care, you know, if it's a woman hitting you or not, like you're still gonna get some bruises.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

So hard. And then you're pinned down and just punching in your face. Yeah, you're fucked. 100%. She he should have looked like that boxer looked.

SPEAKER_05 37:00

He should have. You know, I was like his eyes to be swollen shut. He just got back up. I was like, oh.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

I don't know. Maybe the makeup budget was real low or something. Sure. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 37:08

It's called they didn't have one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

But yeah, so I don't know. That scene was kind of crazy. And that scene happened like 25 minutes into the movie, too. It was like so early to give us something that cringe and like, well, risky, I mean, and we're like, what's gonna happen here? So yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 37:26

I like the scene. It went too long. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. Um, it would have been it'd have been much better to say, okay, we're gonna settle this fight, we're gonna settle this disagreement with a fight. He got his ass kicked, which everybody knew he was going to. Nobody was like surprised about it. And then move on. And then we just you know, some they help him up, and then you go inside, and okay. We're settled.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

That's how I expected it to end.

SPEAKER_05 37:45

That's what should have happened, but it didn't happen. All right. Um so we have quick quick is on uh so we're back to the plot. Quick uh kills Jasmine guy, which is Dominique LaRue, Lecute.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Did you get the did you did you peep the uh New Jack City reference?

SPEAKER_05 38:04

With huh?

SPEAKER_01 38:05

They say business bitch. This is personal.

SPEAKER_05 38:08

Oh, I missed it. Ooh, I wrote that down. I mean, I do remember it as you say it, but yeah, there was this big comment about uh, you know, business and personal, it's both. Yeah. Okay, look at you.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Yeah, come on now.

SPEAKER_05 38:21

Callback.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Callback? That's what you call it. Callback. Oops, well, hold on. I embarrassed myself. Oh New York City came out two years later. Oops.

SPEAKER_05 38:28

Jesus

Omari Does No Research

SPEAKER_05 38:30

Christ. I'm leaving that in because it shows that you're not ready. That's fine. You're not prepared.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

I wrote it down, I didn't do the research back in a. I fucked it up. God damn.

SPEAKER_04 38:42

I was thinking of Tina. I was like, I'm pretty sure I'm next to first, but I was like, right, maybe. I thought it came out the same year. I thought it came out the same year. I was like, all right, he's gotta do the research.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

I thought it was off by months. I thought it came out the same year. And I was like, no, it wasn't 89, it was 91 when Jack City came out. Oops.

SPEAKER_05 38:56

Oops. Like some bikes there. Anyway, so uh shit up before I send you the audio.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

It's on my computer. That's smart.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

Like, what the fuck? Where's that line at?

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Oh, man.

SPEAKER_05 39:14

Um, yeah, so uh so she gets killed. Um, and then that they come up with this big ruse, which is to steal the money from the gangster Bugsy. Um, there's a big fight between, you know, I love the boxer. I would be very honest. Um Jenkins? It's Jenkins, right?

SPEAKER_01 39:32

Jack Jenkins, I think, is his name.

SPEAKER_05 39:33

Yeah, I love Jenkins. Jenkins will take two years to tell you hello. And I swear to God, I died every time he was on screen.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

I also like the way Sugar Ray handled him too, because he never made fun of him. No, he didn't. He did make some jokes, but it was never like at his expense. You know, it was just like you know what I mean? And he's like, I do not know.

SPEAKER_05 39:55

Oh, yeah. I loved it. I love that interaction. It made I love that interaction. I love uh the the boxer, they call him the champ a lot, but you know, um, I thought they they handled that very well. I don't know where that came from. I don't know if you're gonna give him a stutter.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

Well, I don't know. My backstory, I guess I was putting it in a backstory for everyone. My backstory is just like going through the boxing and stuff, he just got fucked up so many guys like a little brain.

SPEAKER_05 40:19

Definitely TBI, yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely fucked up. All those old school boxers fucked up.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

All of them. You know what I was thinking? I couldn't help but think. I didn't do any research on this, but I'm like, I just can't believe that they let black people fight white people back then, like boxing. You know what I'm saying? Like, I know it happened, but I'm just saying, like, that's so crazy to me that they would allow that. Given like the racism, segregation, all that stuff, whatever. I'm just like, wow, that actually fucking happened.

SPEAKER_05 40:44

Um, so the big the big uh plot is to, or the big end of the plot, or the big end of the movie is they're gonna rob Bugsy um by betting on uh the white guy. I don't think they said it. They probably said his name, but I don't remember what his name was.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

Doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_05 40:59

Okay, they're gonna bet on all the all the black people are gonna get their money together and bet on the white guy because they feel like that's gonna make Bugsy think that, oh, they convinced um Jenkins to throw the match because the odds were three to one. So that means if you bet um 200,000 Kirk Patrick Kirkpatrick is Kirkpatrick. Oh, yeah, that's uh the um Kirkpatrick is um Irish, right?

SPEAKER_01 41:20

Yes, Michael Kirkpatrick.

SPEAKER_05 41:21

Yeah. So uh they had it in the mind, it's three to one odds, so if you bet 200,000, you make 600,000, which is a great deal, especially when they're trying to get out of town and they need some seed money to do that, right? So everybody bets on the white dude. Um, while they're doing that, they come up with this whole second half of the movie scheme of like it involves a prostitute named Sunshine, which is Omari's favorite character.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Oh my god, she's please tell us Omari. Yes, gosh, she's so gorgeous. Oh my god, listen, I saw um homeboy ready to risk it all.

SPEAKER_04 41:56

They Pull It Off

SPEAKER_05 48:53

and they do this last scene of showing New York with a skyline, which was a very nice shot, I thought.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:59

Um, you know, kind of where do we go next from here?

SPEAKER_01 49:02

And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Chicago, obviously.

SPEAKER_05 49:04

Yeah, I was thinking that. Okay, see it. I was saying either Chicago or Detroit.

SPEAKER_01 49:08

Ooh, okay, Detroit. I didn't think of Detroit. I was yeah, I was trying to think of a second location. I was like, Philadelphia was a guy, probably not. Nah. I was like easily Chicago, that's where they're going. I was in the Midwest for sure.

SPEAKER_05 49:17

Yeah. I was but I was settled on Detroit. Yeah. Either way, either one works perfectly for me.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

Yeah, but it was just like they kind of left it like, ooh, who knows where we're gonna end up? There's not many options, guys. Let's be honest. Detroit's a really good one. Detroit's a really good one. That's a really good one. Yeah. Um, so what did you think about the whole scheme, the whole plan?

SPEAKER_05 49:33

Um, I thought it was a good plan. Yeah, I thought that the switcheroo, the switch, the switch and bait in within the switch and bait was pretty good. I enjoyed the whole thing. But at first, I thought they got caught. I was like, oh, no.

SPEAKER_01 49:42

Same. I really did.

SPEAKER_05 49:44

I thought they were real white cops.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

I really did.

SPEAKER_05 49:46

Because it'd be just their luck that, you know, it happened with a cop fighting.

SPEAKER_00 49:52

I was like, are you idiots? This is a terrible plan. This is a terrible plan.

SPEAKER_01 49:57

Um but no, that was that was pretty good. Um, what did you think about Eddie Murphy telling Canton take uh short breaths?

SPEAKER_05 50:05

That was hilarious. That part was funny. That part made me laugh. And at first he was like, and he was like, I was like, this is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

Yeah, I was like, yeah, you're gonna get light at it, you're gonna be able to get it.

SPEAKER_05 50:20

Doing that shit. But I was just like, you probably got a couple hot days. Give or take away, give or take a couple hours. All right, Jimmy. Jimmy's like, yep, give or take.

SPEAKER_01 50:28

Oh, Charlie Murphy.

SPEAKER_05 50:29

Right.

SPEAKER_04 50:33

That was his old brother. He could have given a bigger role.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

I know. His older brother, too.

SPEAKER_04 50:39

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:40

No, I was I was cool. I liked I liked the plot. I did like the I did like it. I was fooled. I was like, oh, they got me.

SPEAKER_05 50:45

Yeah, it was nice. They did get me there. With all the other bullshit, I assumed they were gonna lose because it was just luck at that point.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

Yeah, yeah. I I even like uh, did you like how they because you did forget to mention how Vera lured Calhoun to Sugar Ray's house? Um and then essentially I guess it was they let the gas out in there or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 51:08

Yeah, but they set some kind of bomb or something.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

No, I you know, I I mean well, I don't know. So it was kind of weird for me, right?

SPEAKER_05 51:17

I th okay, so I'm I'm gonna go with you. I thought, because he was always smoking this fucking cigar, I thought once he lit the cigar it was gonna go off, but it didn't. It did not, it didn't go off until Homeboy opened the door to get back out.

SPEAKER_01 51:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 51:28

So I thought Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 51:30

Okay So I'm like, did Eddie Murphy study like the physics of fire? Because I know we see usually how when you light the thing, it just blows up besides TV and television. That's not exactly real, right? It depends on the level of oxygen in the room and how it changes. So him opening a door would have altered that and allowed for the the um flammable stuff in the air. Because if it's too saturated, like it's not gonna catch a spark, right? So when does the adjustment in that because of the ratio of the oxygen in the air changes, that will cause it to ignite.

SPEAKER_05 52:08

Yeah, but it was so saturated, as soon as they walked in, they would have felt that smelt it.

SPEAKER_01 52:12

Or smelled it, or yeah, or like past started to get dizzy and stuff, or felt it. So that's where it gets a little sketchy.

SPEAKER_05 52:17

So I'm like, But they were just fine in there, they were cooling, they walked in and started wobbling. I'm like, okay. They'd be like, what the fuck is going on here?

SPEAKER_01 52:23

Yeah. So that's where I was like, maybe he just like didn't do all the homework or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 52:30

He's like, you know what? Fuck it.

SPEAKER_01 52:31

Again, like I'm like putting way too much, giving him way too much credit for stuff. Because the only reason I could think of, why would he think that opening the door would cause it to explode? Why would Eddie Murphy think that, oh, that would make it ignite? Yeah. Unless he did that research. But like you said, if there was that much fucking gasoline or gas in the air overpowering the oxygen that it couldn't ignite, you wouldn't identify that. Like you're physically, you would be like, oh, I'm sick. This is something I can't breathe.

SPEAKER_05 52:59

You try to take a breath in and you won't breathe anything because there's not enough oxygen.

SPEAKER_01 53:03

So it's just like so it doesn't quite work, I guess. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 53:06

It's alright. Either way, they all die in a fiery. Oh, we barely talked about it. So I thought that we're going real long on this, but um what are we at? It's at an hour 20 now. Oh, that's not bad. Yeah. I thought we were talking, oh no. We would spend so much time trying to figure out how the fuck to do this. It's been like four hours.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

We looked at an hour and 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_05 53:30

Oh, that's not bad at all.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

Um yeah, that can easily come down to 115, which is where we like to be. So yeah, we're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_05 53:35

Yeah, 115, 110. Yeah. Um, I thought that Vera I thought Vera did nicely with that. I thought she played on the whole, like, she kind of like, she knows, even if she saw it.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

Yes, I picked up an appeal immediately.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

Because that's not who she is, but as soon as she comes, oh Massa, I just want to tell you. I just want to tell you about this, but I was so scared, Master.

SPEAKER_01 53:58

It's a cool, you know.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

Yeah, I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

That was nice. It was nice. And I like doing it. Just like a white person at that time is like, of course, that's how she's talking to me. Like she knows her fucking place. I like this lady. That is great. Give her my number, you know. Anything you need, I got you, you know. She would have never.

SPEAKER_05 54:14

You wanted them good ones, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 54:16

One of the good ones, yes. I got the whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 54:19

Oh my god. I'm glad we were connected because I saw that and I was like, because that is not who she's at all. She comes straight, humble, straight, massa masa. And I'm like, oh, okay. But she, I mean, she did the job. They believed it. They didn't question shit. I I'd have been like, get the fuck out of here. First of all, I would have killed her. When she walked in the door, I was like, I'd have killed her.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

Well, not when she after she gave me all the information, I know.

SPEAKER_05 54:39

I was like, I don't know, not worth me. Fucking woman, get out of here.

SPEAKER_01 54:45

He didn't know where his money wanted to know where his money was. Yeah, she can't tell me anything. Get out of here. Shut up, woman. Get out of here.

SPEAKER_05 54:53

She she wasn't living out door. She wouldn't live in this room. I know that.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

I was holding her until like verify the information.

SPEAKER_05 54:59

All of us going.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

He sent her on her wizard. You kidding me? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:03

You're like, oh, okay. Well, where are you at? Oh, well, they're over at Ray's place.

SPEAKER_01 55:07

Yeah, how convenient. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:10

Well, we all go into the world. We all gonna go to Ray's, okay?

SPEAKER_01 55:13

You show me exactly where which you saw, okay? Yeah, so yeah, that was kind of weird. But her performance is awesome. Awesome.

SPEAKER_05 55:20

That was good. I like that a lot. Um, but yeah, I don't know.

unknown 55:26

It's good.

SPEAKER_04 55:27

Cool? I'm cool.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

It's good.

SPEAKER_05 55:29

Yeah, I think, like I said, I'm gonna go back to the first. I he had to pick a lane and he did it. He did not. He tried to skate in between both and it just it didn't land. And you know, I sad to hear that um Richard Pryor was in the middle of dealing with MS, and then Red Fox, you know, 68, 69 years old at the time, dies a couple years later. So I'm sure he had some medical stuff going on with himself, too. So that was really that was really the time for Eddie Murphy to really grab and take the portion, like run

Eddie Murphy Should Have Taken Over

SPEAKER_05 56:00

with it. Like, hey, I got it from you guys. I got this for the next 20, 30 years, and he didn't. He did not do that. He forgot about his own character when he literally wrote the script, which is crazy. Crazy work. It's like, dude, what are you talking about? Like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 56:15

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_05 56:17

So, yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 56:19

Interesting. I feel like my score might still be too fucking high. Okay. We're gonna see. I'm gonna see what you did. Let me see what my scores are. Okay. Let's find out. Let's rate it. For any newcomers, we rate our movies based on five categories: plot and writing, acting, casting, production, cinematography, music and sound, and cultural impact. Everything is rated on a scale of one to ten. Jill, what you got? Plot and writing.

SPEAKER_05 56:47

I mean, we you know, it'd be a lie if I were to give this like any higher than like a three.

SPEAKER_01 56:54

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_05 56:55

For plot and writing? Yeah. We just spent an hour talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

Killing it, killing it.

SPEAKER_05 56:59

I kind of be like, oh, by the way, nine. Like, what do you mean like that?

SPEAKER_01 57:02

No, yeah. No, for sure. For sure. So is that what you're giving it a three?

SPEAKER_05 57:07

Three.

SPEAKER_01 57:09

I liked it more than you, so I'm gonna give it a four.

SPEAKER_05 57:11

That's four. That's fine. That's four.

SPEAKER_01 57:14

I was gonna give it a five, but you're right. That's a five. Yeah, no. Yeah, I couldn't give it a five. I give Devil Wears Prada a five. Yeah, okay. This is a four.

Acting and Casting

SPEAKER_01 57:25

Um, active and casting. What do you have here?

SPEAKER_05 57:28

Richard Pryor killed it. He's an anchor.

SPEAKER_01 57:30

He did.

SPEAKER_05 57:30

Red Fox, scene stealer every time he was on the scene. Dela Reese, I think she's my MVP. Yes, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

Is she? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:37

Yeah, she is my MVP. Eddie Murphy. He dropped the ball. Just so wild.

SPEAKER_01 57:43

He did. He also said he didn't like directing. Um, I just I just don't think he had a good time, you know. Like directing is not some easy not because you can act, you can direct, you know. Uh yeah. He was super young too at that point. All those guys were older than him and stuff. Like, I just think he didn't have a good time, and yeah, he realized how much he he bit off way more he could chew on that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:04

Yeah, being a writer and director, it's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 58:06

And then I could imagine it was a nightmare working with the producers because they're trying to be like, yo, like, yeah, we can't do this. But yeah. So where do you land?

SPEAKER_05 58:16

Yeah, um, but the other three, super strong.

SPEAKER_01 58:19

I mean, he didn't even um like Bugsy and them, like their performance, like Bugsy Calhoun. Yeah, he was good on there.

SPEAKER_05 58:26

That's Mr. Um blank check himself. I was like, damn, where is he?

SPEAKER_00 58:31

Oh yeah, oh that's that is him. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 58:36

Um no, I thought I thought everybody else but Eddie Murphy, and that's bad. Yeah. Um anyway, I give it a seven.

SPEAKER_01 58:44

Okay, dupe. I gave it a seven as well. Yeah. I actually wrote that one. That was one of the ones I had already locked in. Seven. Um, production, cinematography, and visuals.

SPEAKER_05 58:56

Yeah, that's a tough one. Um there's nothing like there's nothing that stands out for me. Nothing at all? Like, not really.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

Not the 20s kind of aesthetic, the 30s aesthetic, the vehicles, uh, costumes, the outfits and everything. No? Okay, so where are you at?

SPEAKER_05 59:15

I give it a four.

SPEAKER_01 59:16

Oh, okay. I have a six. Is six too high? I have a six. I like the I like the sets. I think you do. I like the sets. I'm gonna give it a six. I have a six, is what I wrote down. That's fair. Um, but I understand where you're coming from, too. Yeah. Um, music and sound. What do you have there?

SPEAKER_05 59:33

I have a high number for the music and sound. I mean, they had a lot of 20s jazz in the background. So, I mean, oh my gosh, that's an eight for me.

SPEAKER_01 59:40

I give that shit a 10, man. Okay. That's always a win for me. I just from a 10 that oh, and we didn't, I didn't mention when when Vera came in, the fucking like jazz riffs thing, like they had a little like dude. It's like they were playing in front of a pit orchestra, man. And like you you've played in um plays and stuff. You know when a character gets introduced and there's like a yad up, dad, whatever. They had that intro for when she came in, um, right before she started like cussing everyone out. It was fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:04

I must have missed that. Okay. I have the weird.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:06

Yeah, just that scene when when right before the same scene where they um the fight where he accused her of stealing. Yeah, that was her first entrance. Yeah, yeah, run out of the game.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:15

You're from the intro, which I thought was way too long when they were just it was super long. It was fucking super super. I like the song, bro. I loved the song, so I ignored it. I loved the song, but I was like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:25

The whole song.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:26

How long are we gonna do this for? Three minute song before the second I thought I was watching the end.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:32

They weren't giving us like any like visuals, it was just like a blue screen with like names on it or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:37

Yeah, I was like, I thought it was at the end, and I was like, oh, did I accidentally go to the end? Yeah, I was so confused, but I love the song. I even tried to Shazam it. I was like, oh, what is this? I never heard of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:47

It didn't come up at the beginning, so I don't know if someone just made it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

I haven't seen that they have like a soundtrack like that was released for it, but yeah. Man, it was super long.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:56

I tried to Shazam it and Shazam was like, I don't know what it is. I was like, oh, okay, well.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:00

Did Prime not tell you? I didn't look, but did Prime not tell you because Prime will tell you what song is playing in the scene.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:06

Yeah, I didn't use the little thing at that time.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:08

Whatever it's called. Yeah. Which can the rest of you streamers get this technology too? Or do you have to pay Prime? Is it proprietary? Like, just put up some money and add it.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:16

Oh, I love that shit. Every scene it had who was in the scene. And like, I got spoiled with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:21

So whenever we were watching some mission, oh, can you put up the thing? I'm like, this is fucking Netflix. It's not audio. Oh, can you put up the thing?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:28

HBO does not have it. Okay, it's only prime.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:32

Nah, it's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:34

Oh shit. All right. Lastly, cultural impact.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:38

I gotta give it a 10. There's no other place.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:39

You give it a 10?

SPEAKER_05 1:01:40

I mean, it's one of those. In black culture, it is one of those. Yeah. I have to give it a 10.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

Okay. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:47

Whether or not I, you know, it's my thing, no. But for the culture, I have to give it a 10.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:51

Damn, why didn't I expect you to give it that high of a score? Um I'm gonna give it a five.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:01

I just wow So you said you never heard of Harlem Knights before.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:08

No.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:10

Surprising. That's very surprising. Like okay. I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:14

No, no, no, I I I know. Um I haven't seen any Richard Pry. Listen, you know Richard's Party's been like fucking a thousand movies or something. Yeah, he's in a lot of movies. Jesus. Like when I hit the like show more on Google just now, it's like, what the hell? I'm not sure what's going on.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:28

A lot of movies. I just you know, it was just before our time and we just never got introduced to it for some reason. So it's a good thing we're doing these type of movies.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:36

I know. So I'm gonna chalk this up to yes, definitely just me not being privy to this stuff because dude, in the like in the 90s, most of you just watching like cartoons and shit, right? We're the Disney, we're growing up in a Disney Renaissance and stuff. Like animated television had never been better than when we were growing up, you know? Um, so there's like a few things that kind of popped out, like pulp fiction, Friday, stuff that we shouldn't have been watching at those ages, but Pulp Fiction.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:03

Yeah, that was No, I mean, I know it's out there, but how do we watch pulp fiction?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:08

I I know, I don't know. Oh, you want you want me to tell them how we watch it? You want me to tell them that we watched it on a church trip? No, not that we snuck and watched it. Don't misunderstand me. The pastor was like, hey guys.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:22

Hey guys, you want to watch something cool?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:29

Listen. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:31

And like, I didn't even get or appreciate that movie when we watched it. I couldn't.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:34

It was too fucking young.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:35

Oh, it was too fucking much.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:36

So he didn't get it at all.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:37

I rewatched it probably way too late long after that. And I'm like, God, this movie's so awesome.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:42

I just rewatched it like the yellow day. Like within the last three months, I watched everybody watched. Remember, I told you I don't remember this particular scene.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, like three months ago or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:52

I was like, oh shit. You know what? I'm gonna draw my score down to a nine.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:55

A nine?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:56

I'm gonna give it a nine. Because though it is culturally important, I don't necessarily hear people like quoting it or talking about it. Like it's really just really an 80s movie and like early 90s.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:10

Eddie Murphy didn't like it either.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:12

Yeah, I could give I could give it a nine.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:14

I'm going lower. Yeah. I initially had a three and and then she talked me up to a five. Okay. So I'm putting it back to my three. Damn. Yeah. Okay. I just I don't, I don't, you know, you know what's funny because uh I spoke to my therapist and she was like, she um she told me about this Richard Pryor movie, and I was like, oh shit. Is it we're actually doing Holland Bright? She said, Oh, I love that movie. I was like, really? She's like, Yeah, it's so good. I was like, Oh, okay. I said, we're here talking about it now, but she's a little bit older.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:42

Or she our age.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:43

No, no, no, she's she's older, she's older, she's in her 40s.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:46

Oh yeah, well, yeah, that range of like 80.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:51

That's fair.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:52

So what do we got? Um, so you got a 6.2 as your final score. Oh shit. I know, and that's why I had to drop mine down because when I had a five, it had me at a 6.4. Yeah. So my three brings me down to a six. I'm good with a six. Okay. I didn't

Culture Saves The Score

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

expect you to have this high of a score because I thought you were gonna tear the movie off the code. Definitely, it definitely did for you.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:15

Well, not just no, not just that. Well, the music on the coded was saved.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:19

And the acting, you put a seven for acting. You pretty much scored a high in every category except for production and plot and writing. Okay. Yeah, so you like the damn movie. I did. All right. Well, that will do it for our real talk and banter on Harlem Nights. To connect with us, to give us some feedback, or just say hello, email us at real talkbanter at gmail.com. That's R E E L Talkbanter at gmail.com. Thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:50

You go shoot me in my pinky toe.