Mark Reviews Movies: COMING 2 AMERICA

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 4, 2021

In the 33 years since its release, Coming to America has endured. The reasons are pretty simple. It features Eddie Murphy in his prime, playing a character whose sweetness and sincerity serve as a fine counterpoint to the screen persona he had developed. He also plays a few other characters, too, in heavy makeup, and so, too, does Arsenio Hall, Murphy's comedic partner. The dynamic between the two actors goes a long way toward the film's success.

The main reason the 1988 comedy has maintained some continuing degree of popularity, more than likely, is its story's simplicity. It takes a fairy-tale setup—a royal prince pretending to be an ordinary man, looking for love—and puts a modern twist on it—the prince, from a fictional African country, travels to contemporary New York City in search of a wife. When the film embraces that simplicity, it is at its best, even if the filmmakers go a bit overboard in believing that Murphy and Hall's antics as that collection of eccentric side characters are worth as much time as is spent on them.

The film has remained relevant enough for a sequel three decades later. It's called—not too originally—Coming 2 America, and its premise, while not a copy of the original film, isn't too original, either. In this one, Murphy's Prince Akeem, later King of Zamunda, discovers that he has an illegitimate son from his escapades in Queens 30 years ago. The return trip to the United States is brief in this film, because screenwriters Barry W. Blaustein, David Sheffield, and Kenya Barris have another simple, familiar fairy-tale setup in mind.

It's a clever-enough inversion on the original story, as an ordinary man, struggling to find his place in the world, suddenly discovers that he is actually and secretly royalty. Yes, Murphy's character isn't as important in this film, since his story already has been told. There is, though, an arc for the man, who once rebelled against the traditions of his country and, as king, now finds himself caught up in continuing them.

As for Hall's Semmi, Akeem's friend and aide, that character has even less to do this time around. Hall, like Murphy, does still gets to play around in makeup, reviving a couple side characters from the first film and creating a Zamundan priestess who has it in for Semmi.

The new character is Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler), Akeem's secret son, who drops everything—not that he had too much to leave—at the sight of a briefcase filled with cash and gold ingots with his father's visage on them. The son gets the father's journey toward self-discovery and love in this film, and the father finds himself unintentionally following in the footsteps of his own father.

It's not particularly special, but in maintaining the simple and genuine feeling of an old narrative archetype updated for the modern age, the sequel mostly works. In some ways, particularly in terms of pacing and not letting the random comedy of those side players take over entire scenes of the film, this long-delayed follow-up works a bit better than its predecessor.

Akeem, still married to Lisa (Shari Headley) and now the father of three daughters, will soon be king. His father King Jaffe (James Earl Jones) wants to ensure there will, as per the law of the kingdom, be a male heir to the throne after Akeem. The current plan is to marry the prince's eldest daughter Meeka (KiKi Layne) to the son of Nextdooria, currently ruled by the strutting, foppish General Izzi (Wesley Snipes, clearly having a blast).

The daughter would rather rule on her own, so the king reveals that they have found an alternative: Lavelle, born from a forgotten one-night stand 30 years ago with Mary (Leslie Jones). After Jaffe's death (The king insists on witnessing the grandness of his funeral and dies peacefully mid-ceremony, after being eulogized by Morgan Freeman and Gladys Knight) and a quick trip back to New York, Akeem and Semmi return to Zamunda with the new heir, his mother, and, later, Lavelle's hustling uncle Reem (Tracy Morgan).

The screenwriters and director Craig Brewer may copy a few elements from the original film, primarily the rushed love story between Lavelle, who's immediately arranged to be married to the general's daughter, and Mirembe (Nomzamo Mbatha), his personal groomer, who dreams of opening her own barbershop—if only the laws of Zamunda didn't prohibit women from owning businesses (The sequel directly addresses the sexism of the country, which was played mostly as a joke in the previous film). Characters and ideas from the original—from the denizens of the Queens barbershop, to Hall's eccentric preacher, to Murphy's nasally lounge singer, to Cleo (John Amos) running a McDowell's in Zamunda—are played more as homages. They work much better this way.

Otherwise, the filmmakers are smart to let this new story—about Lavelle learning to be his own man/prince and Akeem, with the guidance of his wife and daughter, seeing how complacent he has become to outdated traditions—exist as its own entity. There are some good gags, such as Lavelle having to snip the whiskers from a lion, and plenty of opportunities for this deep cast to have some fun.

Mostly, though, Brewer and the screenwriters have re-captured the original's essence of simplicity in their own story. That, along with the film's (mostly) sweet and sincere tone, justifies the delayed existence of Coming 2 America.

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