'Coming 2 America' review: 2 little, 2 late
Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios
It’s been over thirty years since “Coming to America” exploded onto movie screens and confirmed comedian Eddie Murphy’s superstardom. Yet after many expensive flops (“The Adventures of Pluto Nash”) and family films (“Shrek”) that only watered down his raunchy appeal, the film’s sequel has finally arrived. The new film is the lazily titled “Coming 2 America” and serves more as an unofficial remake than a sequel, which will frustrate most fans and make them want to revisit the original instead.
Many things have changed in “Coming 2 America’s” fictional country of Zamunda since the original film’s timeline of 1988 but those details are quickly brushed aside as the story opens. Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) is no longer the lonely man in search of a bride but a married king-to-be with three grown daughters and no male heir to the throne.
This dilemma is the first of many flashes of déjà vu with the original film that sends Akeem and his faithful sidekick, Semmi (Arsenio Hall), back to America (Queens, New York to be exact). But this time, instead of looking for marriage to save their kingdom, the goal is to verify the potential offspring of a one night stand from Prince Akeem’s New York adventures in the last film. That tryst is alluded to in flashbacks and also inserts a few scenes from the original “Coming to America” to remind viewers that they could be watching a better version of the one onscreen.
Another nagging problem with “Coming 2 America,” is that it spends very little time in America. The original film built its comedic foundation on the cultural and emotional misunderstandings between America and Zamunda by actually throwing Akeem in a foreign land for most of its running time. The new film makes New York a footnote in its story and instead recycles visual gags from the original and puts Zamunda front and center with mixed results. Many side stories, including a conflict between Akeem and a political rival (Wesley Snipes) don’t go anywhere, and the film’s many elaborate musical numbers with 1980’s superstars only remind you of “Coming to America’s” place in history instead of moving the legacy forward.
“Coming 2 America” was directed by Craig Brewer (“Hustle and Flow”) who last worked with Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes on “Dolemite Is My Name,” a much better film that traded lazy tropes for fun storytelling. This new “Coming 2 America” will prove popular now that it’s available to stream on Amazon Prime Video but the original is more fun, richer and a better overall use of your time.
Rating: C+
“Coming 2 America” is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
