Directed By Craig Brewer

Starring – Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Shari Headley

The Plot – The African monarch Akeem (Murphy) learns he has a long-lost son (Jermaine Fowler) in the United States and must return to America to meet this unexpected heir and build a relationship with his son.

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, adult language and drug content

Coming 2 America Official Trailer #2 | Prime Video – YouTube

POSITIVES

– Two for the show. While a majority of the performances in this film are wasted or entirely forgettable, the work of Murphy and Wesley Snipes ham it up enough to exude the fun and careless attitude that pertains to the film. For Murphy, it’s a call to character that proves no matter how big or small the production is, he’s mister professional with the dedication he grants to the movie’s primary protagonist. Sure, his accent is consistently inconsistent, but it’s clear that Eddie feels right at home with a Brewer production, especially after the two recently worked together on 2019’s “My Name is Dolemite”. As for Snipes, he’s easily the show-stealer for me personally, getting lost in the mayhem of the character that stands a welcome home party for the once entirely comedic actor. Snipes proves he still has the timing and captivation to make the most of the material, and when he and Murphy share the screen together, it’s a hint of the better, more focused film that we could’ve received.

– Physical enhancements. Without question, the best elements of the movie’s production to me were the shining examples of the film’s wardrobe, make-up, and prosthetics, which attain believability in what they are attempting. As to where the horrendous green-screen of the movie dilutes much of majesticism of imagery that made the original an award-worthy production, the transformative qualities in and around the make-up chair adds a distinct personality to the characterization that we unfortunately never received in the script. The costume designs of eye-stretching fabric with these exotic colors go a long way in articulating the upper class tastes of this royal family, all the while cementing itself as one of the more fashion-heavy films of the year, where the fabric themselves are a character of rich heritage that dominates the entirety of the nearly two hour run time.

– Pleasantly progressive. It’s expected that a sequel taking place more than thirty years after the original will have some kind of culturally diverse directions that tries to clean up after the clumsiness of female devaluation of the original, but what’s accommodating to it here in particular is it’s never heavy handed enough to feel like a wet blanket towards the enjoyment of the film, like 2018’s “Black Christmas” was. This is the one element that this film does better than the original, as it not only gives its female characters a purpose, but also an importance to the royal throne that films of their time undervalue. It’s a subtly nice touch that films like “Black Panther” have ushered in since, and while this one doesn’t require its leading ladies to get as physical as that example, there’s a stakes to their hand in marriage that solidifies the one in a million effect that many romantic comedies try to articulate.

NEGATIVES

– Aimless direction. One could argue that Akeem is the main character of this film, but then you would be forgetting the majority of the run time spent with his son. From there, the film also has a glooming doom hanging over its head of this royal dictator (Snipes) constantly promising the inevitability of war. From there, we also get a subplot with one of Akeem’s daughters in particular, which comes and goes with the kind of focus of a completely uninterested third party. In addition, there’s also a quest for Fowler’s character that takes us through every step of his royal evolution. So you see what I mean when I say this movie is spit-balling a series of ideas against a wall, and very little is sticking along the way, due to the compromising in time that each are given throughout. As to where the first film was entirely about finding Akeem a significant other, this uninspired sequel is full inconsequential subplots that often distracts its convoluted execution.

– Horrendous artificiality. Instead of the rich, warm, and welcoming establishing sequences of Zamunda, which vividly painted an accessible boundary behind what we would consider taboo, but here instead, we are granted cheap green-screen effects and faulty cinematography that unintentionally demeans the magnitude in scope of this foreign and exotic land. Most of the establishing shots are done with a coldly lit computer-generation that simultaneously harvests a post-production influence that constantly breaks believability. In addition to this, the shot compositions and individual framing remove as much meaning and symbolism within the depth of each shot, making this feel like it took place on a sound studio instead of an action on-site shooting location. It attains a cheap level of emphasis that the film can never escape from, all the while underselling what I feel was the most important aspect to production in the original, minus maybe Eddie Murphy himself.

– Humiliating humor. I didn’t expect a whirlwind of laughs after a trailer that didn’t grant me a single solitary one, but there’s much more problematic to the material, or lack thereof, once you dive in. For starters, the effective stuff is entirely a reincarnation of material from the first movie, which not only did it better, but also means this one settles for the same sequelitis that dooms other cash grab comedy sequels. The PG-13 rating over the R-rating of the original also doesn’t do the material any favors, illustrating a restrictive quality to the deliveries that more than exudes itself consistently throughout. Finally, the fresh material itself feels unoriginal for a 50-something out of touch uncle, whose appearance at a family function causes everyone else enjoying themselves to moan out of desperation. I say this because what original material there is grants us bodily humor and low-brow idealism that wouldn’t fit in during the 80’s, let alone in a comically advanced age that has seen it all done, and done better, before. I laughed a total of twice throughout this film, and those were more at the cameos, like a stretched Dikembe Mutombo appearance, which made me laugh ironically.

– Product placement. It’s been a while, but my least favorite cliche in cinema has returned, and does so with the obviousness of Tyler Perry playing a woman for 45 films. For this particular incarnation, we are treated to Friskies cat food, oat-bran cereal, and even Pepsi soft drinks to pay the rent. It smothers us with this shameless opportunity that takes a once culturally iconic original film, and stitches it together with this sell out idealism that isn’t considerate towards black sensitivity on the issue over the previous twenty years. I can forgive this element if the environment conjured up in the film is one with this tongue-in-cheek surrealness, but with incorporating it here to the inconsistency of the first film, it gives “Coming 2 America” a spoof-rendered emphasis that doesn’t compliment its identity or the material particularly well.

– Identity crisis. This is with the flailing characterization of the characters, who remove every ounce of human empathy for the unrelatable upper class that it worked so hard to develop in the original, and fleshes it out here in ways that articulate a devolving nature that went wrong somewhere along the way. Instead of Akeem being this hard-working, caring individual who puts his heart ahead of his head, he is re-established here as the dominant ruler who makes many questionable decisions along the way. This not only erases the familiarity in the character, but also makes me question if Brewer learned anything from watching the protagonist in the first film. Akeem isn’t the only one, as these often annoying, monotonously influenced group, like Fowler’s, sell their souls continuously for life’s greedy green, giving us no one substantially to root for along the way who doesn’t place importance towards money like his on-screen father did during the first film. I found none of them even remotely compelling, and it’s made all the more infuriating when you’re asked to spend nearly two hours with them.

– Unnecessary padding. Speaking of the movie’s often arduous pacing, the movie’s four screenwriters (A problem in itself for inconsistency), including Murphy, feel it necessary to still reach for the 108 minute run time, despite its actual material feeling about half of that in terms of storytelling. How does it reach this finish line? It places four story-halting musical performances scattered throughout the film, each of which with fewer contemporary cultural relevancy than the last, and all of which carried through to every lyric that their songs pertain. This element not only adds to the outdated uncle joke that I previously made, but also frustrated me in ways that made me literally yell at the film when I just wanted resolution in a conflict or subplot. The worst without question is Murphy’s Randy Watson, or Sexual Chocolate as he’s known in this world. The performance itself is yet another link to a better film and material that constantly has you asking yourself why you’re not just watching that film, but aside from that drowns on through three songs remixed in a medley that stand as the final step before conclusion with this reheated leftover.

– Confusing title. If it’s not bad enough that this film now has to be compared to the original for story continuity, it’s even worse that we now have to make a bunny ears symbol each time we bring it up, thanks to three words that are quite literally the same as its original installment. I suppose “Coming To America 2” was too creative, or “Coming To America: (Place subtitle here)” didn’t slide off of the tongue like THE VERY SAME TITLE OF THE FIRST MOVIE DID. If this doesn’t allude you to the laziness taking shape in this film, I hope that my words here certainly will. It’s a thirty year too late uninspired sequel that is everything wrong with the currently popular nostalgic rehashing of 80’s popular franchises that start and will ultimately end with “Cobra Kai”.

My Grade: 3/10 or F