Coming 2 America

Comedian Eddie Murphy has had a fascinating lengthy career following his work on Saturday Night Live. Outside of his standup, he rose in popularity with famous roles in Beverly Hill Cop, Dr Dolittle, and Donkey doing a mixture of raunchy and silly family features. During that time, he was never afraid to put on makeup for various scenes where he's talking to different versions of himself (for better or worse). After subpar projects, he was lost his motivation and left acting around early 2010s. In the past couple of years, he has been making a resurgence in his career starting with Mr Church (2016) and Dolemite is My Name (2019). This brings us to his latest project, Coming 2 America, which was written by Kenya Barris (best known for his series Black-ish) alongside Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield (returning writers from Coming to America and various Eddie Murphy comedies). Being a sequel to a much older feature didn't bode well for this given track record from other similar projects (like Dumb and Dumber) and it sold to Amazon Studio. After watching it on Amazon Prime, it ended up being another 2021 blunder.

My thoughts on Coming to America (1988)? Admittedly I've never revisited this movie all the way through before recently rewatching it (only remembered parts from TV reruns). The R rated raunchy classic is definitely held up by mostly by the main efforts of Murphy and Arsenio Hall going through their shenanigans in Queens, New York. It's easy to see the energy of when this star cared during his performance that's captivating to watch...when he's himself. Not all of the jokes work and the parts where Eddie goes through his makeup bits throughout the feature don't hold up well. The bond between him and the love interest is serviceable, though it felt rushed to when they pursed that route. ⭑⭑⭑3/4

What's it about? Taking place 30 years after finding a wife in America, the story follows our protagonist bringing his bastard son he unknowingly conceived before he met his future wife back to Zamunda. The best way to describe this would be carrying the strengths and weakness of an Adam Sandler hangout flick. The characters from before do return alongside new people and they all look like they are having fun with their own moments. Something to note is that this plot actually flips the ratio of screen time spent in America and Zamunda from the first adventure (in this case spending 15 minutes in the former and the rest in the latter). There are a few moments with some hilarious laughs involved between fake-out gag and some scene chewing. Seeing a lot of this nation gives a great excuse for the costume designer to flex their great beautiful outfits that everyone wears. It definitely has the "remember this from before" aspects to it, but they are in tiny doses.

The cons of doing this type of feature, however, overwhelm the positive potential it could have reached. This formulaic narrative deserves to be on a streaming platform as it undergoes a made for TV storyline on autopilot. That wouldn't be bad on its own if a plot point regarding birth via drug induced rape wasn't established. That sours the mood as this revelation is laughed off in a reunion that isn't appropriate and it's bizarre that this was approved instead of having something as simple as a drunken one-night stand as a substitute. In addition to that, there are supporting character dynamics that are very rushed from being annoyed in the beginning to suddenly getting along at a party. There are so many characters here that a chunk of them are forgotten about until tiny parts of spotlight coming to them (an ensemble movie rather than an Eddie Murphy vehicle, which can be attributed to Kenya Barris writing).

 

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actors to focus on are Eddie Murphy and Jermaine Fowler. Eddie is serviceable in his acting as it's easy to see how much he cares about returning here but feels like he's on autopilot at points. Jermaine does his best to elevate his material but it feels like the directing and the script doesn't let him feel more natural and less stuck for a cliched young generation role. Honorable mention goes to Wesley Snipes and Leslie Jones due to the former being the best scene stealer in his great performance (despite not being in it that much) and the latter having some decent lines as well as nice moments with Jermaine. 

 

Overall Consensus: Coming 2 America is letdown by its overstuffed script with numerous characters, rushed subplots, and formulaic recycled storyline lacking energetic laughs, but has great costume design, light-hearted intention, and decent acting. ⭑⭑1/2 Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes PG-13

 

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director Craig Brewer. You don't mind a made for streaming type of entertainment you want to have on as background noise. You are a fan of Coming to America and was curious about a followup. 

 

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director Craig Brewer. You are turned off by drug induced rape plot points that are made light of. You want more time with the old main star. You are a fan of Coming to America but aren't in the mood for a mediocre sequel. You are hoping for more hangout time with Queens, NY than Zumanda. You are bored by ensemble films where many people are lacking a personality and blatant mentions of wanting more opportunities for women without doing anything substantial with it.