Full disclosure: I'm not a fan of the original Coming to America. Absurdist comedy rarely works for me. So I didn't go into this film with any nostalgia. However I have enjoyed Murphy's later career and his last collaboration with this director (My Name is Dolomite) was very good. So I thought maybe they could do something good with reviving this premise. I mean look at this cast.
But even from the beginning of the film, I couldn't believe how bad it was. Even if you can ignore the way the film plays a sexual assault for laughs and then needlessly bases its whole plot on it, you have to admit it wasn't necessary to go with that story point other than to milk it for laughs that are really gross. Prince Akeem could have had a dalliance 30 years ago but they chose not to... heaven knows why. Especially because the movie then spends all its time on cliched plots about jealousy, being who you really are, and sexism. All done with the insight of a 3 year old on those issues.
Then there is how this A-list cast, filled with award winners, camping around the sets like they're in some sort of SNL skit. They each look like they are about to bust out laughing at any minute, like even they don't take the story they are doing seriously. There are amazing talented people in this film, some seriously funny people in this movie, barely ever being funny, mostly just phoning in silly.
In this post-Black Panther world, the idea of Zamundo being an African post-colonialist utopia has so much potential, and there are so many opportunities for cultural comparative humour but the film focuses on titty jokes and walking through its paint by numbers plot beats. I know this sort of thing will appeal to lots of people it is just the opposite of what I find funny, and more often than not it was cringey.
At least there was a fun musical mash up of Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue, and Gladys Knight, that might have been the only part of the film I smiled during.
Coming 2 America
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Tracey Morgan, Kiki Layne, Wesley Snipes, Nomzamo Mbatha, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Louis Armstrong, Morgan Freeman, Trevor Noah
Director: Craig Brewer
Writers: Kenya Barris, Barry W Blaustein, David Sheffield
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