Nostalgic Return to Zamunda

COMING 2 AMERICA (2021)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Never in a million years did I think there would be a sequel to "Coming to America." I never heard once since the film's 1988 release that there was the most remote interest in making a sequel. Anyone who has seen "Coming to America" knows that movie pretty much ended as it should and there was no more story to tell. Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy, in one of his most restrained roles) marries the woman from Queens (Shari Headley) and they remain in the fictional kingdom of Zamunda. Well, here comes "Coming 2 America" and it has its fresh spots of inspiration and an even more restrained Eddie Murphy and quite a few laughs. Still, from the perspective that typifies most comedy sequels, it is intermittently funny yet not nearly as exuberantly funny as the original and has a middle section with far too many lulls. 

The always beaming Prince Akeem (Murphy) is celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary to Lisa Joffer (Shari Headley), the woman from Queens, NY who now holds the royal throne like the Queen to be.  Akeem's father is dying (a mostly bedridden James Earl Jones) so Akeem will assume the King title until he discovers he has a bastard son in Queens! How can this be? You see when Akeem was looking for his Royal Queen in 1988, he was drugged and unknowingly had relations with the loutish Mary (Leslie Jones). Talk about a convoluted idea for a sequel but there you go. Since there is now a male heir to Zamunda (and Akeem has little regard for one of his three daughters to be the heir), Akeem has to find him and bring him back with the help of his friend, Semmi (Arsenio Hall). "Oh, hell no, your Majesty!," says Semmi. 

Akeem returns to America to claim his bastard son, Lavelle Junson (it gets funnier each time Murphy relates to this kid as "bastard son"), and he is a ticket scalper no less at Madison Square Garden (Lavelle is played in a wonderfully alive performance by Jermaine Fowler). Once the new family is brought back to Zamunda who look like multiple fishes out of water, tension mixed in with lunacy figures in the action. A neighboring country named Nextdoria is led by the fierce lunacy of General Izzi (Wesley Snipes, easily the best performance in the movie) who wants his son to marry one of Akeem's daughters hoping to unite both kingdoms. Not if Akeem can help it, unless he can get Javelle to marry one of Izzi's daughters.

"Coming 2 America" has many more laughs in the first forty minutes than in the last forty. We get the expected callbacks to the original film, including the barbershop quartet of geezers who have their own thoughts on political correctness and gentrification (yes, all three show up including Saul who has coughing fits); Murphy gets to wear the I Love N.Y. jacket and hat as in the original albeit briefly; an updated bit on the McDowell's restaurant and Mr. Louie Anderson, and we get extended scenes of that 80's club from the original film (thanks to CGI youthification of Murphy and Arsenio Hall). When we are in Zamunda, Snipes steals the show and has a high comic spirit that brightens the film. But the movie gets into a heavy lull with Fowler's Javelle as he starts to fall in love with his "royal groomer," and no surprise that she is his intended bride to be and not the arrangement Akeem and Izzi have planned. A lot of this rehashes the same old romantic plot from the original film which recycled this all-too familiar love angle from its own Hollywood predecessors. You know the lines, "I want you to love me for who I am, not what I am." It was cute and old-old-old-fashioned in 1988 but now, this little subplot just sits on the screen without much vibrancy.

Still, though the film is a bit stilted and boring in the middle, it picks up the pace when Akeem returns to America yet again in the somewhat frantic climax! Murphy is finely tuned and restrained as Akeem and goes through the motions, though he does not make the film his own (unlike the recent "Dolemite is My Name"). Arsenio Hall is more than adequate as Semmi though he gave us far more to laugh at in 1988. Jermaine Fowler has pizzazz and is a snappy, joyful actor though his romantic inclinations feel forced. It is finally Wesley Snipes, Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan (Lavelle's uncle) who bring the movie to its comedic knees. So some sustained laughter, a few lulls (did we need a CGI lion?), and some more laughs towards the end. "Coming 2 America" is a fitting, nostalgic reminder of a time when Eddie was king.