Oh What a Feeling to be Loved

 COMING TO AMERICA (1988)

An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

Eddie Murphy has run hot and cold for me for the last couple of decades. Not every fast-talking, stupendously talented comedian with a gift for mimicry can make a great movie every time. In the 1980's, the decade which he ruled the cinematic screens with an iron fist, Eddie Murphy made a splash with "48 HRS." and "Trading Places" (which has ample comedy gold courtesy of Eddie and able help from Dan Aykroyd) and even bigger splash with "Beverly Hills Cop." What followed was an uneven streak with the fitfully funny "The Golden Child" and the slight misogynistic thread that ran through the entertaining (and loud) "Beverly Hills Cop II" and the profane (though funnier than I had thought in 1987) "Raw." Before hitting the ground of the submoronic nastiness led by "Harlem Nights" that led to minimal box-office until 1996's hysterically funny "The Nutty Professor," there was 1988's "Coming to America," an old-fashioned love story that is so predictable that you wonder, aside from the concept of an African prince traveling to New York, why humorist Art Buchwald sued the filmmakers and won! But that is a story for another time because despite anticipating the outcome of the film, "Coming to America" is all about attitude and jokes and gobs of humanity. 

Prince Akeem Joffer from the Kingdom of Zamunda (played effortlessly by Eddie) is about to face an arranged marriage with a woman (Vanessa Bell) who will do anything for her prince. I do mean, anything. She will hop, bark like a dog, and will "like anything you like." Akeem can't quite convince his father, King Jaffe Joffer (the grand and gloriously funny James Earl Jones), that he doesn't want to uphold tradition like having an arranged marriage, dealing with the "rose bearers," the servant women who bathe him or having his shoes tied for him ("An overrated experience," claims the King). Akeem is adamant on finding his own wife and enlists the help of his dutiful friend Semmi (Arsenio Hall, never funnier) to find a bride "that will satisfy my intellect as well as my loins" in America, specifically Queens. Cute.

The bulk of "Coming to America" takes place in Queens, NY and thank goodness for that because it fully exploits the fish-out-of-water concept (which "Beverly Hills Cop" did as well). How out of place can an African prince get with gold-plated fur coats look in Queens? When a cab driver curses Akeem out, Akeem innocently asks, "What does dumb f%^& mean?" Akeem seeks meager accommodations, in other words to look and live poor so that his selected bride will see him for who he is, not what royalty he represents. This also includes Akeem and Semmi working at McDowell's, an offshoot of McDonald's, run by the kind Mr. Cleo McDowell (John Amos). A vision is realized by Akeem when he spots Lisa McDowell (Shari Headley), Cleo's daughter, who is about to be married to Darryl Jenks (Eriq La Salle), the son of a successful hair-styling company called "Soul Glo." Akeem sees Lisa in his future yet there are a few obstacles to overcome. 

"Coming to America" is essentially my favorite Eddie Murphy comedy and it is helmed with perfect comic timing and pitch by director John Landis who also made the classic "Trading Places." The two movies would make a perfect double feature since both rekindle old-fashioned plots from the 1930's yet with a little more edge and some street smarts (Speaking of "Trading Places," two characters from that film return and it is a hoot and half). The whole cast is terrific with Murphy and Arsenio Hall in multiple roles (thanks to makeup designer Rick Baker), most memorably the barber shop geezers. James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair are an appealing King and Queen of Zamunda, and Murphy and Headley have sparkling romantic chemistry. It is Eddie Murphy though who makes "Coming to America" praiseworthy with enough laughs and heart that we would not see again until "The Nutty Professor." I have with certain exceptions always liked Eddie's rawer side but his sweeter, softer side makes the movie glow. It still does thirty years later.