30 years on from the original, the cast and crew of Coming To America return for a hotly anticipated sequel which sees Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall reprise their roles of Prince Akeem and Semmi for Coming 2 America.
Prince Akeem Joffer is set to become King of Zamunda when he discovers he has a son he never knew about in America – a street savvy Queens native named Lavelle. Honoring his royal father’s dying wish to groom this son as the crown prince, Akeem and Semmi set off to America once again.
There’s no easy to put this, but Coming 2 America is a HUGE disappointment. Featuring a tired bunch of callbacks from the first movie and not very well worked gags. At least Eddie Murphy & Wesley Snipes are having fun, because the viewers sure didn’t.
For the most part Coming 2 America is a series of musical numbers with some seriously incredible costume design. When it’s not doing that, we return to a convoluted story much akin to the first which has absolutely no surprises whatsoever and labours the point of the wafer thin plot to the point where you find yourself wondering what else Amazon Prime has to offer this week.
While Leslie Jones, Murphy & Snipes are worth watching and add some laughs, it is too infrequent to muster anything other than a realisation that nostalgia sometimes shouldn’t be re-visited. However on the flip side of the nostalgia coin, when you think that Craig Brewer and Eddie Murphy’s previous collaboration was the absolutely brilliant My Name Is Dolemite, the viewer is simply left with how could they have got it so wrong with a film that could have been a slam dunk success.
The film also reinforces how dated the first and far funnier original has become over the years. Also, in one particular scene, in a bid to come across all meta, Prince Akeems offspring Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler) now back from Queens and in chatting in the garden with the hairdresser Meeka (Kiki Layne) start talking about movies and their necessary sequels.. Unfortunately the joke backfires along with all the Lion King references (Yes we get it James Earl joins was Mufasa..) and unfortunately this sets the tone for the rest of this sub par sequel rather low without ever managing to rise above it.
Shame really has Coming 2 America had the makings of something really decent, but ends up being simply bland and for the most part and also very unfunny. Also can Tracey Morgan be put in the same ‘Do Not Hire’ room as James Corden please?
Coming 2 America is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Movies
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