Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Coming 2 America’ on Amazon Prime, an Energetic Sequel to a Minor Eddie Murphy Classic

A sequel 33 years in the making, Amazon Prime’s Coming 2 America reunites the cast of the 1988 hit comedy Coming to America in full: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Shari Headley, Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Louie Anderson, Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. That’s not a spoiler; if you didn’t expect full metal reprisals of every character who drew laughs last time, you’d be a total maroon, an ignoramus, a gullible naif. The new film isn’t a total rehash — original director John Landis is replaced by Craig Brewer (who helmed the Murphy-led gem Dolemite Is My Name), and Leslie Jones, Wesley Snipes, Jermaine Fowler and Tracy Morgan beef up the cast. Seems like a winning combo, but will gold be panned twice from the same stream?

COMING 2 AMERICA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: ZAMUNDA: A place where royal ceremoniousness hasn’t changed a bit in three decades. A small legion of servants convenes for a punctilious ritual in which a large box is unlocked with two keys so a single metal triangle may be removed from it and rung to awaken Prince Akeem (Murphy) and his wife, Princess Lisa (Headley). It’s morning. It’s their anniversary. They got married at the end of Coming to America, you remembered, and the time hence has been a happily after, and please note the lack of an “ever,” because things are about to get complicated, for what is a movie without conflict? Akeem and Lisa have three daughters, and King Jaffe (James Earl Jones) is still alive, and right there you’ve got all the elements of a troublesome formula, because, right, there’s no male heir. The king budged from his traditionalist stance for his son once, but it’s not likely to happen again as long as he breathes — which may not be for much longer. Jaffe wants to see his own funeral, so they stage it while he’s still alive, and few things in the world have been so elaborate. Then he dies.

So Prince Akeem becomes King Akeem, and now his country’s problems are his problems. The big one is the neighboring country of Nextdoria, ruled by the brother of the barking lady Akeem turned down last time. His name is Izzi (Wesley Snipes), a warlord type with a cadre of soldier minions who can pull off some GRIMY dance moves with their AKs and kalashnikovs. He has a daughter ripe for marriage. And if the countries don’t align, he’ll wage war. But again, Akeem has no son — OR DOES HE? His longtime loyal servant Semmi (Hall) reminds him of that time back in the late ’80s when they had some ladies to their apartment in Queens, New York and a gregarious woman named Mary (Leslie Jones) got Akeem high and climbed on board the princely pole. And lo, like many a king before him, Akeem has a bastard son, and a solution to his problem.

But is it a good solution, is the question. His eldest daughter, Meeka (KiKi Layne), would make a rockin’ queen. She’s miffed that her dad would so quickly import her know-nothing half-brother to fill the heir role — but tradition must be upheld, and also, maybe Akeem should do right by the son he didn’t know he had? Lavelle (Fowler) is a decent enough fella, smart and motivated but stuck doing what his Uncle Reem (Morgan) taught him: scalping college basketball tickets. Akeem returns to Queens, hits the good ol’ barbershop to be informed about what’s new in America — gentrification, volatile politics, Nazis that look like the Best Buy Geek Squad, etc. — and finds LaVelle, who takes quite kindly to the news that he’s a stupidly wealthy African prince. So does Mary, who goes with him back to Zamunda to live high on the hog, to enjoy the royal bath service, to teach Lisa what the word “uppity” means. If none of this seems to solve Akeem’s problems in the very least, well, you’d probably be right.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: None more than Coming to America — much of the new plot is a lot like the old plot, but with a few welcome and necessary twists, which we’ll get into in a minute here. But as far as long-in-the-works sequels go, C2A is far more functional than similar rehasheries like Dumb and Dumber To and the 2016 Ghostbusters remake.

Performance Worth Watching: Murphy is funny in his multiple roles, but we saw that coming. Same for Leslie Jones; what, you didn’t think she’d swoop in and make us bust out? The true surprise here is Snipes, who steals his handful of scenes, playing the bully dictator with more than a few screws loose; his line readings are a hoot and a half.

Memorable Dialogue: ZNN commentator Totatsi Bibinyana sums up the situation: “While it’s too early to determine if the boy possesses any strength, intelligence or capability whatsoever, what we do know is that he is a man. And as far as Zamundan royalty is concerned, that’s good enough.”

Sex and Skin: None beyond whatever happens underwater during the royal baths.

Our Take: Let’s preface the commentary by asserting that Coming to America holds up reasonably well under moderate modern scrutiny. It’s not really a hands-down classic, but it’s still funny, and features one of Murphy’s more ambitious performances — his characterization of Akeem as a reserved and earnest fellow nicely contrasts the outrageousness of his soul singer, barber and Jewish oldster characters (and his portrayal of multiple characters in a single movie would mark the beginning of his career’s second era, for better (The Nutty Professor) or worse (Norbit). If the prospect of a lightly politically progressive Coming to America sequel sounds cringey in concept, I’m happy to say it works pretty well in execution. Akeem realizing that he’s the Zamundan patriarchy and rediscovering that he’s not quite his father’s son is a bit flimsy and obvious, but it’s functional, and lends the joke parade just enough avoirdupois to render it more than just the same shit on a different day.

The plot spends a lot of time with Lavelle as he acclimates to the gilded life, navigates a series of ridiculous tests to determine if he’s worthy of royalty and ponders if he’d rather marry Izzi’s righteous daughter — introduced singing a lascivious version of Prince’s “Gett Off” — or the humble royal hairdresser. He and Mary (and eventually Uncle Reem, because leaving Tracy Morgan behind is a bad idea for a comedy) wind up being the slobs who move in with the snobs, even though they’re not really slobs and Akeem and his family aren’t really snobs. So some of this is ABC gum and/or formula, and the story gets a touch saggy during the midsection as Brewer ably juggles a subplot or two too many. But the jokes keep landing, and we spend enough quality time with the characters so they’re not just mechanical laugh generators.

Most winning, however, is the jovial tone. It’s rife with silliness, a few lightly crass neo-PG-13 gags, inspired performances and amusing celeb cameos. Everyone here seems to be having a good time, and that warmth glows from the screen; it’s a mood booster when we really need one. Murphy’s smile is as wide and infectious as it’s ever been. Between this, his recent SNL reprise and Dolemite Is My Name, is this the EDDIE MURPHNAISSANCE? I sure as hell hope so!

Our Call: STREAM IT. Somewhat surprisingly, Coming 2 America is a winner, a lively outing that delivers consistent, good-spirited comedy.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Coming 2 America on Amazon Prime