Coming to America (1988)

Coming to America (1988)

8/10

Starring

Eddie Murphy

Arsenio Hall

James Earl Jones

John Amos

Madge Sinclair

Shari Headley

Directed by John Landis

I was born in the 80s, but I came to understand life in the 90s, and one movie that we all got to see over and over again was Coming to America. This wasn’t just a movie—it was like a cultural icon on its own. I came to see Eddie Murphy as a stable actor to look forward to, and when I was young, there was no reason not to go see some of the classics he did in the 80s.

Coming to America stars Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall in roles that had both of them in charge of everything fun in this movie from the very start. The movie also had some of the best supporting cast you could wish for, each delivering the needed performance to make this movie memorable and their lines unforgettable.

The movie’s plot is about a young prince from a fictional African land called Zamunda. The prince’s name is Akeem (Eddie Murphy), who is feeling overwhelmed with life as a prince and bored to the bone by it. He speaks to his father about this, but his father misinterprets Akeem’s words to mean that Akeem wants to travel for sexual exploits and delay getting married to a woman who would essentially be like a slave to him.

His father arranges for Akeem to travel with a companion, Semmi (Arsenio Hall), who is also Akeem’s best friend. Akeem chooses to travel to America, and Semmi knows Akeem is going there to look for love—something both fail to tell his parents about.

When in America, Akeem decides that no one should know he’s a prince because he wants to find genuine love, not love that comes from a woman who knows he’s wealthy. He gets a job, and everything from here is something you’ll love when you go see this movie again.

The movie has some of the best comedic lines you can think of, and whether the lines originated here or were borrowed from elsewhere, it was in this movie that many were recognized as iconic.
Everyone who has seen this movie can easily pick which lines they love the most and which scenes jump out at them when they remember it.

Murphy and Hall also played numerous smaller roles in this movie, allowing the makeup to disguise them while still making it possible for us to recognize the people underneath.

The movie was a mild critical success but a huge commercial one, which almost led to a TV series that never happened. The way the movie is structured, it’s easy to see how they could have picked up any of the loose ends the screenplay left untied and made a spin-off or a sequel from it.
That said, a sequel to this movie is set to be released later this year (2020).
Will the sequel, which stars almost the same cast as the one made thirty-three years ago, be as significant or as funny as this one? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.