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 came to understand life was when I was in the 90s and one movie that we all got to see over and over again was Coming to America. This was not just a movie it was like a cultural icon on its own. I came to see Murphy as a stable actor to look forward to his movies when I was young and so there was no reason to not 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 in charge of everything fun in this movie from the very start. The movie also had some of the best supporting cast you can wish for, each delivering the need performance to make this movie memorable and their lines unforgettable.

The movie plot is about a young prince from a fictional African land of Zamunda. The prince’s name is Akeem (Eddie Murphy) who is feeling overwhelmed with life as a prince and bored to the bone of it. He speaks to his father about this and he misinterpreted what Akeem says to mean that Akeem wants to travel to have sexual exploits and delay getting married to the girl which will be like a slave to him.

He arranges for Akeem to travel with a companion, Semmi (Arsenio Hall) who is also Akeem’s best friend. Akeem choose for them to travel to America, Semmi knows Akeem is going to America to look for love, something both fail to tell his parents about.

When in America, Akeem decides that no one is to know he is a prince, because he wants to get love that is genuine not one that comes from a lady because she knows he is wealthy. He gets a job and everything from here you will 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 came from here or were hijacked from elsewhere, it was in this movie that many were recognized as firsts.

Everyone that has seen this movie can easily pick which lines they love the most, and which scene(s) jumps out at them when they remember this movie.

Murphy and Hall also played numerous smaller roles in this movie, allowing the makeup to do the disguise for them and still making it such that we can 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, it is easy to see how they could have picked up any of the loose strings the screenplay left untied and made a spin-off or a second part from.

That said, a sequel to this movie is set to be released late this 2020.

Will the sequel which stars almost the same cast as the one made thirty-three be as significant or as funny as this one? I guess we have to wait and see it to find out.