Film review: ‘Coming 2 America’
Film is a genial, mostly inoffensive, sometimes quite funny sequel to a beloved 80s movie
Breaking away from a lavish palace party meant to celebrate his engagement, Lavelle Junson (Jermaine Fowler), the newly minted crown prince of Zamunda, complains about the state of Hollywood filmmaking. He never says what kinds of movies he does like, but he’s vocal in his disdain for superhero spectacles and “sequels that nobody asked for.” Mirembe (Nomzamo Mbatha), his royal groomer and love interest, disagrees. Zamundan cinema isn’t so great, she says, and some of those sequels aren’t so bad.
Their conversation is one of several metajokes scattered throughout Coming 2 America ,a genial, mostly inoffensive, sometimes quite funny sequel to a beloved comedy from way back in the 1980s. Coming to America — the original, directed by John Landis — starred Eddie Murphy as Crown Prince Akeem, who travelled to the royally named borough of Queens, New York, to sow his wild oats, accompanied by Arsenio Hall as his aide-de-camp and comic foil, Semmi.
If you remember that movie, you will recall that the prince fell in love with a New Yorker named Lisa (Shari Headley), whose father (John Amos) owned a fast-food restaurant called McDowell’s. Back then, it seems, there was an oat that got away — a not-even-one-night stand with Mary Junson (Leslie Jones) that resulted in Lavelle.
Akeem, who has three daughters with Lisa, learns of his son’s existence during an eventful first act as he and his queen celebrate their 30th anniversary and bid farewell to King Jaffe (James Earl Jones). Complicating factors include threats from General Izzi (Wesley Snipes), the bellicose ruler of the neighbouring country of Nexdoria, and the patriarchal laws of Zamunda, which stipulate that the occupant of the throne must be male. Lavelle, a college dropout and part-time ticket scalper with some of his father’s good-hearted charm, looks like the solution to the kingdom’s problems.
But of course the laws of comedy require that further problems ensue, and the many-authored script supplies plenty. Akeem and Semmi return to New York for what feels like a too-brief visit. The fish-out-of-water delights of Coming to America could hardly be repeated, but that film’s comic view of America from the perspective of a naive African aristocrat could have used a more energetic updating. It’s nice to catch up with some of the secondary comic characters but anytime a ripe satirical opportunity comes into view, Coming 2, directed by Craig Brewer, runs in the other direction.
But maybe satire isn’t really the point. It isn’t hard, at the moment, to find comedy with a sharper edge, or a tougher view of American dysfunction. Coming 2 s a sweet and silly celebration of Black popular culture, with a sincere respect for history and a welcoming regard for the new generation.
Gladys Knight, En Vogue and Salt N Pepa show up, and so does KiKi Layne, a rising star who plays Meeka, Akeem’s oldest daughter. Generational conflict may drive the story, but the vibe is of an all-ages party.
Still, it takes Coming 2 three-quarters of its running time to arrive at the place where Coming to started: the rejection of an arranged marriage in favour of the search for a soul mate. The art of Coming 2 America resides most fully in the costumes, which are at once travesties of globalist modern style and inspired tributes to it as well as fully realised examples of a cultural collision that the movie itself can’t quite imagine.
it takes Coming 2 three-quarters of its running time to arrive at the place where Coming to started: the rejection of an arranged marriage in favour of the search for a soul mate.