It’s been awhile!
Thanks to the pandemic not giving a lot of big releases the green light to hit theatres, I haven’t been able to do my Quick Movie Reviews which has been a bummer…plus the whole becoming a Dad thing keeps me from going to the movie theater too!
But fortunately, some movies have been hitting streaming services exclusively…thus I am able to see them (just hope this doesn’t become standard though ya know?) and the latest movie to hit streaming exclusivity it a long awaited sequel to 1988’s Coming to America! I LOVED the original, it had a fun little story of Prince Akeem coming to America to find his queen. It’s a sweet little story full of comedy for an ‘R’ rated film in the late 80’s.
Comedy sequels are usually never as good as the first….it’s just the 2nd one! But does Coming 2 America hold up to the old one? My quick review…
A decent laughable familiar story, characters, with some filler.
Let’s just say, it was OK….you had your familiar and returning actors of Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, etc…but some great new actors like Leslie Jones and Kiki Layne whom played Akeem’s ass kicking daughter. The story is generally the same as the original, but with some new updates and twist and a bit more modernized.
The highlight of the film for me where I probably laughed the most was when they headed back to the barber shop, that’s where the acting chops of the main cast really shines. Murphy back in the 80’s and 90’s had a lot more let’s say ‘craziness?’ Kinda similar to Jim Carrey in way, but we all get older and so does their acting…and when you see the barbershop characters again, you REALLY get that old familiar Murphy and Hall from them. I did also enjoy Kiki Laybe, the oldest daughter…she just had the guts of the family, although her clearly product placed Puma dress caught me off guard, like an Xbox 360 turning into a Transformer. Wesley Snipes’ character was probably one of my favorites, cause he was just so ridiculous and his presentation is just so out there…it’s what made it pretty funny.
Lastly the filler…while it was cool to see artist like En Vouge, Salt & Pepa, Glady’s Knight, Davido, and Rick Ross? They just kinda seem thrown in there. It was distracting for me…I understand it was a great tribute to black musical artist but eh…just kinda stopped the comedy I suppose. I have to give SUPER kudos to costume designer Ruth E. Carter though, the costumes in the movie were amazing and really displayed African culture in her vibrant costuming.
I better toss this in…this is a PG-13 movie, the original was rated R…so you can guess a few things they have cut out.
Overall, I had a good time…but it all felt extremely familiar which I guess was the safe way to go. It didn’t reinvent the wheel, just replaced the wheel bearing so it’ll keep spinning in the familiar way. It’s worth a watch if you liked the original, but I don’t expect it to be on your Top 10 movies of all time list.
