'Coming 2 America' Review: Eddie Murphy Is Back In Zamunda

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Coming 2 America, the sequel to Eddie Murphy’s original comedy Blockbuster hit, is definitely long overdue. Thirty years have passed since Prince Akeem last traveled from Zamunda to Queens, New York.

As we all know, a lot has changed in thirty years. The same cannot be said for the plot of the new movie.

*Spoiler-free so release the tension from your neck.

What’s It About?

Coming 2 America shows the plight of Eddie Murphy’s character, Akeem, tracking down his son from another mother he never knew existed. His three daughters are not allowed to take over when the time comes so this supposed son is his only heir to the throne.

Now, a lot of what made the original film so hilarious is watching Prince Akeem experience America for the first time. The sequel, however, pretty much skims over his second visit to show Akeem’s new son Lavelle in Zamunda. This time, we watch Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler), a young American man, experience the foreign land of Zamunda for the first time. He emulates the same sparkle from his eyes as his father did first stepping foot into the new country. Leslie Jones plays his mother and she’s just as funny as when she’s on Saturday Night Live every week.

The sequel follows Akeem as he secretly tries to coax Lavelle into an arranged marriage. The audience watches as Lavelle realizes he might be in way over his head. The father and son butt heads but eventually form a bond by the movie’s end.

What It Could Have Been…

Coming 2 America missed the mark quite literally with what the plot maybe should have been. With the age of women empowerment, Black Girl Magic, and Megan Markle, why didn’t the filmmakers take this opportunity to make this a touching father-daughter story? We could have been celebrating a young Black woman breaking down barriers and pushing boundaries. Sadly, that is not the case.

Akeem’s eldest, played by Eddie Murphy’s own daughter Bella, does push back and try to show her father that she’s ready to take over his throne. However, Akeem dismisses her efforts continuing with the same backward thinking that is still around in royal families today.

Bella does an amazing job with her character. But it would have been nice to see her get a lot more shine for being the eldest child to a Black king.

How Was It?

While this Amazon Prime movie is releasing Friday, March 5, 2021, I had the pleasure of screening this nostalgiac film back in 2020. There are a ton of movie screening companies here in Atlanta and other big cities across the country. All you have to do is sign up and you’ll receive emails whenever there is a screening in your area. Most are also doing virtual screenings now, too!

For this screening, we weren’t told what we would be seeing beforehand. We all signed up and showed up blind to what we’d be watching. When the host finally told us we’d be in the first round of screenings to see the sequel to ‘Coming to America’, the theatre erupted with excitement. No one was expecting to get such a big movie preview, especially that far in advance.

That same excitement stayed throughout the entirety of the film. The theatre was bursting with laughter from start to finish. I don’t remember one dull moment where everyone wasn’t engaged in what was going to happen next. We were all pretty satisfied with the sequel because we went in with zero preconceived notions.

They do screenings like this to see what the audience truly thinks of the film. They record our reactions the entire time so they can play it back. Our reactions to specific scenes that far in advance could have altered the direction of the film. That’s why I am so excited to re-watch this movie. I want to see where they fixed the editing in certain scenes and see if anything else was changed throughout.

While I will admit this sequel could have been a lot better, I am not taking away from the fact that I still think everyone should see it. You’ll still laugh at the jokes and feel nostalgic at the flashbacks. And ‘Black Panther’ Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter does an amazing job on the looks in Zamunda.