“Coming 2 America” Review: An Entertaining and Well-Acted Film with a Very Significant Issue

Coming 2 America is an Amazon Original Film directed by Craig Brewer and is the sequel to the 1988 film “Coming to America”. The film once again stars Eddie Murphy as King Akeem who must return to Queens, NY with his servant Semmi (played by Arsenio Hall) after discovering that he has a son who is the heir to the king of Zamunda. The film also features Shari Headley, James Earl Jones, John Amos, and Paul Bates reprising their roles from the original film as well as newcomers Wesley Snipes, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, and Jermaine Fowler.

Having seen the first film the day before watching this film, my expectations were fairly low considering I was not a huge fan of the original. However, after watching this one, I can say that it definitely exceeded any expectations that I may have had for it. Once again, Murphy and Hall do stellar work in their roles as Akeem and Semmi, and despite being given very little to do throughout the film, the still have that great chemistry seen between them in the original and they still provided plently of humor. Murphy and Hall also do a fantastic job as the local barbers and similar to the original, provided lots of laughs.

The supporting cast here is also excellent. Wesley Snipes was the best he's been in years as General Izzi, the ruler of rival kingdom Nextdoria. He stole every scene he was in and provided a majority of the humor in the film. I also thought that Shari Headley and Jermaine Fowler also did a great job as the queen of Zamunda and Akeem's son respectively. I felt that both actors plus the rest of the cast did the best that they could with the material they were given and they all lit up the screen whenever they appeared.

I also thought that the plot was incredibly well thought-out. It didn't feel too cheesy or forced at all, and I was definitely entertained throughout the film. It also helped that the pacing was spot-on. Even with some scenes going on longer than they should, the film moves at a lightning pace and it didn’t slow down or drag on in the slightest.

Despite all the wonderful things about this film, I did have some issues that did not slip under the radar. While the plot is very well thought-out and highly appealing from a marketing perspective, the film can feel highly derivative of the original, and made it somewhat difficult to justify the existences of this sequel. It also dosen't help that the screenplay is extremely weak. I believe that the main culprit for this issue is co-writer Kenya Barris, who is best know for his work on ABC's “Black-ish”. While he didn’t necessarily do a bad job co-writing, he did not really add anything worth commending as the overall tone of this film feels very similar to that of “Black-ish”, and not in a good way.

In the end, I did somewhat enjoy this film. Even though the screenplay is incredibly weak and holds it down significantly, all of the actors did an incredible job with the material they were given, the film moves at a lightning pace, and the plot was really well thought-out. If only that screenplay had been better, this film would have been much better than what we got.

Final Grade: B-

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“Coming 2 America” will be streaming on Amazon Prime Video March 5th.