When we heard through the grape vine that Coming to America 2 is well coming, we had to revisit the first film for you.
This movie starts off in a rich African nation of Zamunda, where our male lead Eddie Murphy plays the crown prince Akeem Joffer where he is pampered from head to foot with lavishness. His 21st birthday is coming up and he is being pressured by King Jaffe (played by James Earl Jones) and Queen Aoleon to get into an arranged married. Even with his lifestyle he wishes to find an independent woman whom he thinks is worthy to be his bride, not an arranged one where she would only be silent and follows his every whim. So he schemes a plot where he was able to persuade his father the king that he would go on a sabbatical before he would be in an arranged marriage.
Unknown to his parents, his sabbatical, which he deemed to in Queens, New York, he would have a secret agenda. To find his true bride among the folks Queens. He brings along his trusted aide Semmi (played by Arsenio Hall) to America and both impersonates poor immigrants from Africa. Akeem then got rid of their richly possessions and chose to don themselves with common clothes and poor housing.
Akeem then proceeded to find his bride until he saw one in Lisa McDowell. A daughter of a fast food restaurant owner who happens to have a rude and obnoxious rich boyfriend. To get close to her, Akeem then decided to seek employment at the restaurant where Lisa worked, getting entry-level jobs in the process. Akeem through his efforts to be with Lisa finally paid off when Lisa's boyfriend proposes marriage and she wasn't in on it. A moment thereafter Akeem gave a beautiful talk to Lisa to make her see more of Akeem's charm. Lisa was intrigue by his attitude, which was very surprising for a son of a goat herder (Akeem's cover story). This lead the two into dating and Akeem was very happy knowing that Lisa was kind and sweet as well as beautiful. Semmi, Akeem's aide not accustomed to being "common" decided to spruce up their home which was almost caught by Lisa. Thus Akeem took the remaining cash from Semmi and gives it away to two homeless men.
Semmi having no more money, then sends a telegraph to King Jaffe that there was a need for more money. This request was made without Akeem's knowing and the King was worried as to what happened to them that he went to New York to find out.
Finally the truth was out, Lisa then learns that Akeem is not what he is supposed to be and that he really is the crown prince. She felt that she was deceived by Akeem and was angry at him. Even with Akeem's persuasions of love and marriage did not hold with Lisa and she refused his proposal. Feeling heartbroken by the events that unfold, Akeem then accepts his fate into the arranged marriage.
On their way back, Aoleon reprimanded King Jaffe of bringing upon their son, heartache and pain. Pushing upon Akeem ancient traditions of marriage instead of giving happiness to the crown prince. King Jaffe then asked Aoleon who could change their age old traditions, Aoleon simply replied "I thought you were the King".
Fast forward to Akeem's wedding day, he is still heart broken about Lisa even on the altar while his bride to be walked down the aisle. Lo and behold when the veil was lifted, it was Lisa who was with him on the altar. His parents made sure that Lisa was there to be his bride. Lisa was touched by Akeem's efforts in New York that she finally decided to marry him. Happy ending.
The movie is basically a romantic story about rebelling against arranged marriages then sways into a fish out of water scenario complete with will you love me even when I am poor kind of thinking by lying and you will be caught doing it before you finally reveal who you really are.
This was Eddie Murphy's era to shine as he had a string of movie hits and coupled with a great actor in Arsenio Hall, this movie is not going to fail in the comedy section. Drama is not Murphy's suit during this age so forgive him if he tries to lie to Lisa all during this time and I can't seem to agree. His character flaw here is we think not his fault, Akeem's fault that is. Eddie Murphy was playing 4 characters in the movie. He is the prince, then the singer of that fictional band Sexual Chocolate, the white Jewish barbershop patron and the owner of the barber shop. Knowing this, we appreciate his efforts playing the crown prince. We are at awe with his acting prowess, how he could have pulled off 4 characters in one movie.
Arsenio Hall did the same as well. He played 3 other characters next to Semmi. As the Reverend Brown of the church, a barber and that female clubgoer. He also shines along with Murphy in the acting department but like Murphy his Semmi character also took a hit in the performance department. Even so, both held them nicely till the end making the film a likeable one.
When we got hold of the rumors on the sequel, we read that they will be playing again many characters and that they writing the script for it. With Eddie Murphy's prowess increased while he aged, we shall expect a better Akeem. He showed his superb acting in Dolomite so we expect nothing less with this sequel. Arsenio Hall reportedly said yes and would like to come back as Semmi so this coming film will be a blast for sure.
