![]() ![]() I wasn’t holding out a lot of hope for Coming 2 America, but I was pleasantly surprised. Political intrigue and personal relationships ensue, including a threat from a military leader played by Wesley Snipes. Akeem and Semmi find Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler) and bring him back to teach him how to be a prince. ![]() In Coming 2 America, James Earl Jones’ King Jaffe Joffer sends him on a mission to America to find the male heir that can continue their royal lineage - even though Akeem has three brilliant, strong daughters that could fit the bill. Along the way, he and his sidekick Semmi, played by Arsenio Hall, meet a host of strange and hilarious characters, many of them played by the duo with heavy make-up, a hallmark Murphy would continue in subsequent years. He grows weary of his pampered lifestyle and wants to find a queen that he can fall in love with, not one that just does what he says because he’s the patriarch. In Coming to America, he played Prince Akeem of the fictional and prosperous African country Zamunda. Beverly Hills Cop 4 is on the way as well, so it seems like he’s at least partially willing to go back to the well for sequels we didn’t ask for (which is a meta joke in Coming 2 America). We’ve seen him reappear in the last couple of years with projects like Dolemite, and now Coming 2 America. And after some colossal failures like Pluto Nash, he sort of disappeared for a decade. He was raising a family in this time - the dude has 10 kids! The bad boy of comedy turned family man started making movies with good premises like The Haunted Mansion and Daddy Day Care - he just forgot to bring the laughs with him. Of course, Murphy’s output was uneven in the 90s and took a nosedive in the 2000s with a string of horrible misfires. In ‘88, he released Coming to America, which isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but was higher up on the spectrum of quality for his movies of that period. Between stand-up sets like Delirious and Raw and movies like Beverly Hills Cop (which holds up very well), Eddie Murphy became one of my guiding lights of comedy. In grade six, my friends and I used to huddle around a tape deck and listen to Eddie Murphy’s Delirious, trying to keep our laughter contained so his parents wouldn’t kick the door down like a swat team to raid our inappropriate comedy den. It’s messy, but there are laughs to be had. For some reason, we now have a sequel to the Eddie Murphy hit, Coming to America. ![]()
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