{"id":4129,"date":"2024-09-19T03:30:38","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T03:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4129"},"modified":"2024-10-12T20:52:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T20:52:55","slug":"coming-to-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/19\/coming-to-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming to America"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Coming to America <\/strong>(1988)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, nudity, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Landis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: David Sheffield and Barry W. Blaustein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Nile Rogers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Woody Omens\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 29, 1988 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Madge Sinclair, John Amos, Shari Headly, Paul Bates, Louie Anderson, Eriq La Salle, Frankie Faison, Clint Smith, Vanessa Bell, Allison Dean, Sheila Johnson, Jake Steinfeld, Samuel L. Jackson, Calvin Lockhart, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Elaine Kagan, Garcelle Beauvais, Feather, Stephanie Simon, Victoria Dillard, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $128.1M (US)\/$288.7M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0Does anybody else remember when Eddie Murphy was actually funny and made good movies like 48 Hrs., Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop? I even enjoyed The Golden Child, Beverly Hills Cop II and Harlem Nights. My favorite Eddie movie is the rom-com Coming to America<\/strong>. It\u2019s a real departure for the former SNL cast member who taps into his sweet side to play an African prince who comes to America to find his true love. We\u2019re used to seeing him as streetwise, smart ass characters like Reggie Hammond and Axel Foley. Who knew he could be a romantic lead? It was a bold move on John Landis\u2019 (The Blues Brothers) to cast the star off in untested waters. It works like a charm. In my not at all humble opinion, it\u2019s the best performance of Murphy\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As per his country\u2019s tradition, Prince Akeem (Murphy) of the fictional African nation of Zamunda will celebrate his 21st<\/sup> birthday by meeting and marrying his arranged bride-to-be. He\u2019s not completely on board with it. He\u2019d rather marry a woman he chooses for himself, one who loves him for who he is instead of what he has. His father King Jaffe (Jones, Conan the Barbarian), misunderstanding his son\u2019s intentions, sends him to America to \u201csow his royal oats”.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Akeem, along with his best friend\/personal aide Semmi (Hall, Harlem Nights), decides to go to Queens in New York. What better place to find his queen? After settling into a squalid tenement apartment in the guise of foreign students, they hit the clubs only to meet a succession of crazy women. They end up at a Black Awareness rally where Akeem spots Lisa (Headley, The Haves and the Have Nots) for the first time. Instantly smitten by the young attractive woman, He and Semmi get jobs at a fast food restaurant owned by her father Cleo (Amos, Good Times) where Akeem attempts to woo Lisa away from her rich arrogant jerk of a boyfriend Darryl (La Salle, ER). Naturally, they fall for each other. He keeps up the poor student charade, but it\u2019s only a matter of time before the cat\u2019s out of the bag.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As I long suspected about Murphy, there\u2019s a good actor beneath the familiar persona. He proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt in Coming to America<\/strong>, a good-natured comedy that marks the first time Murphy played multiple roles in a movie. Thanks to the awesome skills of Oscar-winning makeup artist Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London), the actor-comedian also plays a barber, a terrible soul singer and an elderly Jewish man. Hall follows suit by playing another barber, a preacher and a cross-dresser the guys meet in a club. It\u2019s one of my favorite things about Coming to America<\/strong> even though it ultimately gave rise to Murphy repeating the trick in other movies- e.g. Nutty Professor I & II, Bowfinger and Norbit. ANYWAY, he\u2019s absolutely brilliant in Coming to America<\/strong>. He gets laughs the old-fashioned way, he earns them. He has some riotous moments as his character tries to adapt to life in America. One of my favorite scenes has him standing on the fire escape outside his apartment joyously greeting the world by announcing \u201cGood morning, my neighbors!\u201d The response he gets is so typical of New York. I laughed a lot during Coming to America<\/strong>, but this scene had me rolling. I also love the scenes in the barber shop with the guys arguing and debating subjects like Joe Lewis and Cassius Clay\/Muhammad Ali. Oh, and we mustn\u2019t forget Soul Glo, a popular Jheri curl hairstyling aide used by Darryl and his family (they own the company).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Kudos to Landis on the supporting cast from which Coming to America<\/strong> benefits greatly. Jones brings class to EVERYTHING he\u2019s in. He\u2019s magnificently regal as King Jaffe, a ruler so hung up on tradition, he doesn\u2019t see how unhappy his son is. When he learns of Lisa, he\u2019s against it and tries to stop it. Madge Sinclair (Roots) is also great as Queen Aoleon, Akeem\u2019s supportive mother. She and Jones are an excellent pair; they would go on to voice Simba\u2019s parents in The Lion King. Amos, whose character owns a McDonald\u2019s knock-off called McDowell\u2019s, is terrific as Lisa\u2019s father. Headley is positively delightful as Lisa, an independent type tired of Darryl\u2019s BS. She and Murphy have amazing chemistry. He also works well with co-star Hall giving him room to do his own thing. Really, the whole cast does a fine job. BTW, look for an in-joke scene featuring a couple of characters from a previous Landis comedy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Landis has a gift for broad comedies. He’s the guy responsible for classics like Animal House, The Blues Brothers and Trading Places. Coming to America<\/strong> is a change of pace for him too. It\u2019s quieter than we\u2019re used to seeing from him. He tells a nice love story with very funny moments sprinkled throughout. He earns points for not treating Africa and its citizens like a joke a la Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Although none of it is actually filmed in Africa, Landis showcases their style of dress and dance in the scene where Akeem meets his intended bride-to-be. It\u2019s nice to see Africa get the respect it deserves.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I don’t know what else to say about Coming to America<\/strong> that I haven\u2019t already said. It’s one of those movies you can watch over and over and not get bored. It\u2019s funny at the right moments. It\u2019s sweet watching Murphy and Headley\u2019s characters fall in love. Akeem is a genuinely nice person; there\u2019s not a mean bone in his body. He\u2019s even respectful when disarming a robber (played by Samuel L. Jackson) that tries to hold up McDowell\u2019s. I just LOVE this movie! It should be used as a template for film students in Rom-Com 101. It\u2019s a perfect example of its genre.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming to America (1988)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, nudity, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Landis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: David Sheffield and Barry W. Blaustein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Nile Rogers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Woody Omens\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 29, 1988 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Madge Sinclair, John Amos, Shari Headly, Paul Bates, Louie Anderson, Eriq […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-these-are-some-classic-flicks","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Coming-to-America-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4129"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4767,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions\/4767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}