Coming 2 America – An Unoriginal Cash Grab Sequel

Some sequels serve as fantastic continuations of the original titles. Films like Scream 2, Hot Shots Part 2, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom fall in that realm. Some sequels up the game and even manage to surpass the first entry. The Godfather Part 2, The Empire Strikes Back and The Bourne Supremacy can be included in this category. Unfortunately, some sequels are merely cash grabs and don’t even scratch the surface of what the original movie was. That’s the category that the sequel to 1988’s classic comedy Coming to America, Coming 2 America, falls into.

Taking place 30 years after going to America for the first time, Coming 2 America saw Prince Akeem (Murphy) assume the throne and soon realize he has another problem to solve. According to the rules of his country, his heir must be a man, but he only has 3 daughters and no male heir. With his crown and his country being shaken by this revelation, he discovers his father and him loyal right hand Semmi (Hall) concealed the truth from him: he does have a male heir, living in Queens and conceived during a one night stand during Akeem’s first visit to the country. From there, Akeem brings his son Lavelle (Fowler) and his mother (Leslie Jones) to Zamunda to start preparing him to one day become a ruler.

Let’s start with the fact that the entire plot of Coming 2 America doesn’t make real sense since the ending of the original contradicts what happens in this film. In the original, King Jaffe (James Earl Jones) changes the rules of the country so that Akeem can marry the woman he loves. He is able to do it because he is the king, and that is pointed out directly through a dialogue with the queen. So, it doesn’t make any sense that he wouldn’t be able to just change the rules about the inheritance of the crown just as simply as he did before. Additionally, why did they wait 30 years to tell Akeem he has a son when the country was on the brink of a crisis?

Coming to America was a charming film with some hilarious moments scattered throughout, starting with the over-the-top prologue. That prologue worked so well because it wasn’t the film, it was just the premise and the introduction of the story. The fictional country of Zamunda was only featured in a couple of scenes, and then the film toned it down considerably once Akeem moved to New York. Here, the entire story happens in Zamunda and the humor simply doesn’t deliver. The humor in the original came as a surprise in that it was really absurd. In Coming 2 America, nothing tops what happened in the original, and this film even tones it down. What worked then doesn’t work nearly as well this time around.

Overall, there is little to be amused with in Coming 2 America. The film is simply not funny, and it is apparent that it exists solely as an ego-trip for its two leads so they get to play in disguise. Curiously, the only actor who really shines here is Wesley Snipes as General Izzi, the king of a neighboring country who wants his kids to marry Akeem’s. He is the only standout in a film that disappoints at every turn.

In the end, the lack of unoriginality in this sequel makes it become boring pretty fast.

still courtesy of Amazon Studios

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