My suspicions raised with the martial arts fighting sequence with Akeem practicing with his daughters, it was as if Eddie Murphy just discovered the "girl power" thing almost one decade too late, making the film dated in its attempt to be in touch with today's trendy streams of inspiration. If you don't get that instantly, you've missed many movies of the 2010s (not that you missed much). And so it's a foregone conclusion that Meeka will become the queen. You can tell there's a reason why this problem exists: the same than the 'forced marriage' thing, it's the unfair law that must be canceled. And when he is put in his place by Lisa (Shari Headley) and everybody's supposed to be "about time!", I was like "couldn't that conversation happen before and spare all the trouble?". Now, why wouldn't he make the same move to let his rather competent daughter fulfill her dream? I started looking Akeem as a hypocrite and I blame the sequel for that.
To his defense, Murphy throws in the script a few lamentations about Princes generally changing once they become kings but that aspect left me with an uncomfortable thought: in the end of the first "Coming to America", Akeem resigned himself and if it wasn't for Lisa having an afterthought or his father Jaffe Joffer changing the rule, he wouldn't have married the girl of his dreams. Of course, if he did, there would be no story and maybe the first film didn't need a sequel to begin with.
Indeed, the prince who challenged his own father, who rejected the tradition, wouldn't change the rule. The problem isn't that the film takes a long detour through Queens to get to the obvious solution: change the law, but that the solution all depends on Akeem's good will. At that precise moment, anyone can guess the obvious trajectory the plot will take. What's the story about? Prince Akeem, now King of Zamunda, has three daughters, he's pressured by General Izzi, the tyrannic ruler of the neighboring country Nexdoria (got the joke?) into marrying his daughter Princess Meeka (KiKi Layne) with his son and thus guaranteeing an access to the throne because Zamunda can't be ruled by queens. The costumes and set-designs were visually creative but same can be said about "Cats". Some are cute like the three old guys' cameos and some downright funny like the promised bride who was still barking and jumping on one foot after thirty years but unfortunately, the film can't live up to the same levels of fun and the material isn't original enough to be referenced to in ten years. It's not that the film is bad but it's just a benign nostalgia-driven project that keeps basking in the shadow of the original whose references are expectedly countless.
In fact, that quote should be the stock answer to all these tiresome trends of rebooting, remaking and sequels or prequels that sprayed all over Hollywood creation like a certain virus in our everyday lives. Now, to describe my feeling about "Coming 2 America" I will paraphrase Dewey from "Malcolm in the Middle": "I expect nothing but I'm still let down". "Coming 2 America" succeeds at least in one department: it makes you realize how good he used to be and how good he can be like in his recent (and better) "Dolemite". I'm a longtime fan of Eddie Murphy, he belongs to that breed of likable comedians who can make a film that fails without failing by himself.
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