He’s forever out of step with the times as one of his daughters reminds him when she bans an already outdated phrase from his vocabulary. Brian Truitt. Few sequels escape those shadows and “Coming to America” (1988) casts a pretty long one, as Eddie Murphy comedies go. “Coming 2 America” is the rare sequel whose title sounds identical to the original, which may be the cleverest thing about it. Vaccine eligibility in L.A. County changed on March 1. What Coming 2 America offers is effortless nostalgia and some charming moments. Speaking of intact: “Coming 2 America” features, among other things, a very public ritual circumcision, the most out-there example of the script’s generous allotment of genital-attentive humor. Check.) Akeem is both the upholder of that patriarchy and the only one in a position to dismantle it. But these moments are few and far between and too little of that infectious good-time energy extends beyond the parameters of the screen and into the audience. Coming 2 America, this 30+-years-late sequel directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle And Flow) captures that same fantastical odyssey quality beautifully. It’s a meta, bold and possibly foolhardy nod, but Coming 2 America just about gets away with it. ‘Coming 2 America’ Film Review: Eddie Murphy Plays the Hits in Rote Sequel. Where to Buy 2021 Gaming Laptops with the Newest GeForce RTX 3060, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 Video Cards. Margaret Qualley and Sigourney Weaver star in ‘My Salinger Year,’ Philippe Falardeau’s adaptation of Joanna Rakoff’s novel set in the 1990s New York literary world. Bark like a dog!) You couldn’t make “Coming to America” now, the logic goes, though that’s hardly kept millions from still enjoying it. Murphy reprises his many roles in the film, including Prince Akeem. Is that Samuel L. Jackson? (No, alas.) The African monarch Akeem learns he has a long-lost son in the United States and must return to America to meet this unexpected heir and build a relationship with his son. Review: Margaret Qualley stars as an aspiring writer in the charming ‘My Salinger Year’. (We also get the rambunctious Ugly American duo of Lavelle’s mom and uncle who, as played by Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan respectively, waste no time offending every delicate royal sensibility.) David Crosby on dinner with Joni, Phoebe Bridgers and the 50th anniversary of his haunted solo debut. Now their neighbors stand guard. March 4, 2021 2:39 p.m. PT. David Crosby was grieving his girlfriend’s death when he and friends made ‘If I Could Only Remember My Name.’ Panned in 1971, it’s now a classic. “Coming 2 America” debuts March 5 on Amazon Prime. And Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and Arsenio Hall! REELING IS A PROUD MEMBER OF… and burst into applause at every familiar face. Review: ‘The People vs. Meanwhile, stressed-out Akeem must juggle the responsibilities of a new son, the resentment of his wife and daughters and the looming threat of an angry neighboring warlord (Wesley Snipes). There was nothing in the original 1988 Coming to America to suggest that it would warrant a sequel, other than its box-office success and enduring pop-culture presence. Review: 'Coming 2 America' forgot to pack the laughs The crowning accomplishment of "Coming 2 America" -- which launches on Prime Video March 5 -- … Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall explain why a white actor was cast in ‘Coming to America’, Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall told Jimmy Kimmel that Paramount forced them to cast Louie Anderson in their 1988 comedy classic “Coming to America.”, That sounds reactionary, but “Coming 2 America” is either too timid (it’s rated PG-13) or too lazy to muster a coherent political stand in either direction. Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall are back, and so are the laughs. The movie tries to compensate for its unapologetic royalism with hand-wringing about the Zamundan patriarchy but stops short of making its female characters too interesting or distinctive. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Look, it’s Paul Bates! ... Coming 2 America is the latest Hollywood classic to go through the sequel machine. Murphy returns as Akeem, now King of Zamunda, with three daughters by … Why Eddie Murphy returned to Zamunda for ‘Coming 2 America’. I am referring, of course, to the movie’s obligatory Queens barbershop reunion, where a prosthetics-slathered Murphy and Hall dispense antediluvian wisecracks about race, gender identity and sexual harassment only to grumble about how in these too-sensitive times, you can’t get away with saying everything they just got away with saying. Violence and hate incidents directed at Asian Americans have surged across California since the pandemic, with some blaming Asians because of the coronavirus’ origins in Wuhan, China. Back in the summer of 1989, CBS aired a one-and-done TV pilot for a proposed Coming to America … Coming 2 America, under Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow), has a lighter, swifter hand. He is the author of the book “FilmCraft: Editing” and serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. For all the dated, off-key moments in its tale of a clueless prince who leaves his fantasy kingdom of Zamunda to look for love in New York, the goofy sincerity of its cross-cultural comedy and the sweetness of its romance remain intact. How to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine in Los Angeles County. It takes the classic comedy’s original conceit and flips it, and finds its comedic rhythm after treading water for its opening moments. Drug Content, Language, Crude and Sexual Content. "Coming 2 America" is a surprise and a delight as a sequel to the Eddie Murphy classic "Coming to America" that honors the past but also moves forward. And John Amos! You can actually delineate quite easily — try “the original one” and “the lousy one,” for instance — but those homophonic titles are oddly fitting. Review: Subtle Moroccan drama ‘Adam’ turns on bond between women. That isn’t terrible or surprising. And also the most confusing, bound to throw off anyone trying to delineate the two aloud. Review: ‘Boss Level’s’ time-loop action doesn’t get old. Coming 2 America was mean to be part of a wider comeback effort from Murphy, who had pre-Covid plans to follow up 2019’s Dolemite Is My Name with a new stand-up tour. USA TODAY. Revisiting it recently for the first time in decades was a strange experience, enchanting and deflating by turns. An Asian American family in O.C. Coming 2 America is now available exclusively on Amazon Prime. Exclusive: Four New Coming 2 America Posters Show Royal Glow-Up For Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, and Co. View All. Review: ‘Lost Course’ puts us on the inside of a small Chinese village’s big protest. Yet few led as influential a life. ‘The Truffle Hunters,’ a documentary about local men searching a forest in Italy for a rare variety of the gastronomic delicacy. The Wide Shot brings you news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production — and what it all means for the future. From time to time, “Coming 2 America” stirs to life, especially when it goes full-on musical pageant and allows a stream of performers, including Salt-N-Pepa and Gladys Knight, to take center stage in lavish numbers choreographed by Fatima Robinson. 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How Eddie Murphy and “Dolemite Is My Name” director Craig Brewer reteamed for “Coming 2 America,” a sequel more than 30 years in the making. Directed by Maryam Touzani. Few people outside of the skateboarding world knew of Jeff Grosso before his death a year ago of a drug overdose. French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux’s absurdist comedy “Keep an Eye Out” turns the policier on its procedural ear. ‘Coming 2 America’ Review: Eddie Murphy Offers the Right Kind of Fan Service in Funny-Enough Sequel. IGN Store: We got Tees for Spider-Man, Star Wars, and more! Nearly every joke from the first film gets retold or rerun in this super-safe, long-delayed follow-up. By contrast, Akeem’s long-lost son Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler), who is quickly embraced with nary a paternity test, turns out to be an under-employed goofball who could hardly be less qualified for the throne. Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy in the movie “Coming 2 America.”. “Coming 2 America” premieres on Amazon Prime on 3/5/21. Find a flick with our guide to new and classic movies playing outdoors at L.A.-area drive-ins, pop-ups and rooftops. “Coming 2 America” could easily have been a cash-in, but the film gets a lot of mileage (and goodwill) from that palpable sense of earnest dedication. Life isn’t all fun and games, though: Lavelle will have to prove his worth by tussling with a lion and mastering a crash course in Zamundan history. What’s playing at the drive-in: ‘Raya and the Last Dragon,’ ‘Coming 2 America’ and more. Both have the slick, somewhat anonymous watchability that has become the director’s aesthetic signature and in both you sense the actors likely had a good time on the set, feeding off each other’s rhythms and relishing the heft and detail of magnificently multi-hued costumes (designed in both cases by Ruth E. Carter, a recent Oscar winner for “Black Panther”). ‘Coming 2 America’ Review: Eddie Murphy Sequel Feels More Like a Low-Key Remake In the three decades since Prince Akeem first came to America, the … Murphy remains in fine form, as does Hall. That Akeem appears to have been the victim of a drug-enabled sexual assault is quickly laughed off — or brushed aside, rather, given the script’s dismal ratio of actual to theoretical laughs — as he and his closest confidant, Semmi (Arsenio Hall), return to the scene of their Queens gambit and locate the illegitimate heir. If “Coming 2 America” mostly flails as comedy, it’s not without interest as a portrait of middle-aged burnout and compromise. Check. Murphy and Snipes notably did terrific, career-rejuvenating work together in last year’s “Dolemite Is My Name,” whose director, Craig Brewer, also made this movie. Jill Li’s epic political documentary “Lost Course” goes inside protests and their aftermath in the Chinese village of Wukan. And so “Coming 2 America” unimaginatively reverses the fish-out-of-water formula: Instead of the wide-eyed Zamundan naif bellowing salutary expletives on a fire escape, we get the street-smart New Yorker gobsmacked by his new palatial digs. The lack of a proper audience doesn’t help: “Coming 2 America” would appear to be the victim of spectacularly wretched timing, having waited 33 years to be born only to see its original theatrical distributor, Paramount Pictures, turn it over to Amazon Studios for a princely sum due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Critic Reviews for Coming 2 America. And more than 30 years later, no one involved in Coming 2 America has found a good reason for the sequel to exist, despite a handful of funny moments and a cast clearly having a good time returning to the fictional African …