![]() All this so he can neutralize a potential geopolitical conflict with his restive neighbors in the kingdom of Nextdooria, led by General Izzi. With that, Prince Akeem has to travel to America, bring back his bastard heir and his bastard’s mother and uncle, played by Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan, and hopefully get his line of succession sorted. Luckily, as related to us by a snaggle-toothed, hilariously outfitted witch doctor played by Arsenio Hall (seriously, this costume is a perfect sight gag and would be worth the price of admission alone, if there was one), it turns out that Akeem sired a bastard child on his original sojourn to Queens - Lavelle Junson, played by Jermaine Fowler, an underachieving 30-year-old who scalps tickets outside Madison Square Garden. In this update, Prince Akeem (Murphy) is living happily in his kingdom of Zamunda, though he has one big problem: his father (played again by the thankfully-still-alive James Earl Jones) is on his deathbed and Akeem, who has sired three daughters, doesn’t have a male heir. I’m not exaggerating when I say that costume designer Ruth E. Even when it’s not laugh-out-loud funny Coming 2 America is still fun to look at. Above all, everyone seems to be having fun, and not in a needy way. It didn’t always make me laugh (though I laughed plenty) but it always made me smile. It’s as much a musical costume party extravaganza as it is movie. Muppet puppeteer Frank Oz even gets a shout-out in the airport scene, when the PA pages “Frank Oznowicz.”Ĭoming 2 America, this 30+-years-late sequel directed by Craig Brewer ( Hustle And Flow) captures that same fantastical odyssey quality beautifully. In that way, Coming To America felt a little like a Muppet movie - two sort of straight men on an odyssey through a fantastical world full of wonder and puppets (or at least, actors in so much makeup that they might as well be puppets). Meanwhile, playing all the side characters in heavy make-up gave Murphy an outlet for his inner ham and channeled that energy where it best served the story. The funniest part of Eddie Murphy getting hit with an entire vanilla shake was him not reacting to it. Murphy wisely played it straight, letting the humor come naturally from the situations Akeem was in. Murphy played an African prince, where virtually anyone else in his situation then and now would have played him as famous-comedian-comedically-playing-African-Prince. Murphy doesn’t get enough credit for his choice to play Prince Akeem believably. Mostly it was charming, didn’t have the reek of desperation that comes from trying too hard, and was funny enough when it had to be. ![]() ![]() Maybe it helps that Coming To America (1988) wasn’t the world’s funniest movie. Of all the people to finally get it right, who would’ve expected it to be Eddie Murphy, the guy who seemingly spent an entire decade doing bad kids movies? Super Troopers, Zoolander, Dumb and Dumber, Ghostbusters, Bill & Ted (sorry) - all tried to get their respective bands back together, and all turned in, to varying degrees, uneven rehashes of old jokes. To look over on the set, seeing her, I had a big giant proud papa moment every day." We can't wait to see the father-daughter duo share the screen when the film hits Amazon Prime Video on March 5.Virtually no one does good comedy sequels, especially decades after the fact. "You know, if you have children, your child could do like a school play, and your heart will burst with pride. "I can't even put into words, Al," he said. While chatting with Today's Al Roker, he couldn't help but go into proud dad mode. "And I'm really proud with how it turned out." "I just really wanted to do the best that I could," she added. "I didn't want people to watch it and be like, 'Oh, that must be his daughter 'cause she can't keep up with everyone else,'" she said. Otherwise, she wouldn't have gotten the role."īella added that she really went to "be good" in the role. She had to really be able to - you know, to deliver. "I wasn't musclin' my kid into the movie. "She had to audition for Craig Brewer, who directed the movie," Eddie told Good Morning America. In fact, Eddie was adamant about her auditioning for the role. However, just because Bella is Eddie's daughter doesn't mean she got special treatment. Not only does the role mark her feature film debut, but the 19-year-old actually plays one of Prince Akeem and Lisa McDowell's three daughters, Omma. The sequel to 1988's Coming to America follows Murphy's character, Prince Akeem, as he discovers he has a long-lost son, but it also features his real-life daughter, Bella, whom he shares with ex-wife Nicole Mitchell Murphy. ![]() Eddie Murphy's Coming 2 Americais sure to be a family affair. ![]()
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