Thirty years have passed since the crown prince of the African state, Zamunda Akim (Eddie Murphy), went to America, to New York, to find a woman there who would love him not because he is the crown prince, but for his personality. out of touch with any material wealth. Akim and his servant and friend Sammy (Arsenio Hall) in New York then posed as impoverished African students and got a job at Cleo McDowell’s (John Amos) McDowell’s diner. Akim met Cleo’s daughter Lisa (Shari Headley), they fell in love, and in the end it all ended in a fun wedding in Zamund, because the king-father Jaffy Joffer (James Earl Jones) realized that he should not impose his will on his son and force Akim to marry a well-born girl from the neighboring Neighborhood.
Thirty years have passed. Akim and Lisa gave birth to three daughters, the eldest of whom Miika (Kiki Lane) is preparing herself to rule the country, but Akim knows that Miika will not be able to take the throne of Zamunda after him, because the state was traditionally ruled only by men. And Akim has no heir, which fills the hearts of both Akim and Jaffy Joffer with sadness.
King Jaffi announces to his son that he is dying and asks him to give him a magnificent funeral now, while he has not yet died, so that he can see it all, but then the sorcerer Baba (Arsenio Hall) comes to the king, who reports that he was a vision that Akim in America has an illegitimate child. The prince laughs at this ridiculous suggestion, but Sammy reminds him that when he and Akim were in Queens looking for girlfriends in the bars, they found a couple of chicks there and went to their house, where Akim was fumigated with ceremonial herbs, and he does not remember anything else. And in vain, because then something happened. And now the result of this something…
His name is Lavell Janson (Jemaine Fowler), he still lives in the same Queens with his mother Mary (Leslie Jones) and her relatives. He does not know his father, so Lavelle is raised – in his own way, of course – by his uncle Rome (Tracey Morgan).
Lavell does not object to this, in principle, he has no prospects in Queens anyway, since the pompous white pigs do not hire him, but he categorically demands that Mary’s mother fly with him.
Akim, of course, understands that the appearance of Mary in the palace will greatly complicate his relationship with his wife Lisa, but Lavell stands firm, so Akim has to agree.
***
When rumors about this project were first heard, almost all moviegoers said: “Guys, what are you talking about?!! What the hell, a sequel, thirty years have passed!!!”
The script for the sequel was written by two completely murky screenwriters, in whose arsenal they only work on films-series with a rating below the plinth. However, Craig Brewer sat in the director’s chair, who at least directed a very peppy film called Dolemite Is My Name, where Eddie Murphy seemed to have returned to his youth.
Initially, it was clear that Eddie Murphy himself was the driving force behind the project, and he attracted many of the actors from the original film for the sequel to the maximum: of the iconic characters in the sequel, only actress Madge Sinclair, Queen Aoleon from Coming to America, was missing, because the actress She passed away in 1995 at the age of 57.
But King Joffee is present, albeit not for long, the beautiful Fox is present (and I note that actress Shari Headley looks great thirty years later), old McDowell (John Amos) is also on the horse of his imitation of McDonald’s, although he refuses to recognize this imitation, yes and Master of Ceremonies Okha (Paul Bates) does the ceremony too, including the obligatory ceremony song, so basically everything is in place.
The only thing is that they didn’t agree on a cameo with Samuel L Jackson, but it’s a pity: I saw the old Samuel for the first time in the first “Journey to America”.
Listen, I was well aware that they couldn’t do anything well in the sequel: everyone had aged thirty years, the old film was still shot by John Landis, so, apparently, they decided to just play on nostalgic old farts who still remember this comedy hit of the end eighties, and this hit, by the way, then even received two Oscar nominations – however, for the best costumes and the best make-up. And by the way, even then this film was reproached for racism, because there was only one white man present – Louis Anderson. (Not counting the small but funny cameos by Ralph Bellamy and Don Amici, with whom Murphy starred in the excellent comedy Trading Places.)
In the new film – it’s not like that! True, the entire diversity of the white race here is also represented by the same Louis Anderson, however, another white character has been added here: the vile descendant of the vile rich Dukes Mr. Duke (Colin Jost), who refused to hire Lavelle Janson because he is black, but Lavell wished Mr. Duke that his old student photos showed the blackface of Mr. Duke, after which Mr. Duke’s career would come to an end. And it was a good joke, because it’s never a joke at all.
What other white people appear in this sequel? In principle, they don’t exist at all, except for a one-legged white old Jewish man from a barbershop, who, of course, is a homosexual, but here the ambush is that Eddie Murphy plays him … However, they tell me here that there is no ambush in this: black can play white, that’s fine, but if white dares to play black twenty or thirty years ago…
Okay, something we went deep somewhere in the wrong place. So what’s up with the sequel? Quite a waste or can you still see it?
I will say this. The start seemed pretty bad. With this story that Akim, having smoked, nevertheless sowed the royal oats, and with the appearance of this creepy Leslie Jones on the stage with the traditional super-vulgar jokes of such a typical black mamacita (yes, they are racists, racists!) – I even thought it was time turn it all off.
But still I began to look further and, in general, did not regret it. It is clear that the sequel is intended to make money for those who watched the first film. It is clear that he has practically nothing to do with the first film, except, I note, direct inserts from the first film, which made me immediately stop watching the sequel and re-watch the original film.
However, they didn’t suck. It’s just that this sequel is practically Bollywood! That is almost an Indian film! From the point of view of the plot – no doubt: Luke, I’m your biological fazha from your smear Mary, who fucked me by smoking both of us – well, it’s lovely! And there the whole plot is like this, including clowning with General Izey from a neighboring country – well, of course Neighbors – and other plot twists.
Also in the style of Bollywood, there are abundant songs and abundant dances, and they are just very good, and here the songs are not Bollywood at all (which are also good), and among the speakers there are at least N Vogue, Salt-N-Pepa and John Legend, as well as several other performers whom I did not really identify, but they are obviously very famous.
With dances and costumes, everything is also very well staged: the work of decorators and artists even reminded the sequel of the old song “Wakanda, Wakanda, Wakanda is mine.”
The picture, of course, in vain claims to be a sequel to the good old “Journey to America”, where there was a cool plot, where there was a cool prince of Zamunda Akim, who, even working as a garbage man, could not hide royal upbringing and nobility, and where there was a bunch of cool jokes, which we all – old farts who watched the original thirty years ago – still remember.
Nevertheless, if you do not consider this film as a sequel, then you can even watch it. Just don’t expect anything from him.
Yes, the beginning is very sad. The main characters have aged thirty years, the script has aged a hundred years, and it seems that everything will be very bad.
However, when the bastard son appears (that’s what they call him in the film), then everything becomes noticeably better, because the actor Jemaine Fowler (I haven’t seen him anywhere before), who played Lavelle Janson, is generally quite worthy: charismatic and charming, while this is not trying to portray himself as “yo, brazafaka” and all that. Just a kid from Queens who suddenly turned up in Zamunda and took it very nicely.
He will develop an affair there – no, of course, not with his older sister, but with the Zamundian hairdresser Mirembe, played by a very pretty actress Nomzamo Mbata – well, and there it was quite fun to show how Lavell passes the royal trials.
Well, in general, somewhere in the middle of the film, it all swayed into an unpretentious, but quite decent comedy, which I even finished watching, not without pleasure. Mary, in the person of Leslie Jones, was responsible for typical vulgar jokes from such films, but in the end she even began to look more or less decent. Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall at least did not spoil the movie background, Wesley Snipes chicly lit up in the role of this clown general Izzy (“Izya,” Bublik corrected the cat, “we agreed to call him Izay”), Tracy Morgan traditionally lit up in the style of Tracy Morgan, and the plot at the end even led to the correct idea that instead of a boy from Queens who came from nowhere, Zamunda should be ruled by a woman, the king’s daughter, who has been preparing herself for this mission since childhood and who is quite worthy of this mission! And let the guy from Queens have fun with the hairdresser and help her open another, two thousand and third, hairdressing salon in Queens.
Bagel and I, by the way, approve the main message of this film entirely! To hell with it is not clear what kind of bastards, even charismatic ones! This world should be ruled by women! Because they are more practical, because they are less prone to all sorts of stupid temptations, because they think more logically than any men, and because they do not like to solve any problems by force!
So what happened? This is a great movie, we think! Why did we suddenly give him only 6.2 with a clearly unfair rating on IMDB 5.6?! No, we change it to 6.5 – this film is quite worthy of this. And to you Bollywood, and beautiful, and dancing, and songs, and la historia de un amor – King Zamunda’s ashes require me to put 6.5 – I put Jaffy Joffer: sleep well, your majesty, Queen Miika will take care of Zamunda, she will be able!
PS That’s funny with the original title of the sequel. The first film was called Coming to America. Sequel – Coming 2 America. Witty.
Coming 2 America movie review
Director: Craig Brewer Cast: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Jemaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, Kiki Lane, Shari Headley, Wesley Snipes, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Morgan Freeman, Colin Jost, Nomzamo Mbatha
Comedy, USA, 2021, 110 min.