Coming 2 America: Am I The Only One Thinking We Missed Something?
The hype was real but the movie was a tad off. It’s hard for a sequel to live up to the original and for Coming 2 America, it had 30 years to make up in a short time. While fans dogged the screenplay, what else were they supposed to do? How can a PG-13 Rated movie shine against an R-Rated movie that was done when its star was at the prime of his career?
There were many faults when it came to Coming 2 America and some of them could not be helped. For example, the legendary barbers. 30 years ago, they stole every scene they were in. But looking back, they were old and grey then. So, how are they still alive, sitting and talking the same junk they were 30 years ago? How did they not age? In the original, they had to be at least 50-60 years old. In the sequel, that would have put them at 80-90.
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Another thing that stood out was the language. 30 years ago Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall were on a different level as far as their language goes. As they have matured so did their subject matter. The older generation was looking for the old Eddie but what we got was the A Thousand Words/Shrek– Eddie. When it was revealed that the movie would be PG-13, we should have known what was or wasn’t coming.
Where was the DNA test?
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why there was no DNA Test given to Lavelle. The little dirty old vision man at the beginning of the film said he saw the vision of Eddie’s son and I guess that was good enough for the audience. No, it should have been more. When Akeem arrived and said he was Levelle’s father, not only did Levelle not believe him but neither did the mother. She appeared to be just as shocked as everyone else.
There was No Bonding
What made the original Coming To America so good besides the comedy was the bonding that happened in the movie. Akeem went searching for his wife but he also got to know Lisa McDowell in the process. And not just Lisa, Akeem went out of his way to get to know her father Cleo McDowell. In the sequel, the film was short on that aspect. While Levelle did bond with Mirembe, he had no such chemistry with his father, sisters, or stepmom.
All in all, Coming 2 America was not a total disaster. Times have changed and so have the actors but a 30-year wait should have resulted in something better.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
