3 Lessons Learned from Amazon Prime's Coming 2 America

Quick! What are your top 5 favourite movies?

It’s not really a parlour trick, but if you corner me on the street and ask me about my favourite films, I’d be able to list them off with ease. I’ve put some thought into this well-curated list.

Here they are, in ascending order:

5. Matilda

4. Friday

3. 200 lbs Beauty

2. Goodfellas

1. Coming to America

Let’s get this out of the way: this is not a review of Coming 2 America. What? Are you crazy? Are you seriously going to ask me if this film holds a candle to one of my all-time favourite movies?

No — this is not a review, but more of a contemplation of a movie over 30 years in the making. Upon watching Coming 2 America, I have realized three important things;

It’s Hard to Capture Lightning in a Bottle

A podcast I listen to — Double Toasted — brought up a pretty interesting point in their review of Coming 2 America.

A lot of what made the original so good was the acting chops of leads Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. The plot for Coming to America isn’t exactly groundbreaking; in fact, it’s your standard “fish out of water story” that had already been done with movies like Splash and Crocodile Dundee.

What truly made the film work was the chemistry between Murphy and director Ivan Reitman. Although the two men allegedly hated each other on set, it was Reitman’s directorial secret sauce mixed with Murphy’s pure comedic energy that created a final product that is still a quotably quotable classic today.

To hammer home the lightning in a bottle assessment further: consider Ghostbusters — another 80s classic by Reitman with a simple plot. It was the brilliant comedic tour de force of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson that made Ghostbusters the cult classic it is today; it very likely wouldn’t have succeeded with a different cast.

Nostalgia is a Powerful Thing

Never underestimate the power of Member Berries.

Like with the original, the plot of Coming 2 America is nothing special; it’s the classic “fish out of water” story, but reversed so that the majority of the movie is spent in Zamunda as Prince Akeem (played by Eddie Murphy) attempts to teach his newly found Brooklynite son Lavelle (played by Jermaine Fowler) how to be royal material.

The execution of the movie itself?….it’s not great. But what saves the sequel from being a total waste of time is that it hits all the right notes when it comes to nostalgia.

Remember those old wisecracking barbers from the original? They’re back!

Remember McDowell’s? It’s back!

Remember that manic, lascivious preacher? He’s back!

Remember Soul Glo? It’s back…kinda.

The movie also does some clever nods to pay homage to the legacy of the original, such as giving a living eulogy to the legend James Earl Jones.

Then there’s also stuff like casting Michael Blackson, which isn’t nostalgia per se, but is still inspired casting in the context of the film.

Black Don’t Crack

There’s a saying “Black Don’t Crack”, which alludes to the notion that Black skin tends to age more slowly, resulting in many Black people looking younger then they actually are (dat melanin).

Just look at the trailer for 1999’s The Best Man and 2013’s The Best Man Holiday and tell me "Black Don’t Crack" isn’t a thing.

There’s big “Black Don’t Crack” vibes with the return of Shari Headley as Prince Akeem’s wife Vanessa — the woman looks like she hasn’t aged a bit in over 30 years!

But there’s something to be said about “Black Don’t Crack” in regards to resiliency.

In a recent appearance on Marc Maron’s podcast, Murphy revealed he lost the love for acting after receiving numerous Razzie awards for his efforts. It was the Razzie win for Worst Actor of the Decade that broke the camel’s back and Murphy went on hiatus from acting, initially only intending to take a break for one year, which quickly morphed into six.

But Murphy persevered through the negativity.

Murphy is back and ready to make his illustrious return to Hollywood. He already came out the gates running with his Netflix hit Dolemite is My Name. Now that Coming 2 America is out and a standup comedy special is in the works (pandemic permitting), Murphy shows no signs of slowing down, those last few years of underperforming projects water under the bridge.