Coming 2 America

   Ever since Coming to America hit theaters in 1988 it was an instant classic. The first Coming to America movie stars Eddie Murphy as Prince Akeem and Arsenio Hall as his loyal servant Semmi. The movie is about Prince Akeem's journey to New York City in search of his one true love. Who ends up being Lisa Mcdowell (Shari Headley). The movie is jammed packed with iconic scenes and famous characters. And while a lot of the characters return in the sequel it does not have the same magic as the original. 

   It has been thirty years since Prince Akeem went to American and found his one true love, but in those thirty years, he was unable to father a son. Which is what he was led to believe. But it turns out that while they were in America Semmi set him up with a one-night stand who got him high and then proceeded to sleep with him. This resulted in the son Prince Akeem never thought he'd have. After his father, King Jaffe (James Earl Jones) passes, Akeem travels to America to retrieve him. Not only does he now have an heir, but the neighboring country Nexdoria is no longer a threat to his throne. 

   Akeem's son Levelle (Jermaine Fowler) and his mother Mary (Leslie Jones) are then taken to Zamunda so he can take part in his princely duties. At first, he is reluctant, but after a conversation with his hairdresser Marembe, he is able to work up the courage to pass the tests given to him to officially become the prince of Zamunda. Levelle is then arranged to marry the eldest daughter of Nexdoria Dictator General Izzi (Wesley Snipes). But at his ascension party, Levelle overhears General Izzi telling King Akeem how smart it was to use his bastard son as a pawn to save his own life.

   After hearing this news and feeling betrayed, Levelle and the rest of his family decide to return to Queens. It is there that Levelle and Marembe decide to get married as they have fallen in love. King Akeem finds out and after a stern talking too from his wife he flies to Queens to convince Lavelle to come back. Although, it is not Akeem who convinces him. Ultimately it was Marembe who convinces Levelle to return. Queens is not her home and if she were to get married she'd want to get married back in Zamunda. 

   King Akeem then decides that a male heir is no longer needed and appoints his oldest daughter Princess Meeka as heir. After an altercation with Meeka General Izzi agrees with this course of action as Meeka has proven herself to be a strong leader. 

   Upon hearing that Coming to America was going to have a sequel I was skeptical. The original was classic and making a second could ruin that. I was afraid that a sequel would miss the mark. Sadly I was not far from the truth.

   Coming 2 America had its moments I'll admit, but the bad outweighed the good. To start the story didn't seem well written. There were too many awkward moments and cringy scenes. The original film had many iconic characters and scenes and the sequel tried to piggyback off that. There were so many times where random moments were shoved into a scene to try and give the movie a nostalgic feel. If the film had tried and let this happen organically then the results may have been different. 

   While C2A tried to bring back characters and scenes they also tried to bring back the jokes as well. Again the writers and producers tried to capture the same magic that Coming to America had, but they didn't quite hit the mark. With Eddie Murphy and Leslie Jones starring in this movie, there were bound to movie some hilarious moments. But a lot of the jokes seemed to be forced, taken from the original, or just unfunny and cringy.

   But of course, there were a few highlights. There were few heartwarming moments when it came to Akeem and Levelle. As well as Levelle trying to navigate his new home and family. Of course, this wasn't able to overcome the movie's shortcomings, but it was still nice to see. 

   When making a sequel to such a famous movie the sequel has to be able to have its own identity. But C2A fails to do that. Sure new characters and countries were introduced, but they didn't seem well written. We learned almost nothing about Akeems other children or about what Queen Lisa has been up to after all these years. Coming 2 America was unable to define its own identity and relyed on riding the coattails of its predecessor.