“Coming 2 America,” a follow-up to Eddie Murphy’s 1988 “Coming to America” was released by Amazon Prime, a day ahead of its original March 05 schedule. Amazon Studios bought the distribution rights to the movie since Paramount Pictures was unable to release it for showing in theaters, due to the still ongoing pandemic.

Critics’ reviews were a mixed lot but all have showered praises to the film’s Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter for her outstanding work. Working for the second time in creating costumes for the Coming to America franchise, Carter said that in creating for Black royalty, she made it so that it would depict a bit more of real African culture.

As far the film itself is concerned, Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge commented that the sequel is simply a modernised take of the original version; dishing out jokes, punchlines and propositions already used in the 1988 Coming to America movie. New York Times’ A.O. Scott was more subtle with his criticism; presenting a more positive review by mentioning that Coming 2 America is mostly funny without being inoffensive.

Coming 2 America Plot Summary

 

Megged under the direction of Craig Brewer, “Coming 2 America” is a continuation of Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) story and his forthcoming ascendancy as king of Zamunda, a fictional African kingdom that remains free from colonialism. As Prince Akeem’s father, King Jaffe (James Earl Jones) is terminally ill, his dying wish was for the prince to bring home a son he unknowingly sired during his first trip to America.

Prince Akeem didn’t know that the drug-induced tryst he had with one of the American women whom his friend and aide Semmi (Arsenio Hall) set up for him, had produced a son. Arriving in America, Prince Akeem got in touch with his first born and only male offspring, named Lavelle Junson (Jermaine Fowler), a street-smart ticket reseller doing his best to make a decent living.

He and Semmi brought Lavelle, Lavelle’s mother Mary and Uncle Reem to Zamuda, where Lavelle wilt be groomed as the next Crown Prince and successor to King Akeem. The plot thickens once the story unfolds in Zamuda, where General Izzi, the dictator of a neighboring kingdom called Nextdoria, hae been harboring a desire to annex Zamuda to his kingdom.