Coming to America is a rightly-beloved romantic comedy and Eddie Murphy vehicle, featuring a who's-who of prominent black actors and actresses of the late-80's/early-90's and a halfway-decent script with a fair bit of heart and wit.
And I'm going to tell you why I think it was pretty flawed.
Eddie Murphy is not miscast, let's get that out of the way right now. He ably plays against type and portrays Prince Akeem as a likable, friendly Naïve Newcomer whose frustrations with the calcified opulence of his palace life are, somehow, in an age of economic deprivation and criticism of "poverty tourism," relatable. You really do get the impression that, if he had to, he really could give up all his money and be happy working a crap job in a fast food joint so long as he was around people he respected and loved, which is, again, no mean feat after thirty years of cultural distance.
But, at the same time, the biggest problem with the movie is kind of his fault: the tone crisis. This is a movie that didn't have to have lots of raunchy humor, topless scenes, or mountains of foul language to be funny and successful. It would've arguably worked better by leaning into the same kind of tone as Redtails, offering black audiences their version of a fun Disney-esque family fairy tale where the handsome prince slums it and in the process finds true love and happiness with a smart woman who can think for herself rather than an arranged marriage with someone who has no will of her own.
But it was an Eddie Murphy vehicle. So they put all that stuff in anyway, and I had to see it as a jaded thirty-plus year old man instead of as a child who might've appreciated it more.
Setting that aside, it's an often-hilarious film (which is hard to talk about without ruining jokes), and I appreciated that even seemingly-flat and shallow characters got to show a bit of depth, including both fathers on both sides of the leading couple. And one upshot of Murphy's involvement is that he and Arsenio Hall get to play some really fun side characters under heavy old-age makeup. I can see why it has its positive reputation, but again, it could've been so much better and wasn't, just because someone involved in the process couldn't see past the leading man.
Film A Fundamentally Good Film With a Serious Identity Crisis
Coming to America is a rightly-beloved romantic comedy and Eddie Murphy vehicle, featuring a who's-who of prominent black actors and actresses of the late-80's/early-90's and a halfway-decent script with a fair bit of heart and wit.
And I'm going to tell you why I think it was pretty flawed.
Eddie Murphy is not miscast, let's get that out of the way right now. He ably plays against type and portrays Prince Akeem as a likable, friendly Naïve Newcomer whose frustrations with the calcified opulence of his palace life are, somehow, in an age of economic deprivation and criticism of "poverty tourism," relatable. You really do get the impression that, if he had to, he really could give up all his money and be happy working a crap job in a fast food joint so long as he was around people he respected and loved, which is, again, no mean feat after thirty years of cultural distance.
But, at the same time, the biggest problem with the movie is kind of his fault: the tone crisis. This is a movie that didn't have to have lots of raunchy humor, topless scenes, or mountains of foul language to be funny and successful. It would've arguably worked better by leaning into the same kind of tone as Redtails, offering black audiences their version of a fun Disney-esque family fairy tale where the handsome prince slums it and in the process finds true love and happiness with a smart woman who can think for herself rather than an arranged marriage with someone who has no will of her own.
But it was an Eddie Murphy vehicle. So they put all that stuff in anyway, and I had to see it as a jaded thirty-plus year old man instead of as a child who might've appreciated it more.
Setting that aside, it's an often-hilarious film (which is hard to talk about without ruining jokes), and I appreciated that even seemingly-flat and shallow characters got to show a bit of depth, including both fathers on both sides of the leading couple. And one upshot of Murphy's involvement is that he and Arsenio Hall get to play some really fun side characters under heavy old-age makeup. I can see why it has its positive reputation, but again, it could've been so much better and wasn't, just because someone involved in the process couldn't see past the leading man.