Coming to America, 1988

Coming to America, 1988
Director: John Landis
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones


Stage: Home TV selection on a good evening


Preps: None, I have seen this many times and this just brings good memories. I have seen this for the first time at the movies, when being a child and I simply adored Eddie Murphy.


Coming to America in short: It is the 21st birthday of Prince Akeem of Zamunda and he is to marry a woman he never saw before. Now the prince breaks with tradition and travels to America to look for the love of his life.


Reality: Wow, it sure brings the memories.. I am eager to see this again. I remember the scene where a nice girl pops out of the water, claiming "The royal penis is clean" and remember that when being a child I really thought this was the type of treatment I would get if I were a princess. Very naive, I must say. Even though it's long after seeing this for the first time, it laughs me still and has a solid humour. A good story could be brought into these days, just with some slight adjustments. It is still real, that a father doesn't want his daughter to marry a poor and undecent man (or not a famous man in this case) and that his mind completely changes and goes bizerk about the guy when he finds out he's rich. In this sense, this story could have been taken in present time.

The roles that Murphy covers, are spectacular and were a breaking point at that period. You couldn't imagine how many different characters he and Arsenio Hall covered. It was just amazing and Murphy - although having second attempts with other movies, in my opinion never covered the task quite as efficient as in this movie. He had a lot of copy cats (for instance Martin in Big momma's house is the same thing - one actor playing many roles) - which means, he was in some aspects, the trend setter.

The movie is simply entertaining and fun to watch over and over again. Who wouldn't at least dream a bit about royal treatment at some point in your life? It brings several other obstacles (like selecting a bride, which is still the case in many countries globally).. but nevertheless, I wouldn't mind switching for a period with Akeem's perspective. In any case, only royalty could be so excited about working as a cleaning guy :)


My personal rating: 8,0 (fun to watch again and again. You will love Murphy every step of the way).

Coming to America on IMDB