Coming 2 America - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Coming 2 America



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Can you name a more iconic set of comedians from the 1980s and 1990s as Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy? Murphy was the powerhouse comedian that knocked peoples socks off at barely 20 years old releasing two back to back comedy special that brought down the house. Then there was Arsenio Hall who discovered more comedians in the black community than anyone else to this date. Both legends in their own rights, and they both made history with Coming To America, the movie that single handedly put Eddie on the map as a bankable comedy start. He’d had his film debut with 48 Hours, knocked it out of the park as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop, but Coming To America was the movie that basically cemented him as a comedic film legend. And for 15 years Eddie Murphy was a force to be reckoned with. He had his fair share of duds and weaker than average movies, but around the turn of the century his light started fading. He had Haunted Mansion, Shrek 2, and the award winning Dreamgirls, but then Eddie just stopped making good movies. Rumors are that he started trying to produce too much of his own work. Or that he just wasn’t surrounding himself with good people. But whatever the problem was, Eddie stopped making good movies. Meet Dave, Norbit, Imagine That, and A Thousand Words pretty much tanked his career.

However, Eddie has been having a little bit of a comeback lately. He did a wonderful job in Mr. Church, and Dolemite is my Name was a fun little indie biopic about real life legend Rudy Ray Moore. Supposedly even Beverly Hills Cop 4 is in the works, but even I started raising eyebrows when it was announced back in 2020 that he was going to make a sequel to Coming To America, probably one of his most famous films ever. Now, I love Coming To America. It’s a hilarious romp that makes me chuckle to this day, but it was 33 years since the original, and after all of the problems that Murphy has had making a successful movie, a multi decades old sequel to a legendary film just smelled “off” to me. I even went so far as skipping it when it came to Amazon Prime as an original movie until I saw this Blu-ray come across my doorstep. Wellllll, I’m sort of glad I did skip it. Or at least I skipped it for as long as I could, because Coming 2 America didn’t even have half a chance at being even remotely decent.

Coming 2 America pulls one of the oldest tricks of the book when it comes to sequel. A character who has forgotten the lessons that he/she learned in the first movie, and has to relearn them again as someone younger goes through the same trials and genre breaking elements that they went through before. This time Prince Akeem (Murphy) is about to become king. His father (James Earl Jones) is on death’s door, and Akeem hasn’t produced an heir to the throne. Well, a MALE heir at least. His three daughters are his pride and joy, but Zamunda requires a male heir to take over after he dies, and Akeem is also sort of nervous about random assassins, and his old rival General Izzi (Wesley Snipes) of their neighboring kingdom of Nexdoria (a bit on the nose). So when he finds out he has an illegitimate son from his time finding a wife in New York, he heads back over to Queens and pulls his son Lavelle (Jermaine Folwer) and his mother Mary (Leslie Jones) back over to Zamunda in order to marry off to General Izzi’s daughter and secure peace without having to lift a finger.

Like you could have guessed, things backfire pretty spectacularly. Lavelle is the reverse version of Akeem in that he’s the fish out of water. Except that instead of being the clueless rich prince in Queens, he’s the hip urban kid in a rich African royal family, and he’s not sure how to act. Lavelle pretty much follows the heroes journey that Akeem did in the first movie, figuring out what his path in life is, who he wants to marry, and has to teach Akeem all the lessons that he learned in the first movie. And of course end up marrying a Zamundan princess who wants to open her own barbershop.

Coming 2 America is exactly what is wrong with sequels these days. Or at the very least, BAD sequesls. There’s plenty of fans service with original cast members like Shari Headley, Paul Bates, John Amos and Louie Anderson reprising their roles once more. Then there’s the typical method of “spicing” up the cast with a newer, hipper, and younger crowd who seems out of place. One thing that really had me puzzled was the constant musical numbers that came out of nowhere. Once or twice, sure, but every 10 minutes we had a new musical number to sing along to. And while they’re not SUPER main characters, Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan are probably the two unfunniest people on earth, so I was literally holding my saying to myself “please go away, please go away” every time they were on screen. Murphy himself is still Murphy, and he was pretty funny with his The Nutty Professor gag of playing multiple characters (though I think Arsenio Hall nailed his characters a bit better). His daughters do well for their heavily cliched roles, but it was really Wesley Snipes who stole the show as General Izzi. I was actually cracking a smile and laughing pretty well at his antics on screen, and from what I can tell online, I’m not the only one who thinks he was the best part of the movie.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language and drug content




Video:

Here’s something that sort of puzzles me. Paramount sold the film rights to Amazon to use as an original, the film was released in 4K streaming, the original was given a new 4K remaster last year, and then this gets released on Blu-ray (no combo pack even) without a 4K disc? Not sure what’s going on rights wise, but it certainly does puzzle one (even though a 4K transfer wouldn’t save this film, that’s for sure). The Blu-ray does look nice and dazzling though. It’s very sharp and clean, with a very digital look that is filled with bright colors, amber hues, and TONS of fine detailing. You can see everything from the bubbles in Mary Junson’s bubble baths, to the increase creases and lines around Eddie Murphy’s eyes. Black levels are deep and inky, while skin tones remain natural. Colors are super vivid and well saturated, with tons of red, blues, and various other primary colors throughout Zamunda. Except for some mild banding a little softness in a few shots, this is a tier one transfer.








Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is a great sounding mix as well. It’s full of life and pizzazz, especially with all of the musical numbers that really fill out the track. Like any comedy track, it can be rather front heavy in a lot of scenes. Tons of dialog and not a lot of background information on the track will do that quite often. However, when the action kicks up (General Izzi making his move), or when the music kicks on and the surrounds and bass get amped up quite a bit. The mix is nothing WILD, but it’s very clean, very clear, solid bass, and dialog is spot on in the center of the room. I can’t complain.











Extras:

• Trailers
• Audio commentary by director Craig Brewer
• Exclusive featurette entitled "From Queens to Zamunda," which includes never-before-seen footage and interviews

Final Score: ​

To wrap all this up, Coming 2 America is another unneeded sequel, and a really bad one at that. It had some very cookie cutter elements of the first movie, but none of the heart and none of the soul that made the original funny. The Blu-ray itself is a solid endeavor, with good video and audio, and the extras are OK. Personally I’d rather forget this existed and just pop in the 1988 original instead of subject myself to this generic sequel. Skip It.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Eddie Murphy, John Amos, Arsenio Hall, Shari Headley, Jermain Fowler, Tracy Morgan, Lesslie Jones, Wesley Snipes
Directed by: Craig Brewer
Written by: Eddie Murphy (characters based off of), David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1, English DVS
Subtitles: English SDH, French, English, Spanish
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 110 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: March 8th, 2022

Recommendation: Skip It

 

[Asere]

I remember growing up watching the original over and over again because it was hilarious. I could not get enough of the original. The sequel has been on Prime for sometime but never cared to watch it being afraid on how bad it could be and practically ruin the original. I agree some sequels are unneeded. Thanks for the review and confirming my feelings.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. You may want to do some minor editing. you mention skip it but above the trailer, it says Good watch.

I enjoyed the first one and it was great. I was curious on the second one and saw it on amazon prime, I was disappointed. I would give it a D average for Eddie Murphy fans, not even C for average when compared to the first one which was great.. Of course, it is hard to hit gold twice. I will not get this copy. Just hold onto the first one.

 

[Michael Scott]

Thanks for the review. You may want to do some minor editing. you mention skip it but above the trailer, it says Good watch.

I enjoyed the first one and it was great. I was curious on the second one and saw it on amazon prime, I was disappointed. I would give it a D average for Eddie Murphy fans, not even C for average when compared to the first one which was great.. Of course, it is hard to hit gold twice. I will not get this copy. Just hold onto the first one.

lol, that's called being so tired that you glaze over something. fixed

 

[tripplej]

All good, considering you watched this terrible movie it is understandable to just glaze over things! lol. the mind was already checked out while watching it. lol.