Coming 2 America Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Coming 2 America Blu-ray Movie Review

"Prepare the royal jet. We are going back to America!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 14, 2025

Whispers of a Coming to America sequel have been making the rounds since the original 1988 John Landis film was a hit with audiences. It finally became a reality in the throes of the pandemic in 2021, dropping on Amazon Prime right when everyone needed it. Except... it wasn't the film we needed, much less the rom-com adventure we had all hoped for. Gone were the laughs, the fish-out-of-water sweetness of Eddie Murphy's Prince in the Big Apple, the Africa smashes into New York culture clash we all loved in the '80s. In their place stepped a largely unfunny (though still mildly amusing) imposter that drained Murphy's Prince Akeem of his hilarious naivete and crammed in a mess of subplots, each of which could support their own movie but all of which get crowded out in the over-stuffed picture. Worst of all, new material is benched in favor of rehashing old jokes, characters and even entire bits from the original film, few of which prove welcome, necessary or funny in the belabored sequel.

When his father, King Jaffe Joffer (the late, great James Earl Jones in one of his final screen roles), passes away after a long, fortuitous rule of Zamunda, Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) ascends the throne with Lisa (Shari Headley), his American-born wife of 30 years, as queen. He's joined by his most trusted servant and advisor Semmi (Arsenio Hall), who is present when Akeem learns from a witch doctor that he fathered an illegitimate son (Jermaine Fowler) during his first trip to the United States many years ago. Because Akeem has only sired daughters and Zamunda's tradition demands a male sits as prince-heir to the throne, he has little choice but to go in search of his long-lost son. If he fails, his country faces an attack and acquisition from the dictator of neighboring Nexdoria (sound it out... sigh), General Izzi (a hammy Wesley Snipes), who desperately wants to unite the two kingdoms by marrying his son Idi (Olurotimi "Rotimi" Akinosho) to Akeem's daughter Meeka (KiKi Layne). What's a new king to do? Head to America, of course, to reunite with his bastard heir and save Zamunda from chaos. The film features Murphy and Hall in multiple roles (as was the case in the original film) and also stars Tracy Morgan, Leslie Jones, John Amos, Louie Anderson, Nomzamo Mbatha, Teyana Taylor, Bella Murphy, Akiley Love, Paul Bates, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Trevor Noah and Colin Jost (as the son and nephew of Trading Places' Randolph and Mortimer Duke).

The best parts of Coming 2 America involve Akeem's reunions with or reprisals of characters from the first film, which is ironic considering the worst parts of the film involve recycling old gags. It's a strange duality that renders the movie fresh and dated at the same time, making for a disjointed, mostly unsatisfying affair that never quite knows what it wants to be: a remake or something completely new. The return of old favorites like Sexual Chocolate delight... yet play stale and come across as forced and prepackaged. It's also not hard to spot what the storyline will eventually become and who will be Akeem's eventual heir. The fact that both developments are delivered as long-gestating twists doesn't help matters and only leaves things that much more erratic. To top if off there's a tug of war between the old cast and the new, with Morgan and Jones doing their absolute damnedest to chew all the scenery and steal the show. It doesn't work -- it makes their characters more grating actually -- much like the efforts of Snipes as a grinning, leering, broadly comedic General, who is about as unbearably over-the-top a fascist and over-enunciated a performance as anything in the sequel. Combined, it amounts to a tough slog, moving from scene to scene with the weakest of connective tissue, grasping for laughs that just aren't coming.

Zamunda wasn't what made Coming to America deliver either, and it's by far the place Coming 2 America spends the most time. Moments with Akeem finding stress relief by mopping at McDowell's and sharing a late-night chat with father-in-law Cleo stood as some of my favorites, but they come too late, too infrequently, and too far down the road (like an old kicked can) to resonate or strike as intended. Likewise, Akeem's barbershop buddies are given far too little to do, especially considering how many other bits are rehashed. If so much time was being spent in Zamunda, why not have a McDowell's branch and American barbershop in country; position those characters as the fish out of water with a brief layover in the US to fetch Akeem's son? Or why not leave Zamunda as complete bookends, like in the first film? If the goal is to repeat and reuse, then do just that. If the goal is to serve up something new, stick to that. The blending not only struggles, it suffers. And if you think my grumblings are getting repetitive, then you're in good company, because that's exactly how the sequel's comedy plays out.

Coming 2 America Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Coming 2 America features a technically sound 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer, albeit one that only enhances some of the film's stranger choices. Zamunda was a bright, sunny locale in the original film; overflowing with bold, abundant splashes of color. In the sequel the Zamundan scenes are by and large cast in such a boring series of orange and brown autumnal tones that it ceases to look like the African nation of old and more like a monochromatic kingdom of golden, sun-bathed cartoon characters. The Blu-ray reproduces it all as intended, of course, but it lacks the pop and punch of scenes that take place in a more wintry America or shots where the Zamundan white-hot sun is higher in the sky. Thankfully, contrast is quite good (barring a few sequences before the throne which seem underlit) and black levels are deep and inky. Detail is as exceptional as you'd expect from a modern digital production too, with crisp edges, beautifully resolved and revealing fine textures, and excellent shadow delineation. Better still, artifacts, banding, errant noise and other anomalies are nowhere to be found, meaning the encode has plenty of room to breathe. All told, I'm not impressed with Coming 2 America's cinematography and color grading, but as technical transfers go, it's hard to complain about this one.

Coming 2 America Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Coming 2 America's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track has plenty to work with. Dialogue is clean, intelligible and neatly centered at all times, prioritization is flawless, and the film's rousing, percussion-heavy score packs nice LFE kick. The rear speakers expand the halls and courts of Akeem's palace too, creating locations brimming with ambient realism and enveloping soundfield subtleties. America, by contrast, is busy, hectic and cluttered with street noise, offering a fun contrast with Zamundan life. Dynamics never falter, directionality is on point, channel pans are smooth and the entire experience lives up to expectations. Yes, longer conversational scenes are front-heavy, but this is a chatty comedy, so no one should be surprised.

Coming 2 America Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary - With director Craig Brewer.

• From Queens to Zamunda (HD, 26 minutes) - A not-so-brief production documentary that covers all the bases you could hope for in quick, talking-heads succession.

• Trailer Gallery (HD) - An assortment of trailers for Eddie Murphy movies. Strangely, no trailer for Coming 2 America is included in the gallery.

Coming 2 America Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Coming 2 America is a disappointment from every angle except one: you'll be left itching to go back and watch the original 1988 comedy, which I highly recommend doing instead of wading through the sludge of this thick, sticky sequel/re-quel. As Blu-ray releases go, it delivers, with a technically strong video transfer, excellent lossless audio track, and two solid extras.