Retro Review - Coming To America

Coming To America

Year Of Release

1988

Worldwide Gross Income 

$288,800,000

Starring

Eddie Murphy
Arsenio Hall
James Earl Jones
John Amos

Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) has just turned 21 years old and has everything. Money, power & naked bathers. Being the prince of Zamunda he is expected to marry in an arranged marriage to a woman who has been taught how to be a queen. But that’s not enough for Akeem.

During the wedding ceremony he decides to go to the promised land of America and find his queen.  Along with his faithful companion Semmi (Arsenio Hall) they head to New York where Akeem finds the woman of his dreams.

Will his attempts to seem like a poor goat herder win the heart of Lisa (Shari Headley) or will his attempts prove that money is more important than love?

I love this film, there’s no two ways about it. Not only is it a very sweet movie, but there are moments in this film where you literally laugh out loud. The scenes in the barber shop are my favourite, but I love the scene when they are in the nightclub trying to pick up women and also the ‘breaking the fourth wall’ moments when the characters stare into the camera when a particularly idiotic moment happens.

Amongst the comedy is a beautiful story about love and how you don’t need anything except happiness.

I love this film so much that whenever I see the supporting characters in anything else, like John Amos, I can’t see them as anyone else except their characters in the film.

If you have never seen this film, you need to go out of your way to see it. This was when Eddie Murphy was at his best. Oh, and if you ever wondered what the voice of Darth Vader looks like, he is Eddie Murphy’s film in this film. As a geek, always makes me laugh when he tells Akeem that he is his father.

By Haydn Gleed (@HaydnGleed)