1988 comedy
Rating: 14/20
Plot: An African prince, bored with his pampered lifestyle, isn't thrilled with the idea of marrying the woman who has been raised and trained just to marry him. He gets permission from Darth Vader to postpone the wedding and spend some time in New York City where he hides his true identity and tries to meet a princess.
A couple decades of Eddie Murphy futility almost makes you forget how talented the guy is. Both he and Arsenio Hall play multiple characters (more on that later) and are both just so likable and versatile. I was actually surprised that Hall didn't have more of a career in movies. He should have. If Coming to America was made today (even with Eddie Murphy involved), it would be a lot more crude and probably mean-spirited. I like that this story isn't like that at all although I don't think it's an especially funny movie. It's more the type of movie where you enjoy the predictable story with its artificial Hollywood happy ending and the performances of Murphy, Hall, James Earl Jones, and Louie Anderson (the only white person in his entire movie).
The real reason I watched this movie? I have exactly one black friend, the guy who works across the hall from me. Now, before you question that admittedly-low amount of black friends, you should remember that I only have something like four friends altogether. My lone black friend is a fan of Coming to America. We go to a bar trivia night on Thursdays so that we can find out how little I know about pop culture and history and especially music. One of the first few times we participated, there was a Coming to America question--How many roles did Arsenio Hall play in this movie. The answer is four--Semmi, the prince's confidante; a guy at the barber shop (those might be my favorite scenes, by the way); the preacher, and an ugly woman. My friend said, "Hold on--I got this!" and then put his head down to make sure he got it right while the rest of us came up with answers for the other questions. After all, that's why my black friend is there. He handles the low number of "black people questions" that we get. And I can type that because they're his words. Eventually, he confidently gave us the answer--four. The answer the MC gave us--three. My black friend is a very laid back, cool guy, but he almost lost his shit. And although this was several months ago, he still talks about it all the time and holds it against the trivia guy. Of course, it doesn't help that he messed up the answer to another question that had to do with rappers. And last Thursday, he cheated us in two rounds by not giving us points. And my black friend pointed out that there wasn't a single "black people song" in the music round. (Apparently, Michael Jackson doesn't count.) My black friend is convinced that the trivia guy is racist and against our team--The Sticky Pizzles. He might have a case, too. I mean, not only were there no "black people questions" but the guy was sort of teasing us with "almost black people questions," like playing a rap song that happened to be performed by white guys or using a Prince song that was performed by Tom Jones and the Art of Noise.
Anyway, that would make a good movie right there--a movie about a racist trivia guy and our fight to overcome those obstacles so that we can win fifteen bucks. Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall could play my friend and me, and they could both do it, too, because they're so versatile.
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