Coming 2 America is best enjoyed as a party, rather than a plot. After some dull, dutiful nods to 1988’s Coming to America, the sequel sets up its premise: Prince Akeem of Zamunda (Eddie Murphy) discovers he has a grown son from his trip to Queens some 30 years ago. Akeem is already the father of three daughters, but they cannot rule according to Zamundan law. So Akeem travels to America to see if this son, Lavelle Junson (Jermaine Fowler), is worthy of inheriting the throne. From there, the movie mostly has fun. Tracy Morgan and Leslie Jones crash the proceedings as Lavelle’s crass relatives (I especially enjoyed the rivalry between Morgan and Arsenio Hall, returning as Akeem’s right-hand man, Semmi). The living funeral for James Earl Jones’s king includes cameo performances from En Vogue, Salt-N-Pepa, and Gladys Knight. And Wesley Snipes, as the conniving general of the next-door country of Nextdooria, turns every moment he’s onscreen into a dance sequence, slinking and sliding around like the floor is coated with grease. Murphy is committed, bringing back the same low-key charm he showcased in the original, while also undercutting Akeem by showing how he has come to represent the repressive Zamundan traditions he once rebelled against. Yet this is also where Coming 2 America gets overly complicated. KiKi Layne (If Beale Street Could Talk), as Akeem’s oldest daughter and his deserving heir, is wasted as a plot device; casting her is almost criminal. And as charismatic as Fowler is (he ably echoes the earnestness Murphy brought to the original), Coming 2 America sags considerably when its last third focuses on Lavelle rather than Akeem and his family. At least things conclude with another dance celebration. If you thought Randy Watson (Murphy again, in one of his makeup-assisted bit parts) and his band Sexual Chocolate were past their prime in 1988, wait until you see them in 2021. Oh, this is directed by Craig Brewer, but the strongest auteurist touch comes from costume designer Ruth E. Carter (Black Panther, Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing), whose headpieces turn the Zamundan characters into beatific celestial objects.
