TRANSCRIPT
‘Coming 2 America’ | Anatomy of a Scene
The director Craig Brewer narrates a sequence from the film, which has Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall reprising their roles from the 1988 comedy.
“Hello, my name is Craig Brewer and I am the director of ‘Coming 2 America.’ King Akeem is now coming to Queens for the first time to retrieve his son. And this is the scene where he meets Leslie Jones’s character, who is Lavelle Junson’s mother, Mary.” “Oh my God. My African.” “I told you he was going to come back.” “Boy, why you ain’t tell me he was bringing company? I would have cleaned up.” “So you know this man?” “I definitely know this man. I know this man all the way live. You know?” “This was the first scene that we really had all of these comedians in one room together. And the set was small, and we have all these different types of performers, and they’re all doing their first scene with Eddie Murphy. So you have to remember that even the actors in the scene have a lot on their mind, because Eddie means so much to them. The one thing that I think that people forget about Eddie’s portrayal of Akeem is that he’s still always going to be very optimistic. He’s going to be very regal. He’s not that on tilt Eddie Murphy performance that we sometimes will see in his comedy routines. But he’s coming into a whole world now that’s that feels like it cut its teeth on “Delirious” and “Raw.” You know, Leslie Jones’s humor is— it’s coming from a place of love.” “He might be. He just— y’all know I was a ho, though? Y’all know I was out in these streets?” “She truly loves her son, but she has no shame about this one night stand where all Akeem has is shame in this.” “I’ve come back for my son and have him take his rightful place on the throne.” “Ain’t nothin’ happening. Zamumda, Wakanda, Connecticut, I don’t know where you from. But I’ve been a force in this boy’s life since he was born.” “The same could be said with Tracy Morgan. You know, Tracy Morgan’s character takes delight in that he was this uncle that was schooling his son on the streets of Queens. And this is the bubble of fantasy that Akeem is now watching get popped right in front of him. He’s got to face this.” “The only way he can fix the problems in his life is that this has to be his heir. But now he’s got this family that’s nothing like what he’s been raised around. But it was everything he used to love when he first came to Queens. So something’s happened to Akeem over these 30 years, where that specialness of something new and something raw, for lack of a better word, used to excite him.” “Ma, pack your bags, man. We out.” “Amen. So do I have my own hut with my private shaman?” “And now he’s got fear and uncertainty. And he’s got to make it work. A question I get a lot about Eddie Murphy is, how do you edit down all the choices that he’s giving you with all the improvisation that usually happens on set, and everything? But I think what would surprise a lot of people is that he can be precise. He really prepares. And so what I find needs to happen on set, when you’ve got Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan all on set together, is you got to maybe not roll for a little bit. You’ve got to let these four people like tell old jokes about people that they knew on the comedy circuit. But then it was like, O.K., now it’s time to get to work. And then Eddie would nail it in like two takes.” “Do you think Lisa would be understanding?” “What is not to understand?”
- Coming 2 America
- Directed by Craig Brewer
- Comedy
- PG-13
- 1h 50m
Breaking away from a lavish palace party meant to celebrate his engagement, Lavelle Junson (Jermaine Fowler), the newly minted crown prince of Zamunda, complains about the state of Hollywood filmmaking. He never says what kinds of movies he does like, but he’s vocal in his disdain for superhero spectacles and “sequels that nobody asked for.” Mirembe (Nomzamo Mbatha), his royal groomer and love interest, disagrees. Zamundan cinema isn’t so great, she says, and some of those sequels aren’t so bad.
Their conversation is one of several meta-jokes scattered through “Coming 2 America,” a genial, mostly inoffensive, sometimes quite funny sequel to a beloved comedy from way back in the 1980s. “Coming to America” — the original, directed by John Landis — starred Eddie Murphy as Crown Prince Akeem, who traveled to the royally named borough of Queens to sow his wild oats, accompanied by Arsenio Hall as his aide-de-camp and comic foil, Semmi.
If you remember that movie — it holds up pretty well in spite of a few bits that may chafe against present-day sensitivities — you will recall that the prince fell in love with a New Yorker named Lisa (Shari Headley), whose father (John Amos) owned a fast-food restaurant called McDowell’s. If you haven’t seen or can’t quite recall “Coming to America,” the relevant background is helpfully supplied here, along with some new information. Back then, it seems, there was an oat that got away — a not-even-one-night stand with Mary Junson (Leslie Jones) that resulted in Lavelle.
Akeem, who has three daughters with Lisa, learns of his son’s existence during an eventful first act, as he and his queen celebrate their 30th anniversary and bid farewell to King Jaffe (James Earl Jones). Complicating factors include threats from General Izzi (Wesley Snipes), the bellicose ruler of the neighboring country of Nexdoria, and the patriarchal laws of Zamunda, which stipulate that the occupant of the throne must be male. Lavelle, a college dropout and part-time ticket scalper with some of his father’s good-hearted charm, looks like the solution to the kingdom’s problems.
But of course the laws of comedy require that further problems ensue, and the many-authored script supplies plenty. Akeem and Semmi return to New York for what feels like a too-brief visit. The fish-out-of-water delights of “Coming to America” could hardly be repeated, but that film’s comic view of America from the perspective of a naïve African aristocrat could have used a more energetic updating. It’s nice to catch up with some of the secondary comic characters — the barbershop guys played by Hall and Murphy in old-age prosthetics, most especially — but any time a ripe satirical opportunity comes into view, “Coming 2,” directed by Craig Brewer, runs in the other direction.
But maybe satire isn’t really the point. It isn’t hard, at the moment, to find comedy with a sharper edge, or a tougher view of American dysfunction. “Coming 2” — not unlike Brewer and Murphy’s previous collaboration, “Dolemite Is My Name” — is a sweet and silly celebration of Black popular culture, with a sincere respect for history and a welcoming regard for the new generation. (Speaking of “Dolemite,” this movie provides further testimony to the absolute comic genius of Wesley Snipes.)
Gladys Knight, En Vogue and Salt N Pepa show up (as themselves, in fine vocal form), and so does KiKi Layne, a rising star (see “If Beale Street Could Talk”) who plays Meeka, Akeem’s oldest daughter. Generational conflict may drive the story, but the vibe is of an all-ages party, a blended family reunion with Tracy Morgan as the wacky uncle.
Still, like Lavelle and Mirembe at the big bash, you might be tempted to wander off in the long, soft middle, when the music and jokes are put on hold in the interests of a creaky, corny, self-helpy plot. It takes “Coming 2” three-quarters of its running time to arrive at the place where “Coming to” started — the rejection of an arranged marriage in favor of the search for a soul mate. The feminist gestures at the end have an obligatory, let’s-all-nod-our-heads-in-unison feeling that a more daring movie, or one with a stronger idea of what it wanted to be, would not have needed. Lavelle’s cynicism about sequels isn’t challenged very effectively, I’m afraid.
I do have one more thing to say, though, which may in itself be a sufficient recommendation, and that is: Ruth E. Carter. One of the all-time great costume designers, she won an Oscar for “Black Panther” and could win another one just for General Izzi’s warlord couture. (Don’t skip the credits or you’ll miss him in a kilt.) The art of “Coming 2 America” resides most fully in the costumes, which are at once travesties of globalist modern style and inspired tributes to it, as well as fully realized examples of a cultural collision that the movie itself can’t quite imagine.
Coming 2 America
Rated PG-13. Mild cross-cultural naughtiness. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. Watch on Amazon.
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