Coming to America (A look back and a review) Part 1 of 2

Coming to America (A look back and a review) Part 1 of 2

I rented the DVD and watched the ‘Making of’ special and watched the movie again.

Coming to America is one of those movies you keep on during channel surfing. It’s that movie people quote all the time. In addition, it is certainly one of Eddie Murphy’s best films to date.

Murphy was certainly at the top of his game in this movie. John Landis would mention that Murphy had changed and he and Eddie would butt heads during the filming. Yet, there is a confidence in his performance here that you simply don’t see in his recent work. There seems to be passion.

Looking back at many older movies, some of them don’t hold up as well today. Coming to America does though.

Prince Akeem, a member of the ruling body of Zumunda, doesn’t like the prearranged wedding that he’s been forced into, so he sets out with his best friend, Arsenio Hall, to America to find the prefect woman.

Sounds simple, and it is.

Eddie Murphy early on stated that he was the one behind the idea for Coming to America. Come to find out, Art Buchwald actually came up with the story idea, but Paramount bumped him out of the story credit. Buchwald sued the studio and won. However, Paramount settled before the court issued the reward.

Despite the legal hang-ups, Murphy and Buchwald came up with a nice, pleasant modern fairytale. The story is cute with just enough dirty jokes to make it an entertaining R-rated comedy.

Plus, the makeup in that Murphy and Hall wear is amazing even by today’s standards. Rick Baker was the man behind the makeup. Baker would later work with Murphy on a few more films, including Norbit.

Best example of Baker’s makeup work is the barbershop scenes. The barbershop group is always funny. Murphy and Hall would both play four characters each thanks to the makeup.

Check out this funny quote…

Cleo McDowell: Look... me and the McDonald's people got this little misunderstanding. See, they're McDonald's... I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds.