Another week of Nerd breakdown on a beloved 80s comedy! Do the boys think of garbage when they think of Akeem?

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Nerd Review!  Every week the Nerds give you their take on a different cult classic from the Nerdosphere.  This week the guys review the 1988 classic Coming to America

The Flick:  Coming to America

What’s it About:  Prince Akeem of the tiny African nation of Zamunda seeks to escape and arranged marriage by making a trip to the United States.  Joined by his best friend and man servant Semmi, Akeem assumes a false identity and attempts to find his own bride who loves him for who he is in Queens, NY.

Metacritic Score: 47 

The Nerds’ Take on Coming to America:

DPP: Coming to America tells the story of the Prince of Zamunda Akeem (Eddie Murphy), who travels undercover to New York City in an attempt to find a wife he can love and respect, and who loves him regardless of his wealth.  Released in 1988, this film was during the height of Eddie Murphy’s career.  It also featured Arsenio Hall, who plays Akeem’s caretaker and travelling companion Semmi, and James Earl Jones as Akeem’s father, the King of Zamunda.  This is a great comedy with many hilarious characters, many of which are played by Murphy and Hall.  When the duo reach Queens, NY, they are robbed of their luggage, and begin to see the locals wearing their clothing.  Akeem doesn’t mind, willing to share his wealth with his new neighbors.  He frequents the barber shop next to his apartment, where patrons argue about boxing.  Akeem and Semmi get jobs as cleaning people at McDowell’s, a competitor of McDonald’s.  Argued to be different than McDonald’s because they have the golden archs, as opposed to the golden arches.  There, Akeem finds his bride in the boss’s daughter, Lisa, who works in the management office, and he spends as much time as he can getting to know her.  This is a great storied comedy with scenes that are memorable to this day.  The Soul Glo hair product commercial, and it’s continued joke throughout the movie is iconic.  Eddie Murphy’s character of Randy Watson and his band Sexual Chocolate, looking like Little Richard, does a hilarious over the top job at an attempt to sing and entertain at a charity event.  You will also see a young Cuba Gooding, Jr. getting a haircut in the barber shop, as well as Samuel Jackson playing a robber at the restaurant.  I cannot recommend this movie enough.  There are so many great lines and scenes that stand the test of time in comedy.

DPP’s Rating: 4/5

 Patrick:  When Bandwagon Nerds did their 80s project episode marking the top ten comedies of the decade, Coming to America was on my list.  This film, to me, showed Eddie Murphy at the height of his comedic powers.  Directed by John Landis, this comedy classic is not only funny but also is an incredibly inciteful reflection of a black community in Queens, New York.

The story follow Murphy in the role of Prince Akeem of the fictional African nation of Zamunda.  Akeem is restless in a life that pampers him at every turn.  We see servants brush his teeth, throw rose petals at his feet and even bathe him.  The final straw for Akeem in his desire to escape his restrictive life comes when he learns he will not be able to choose whom he will marry.  Akeem lies to his father and asks to travel to America under the guise of “sowing his royal oats.”  Accompanied by his man servant Semmi, Akeem pretends to be a poor student and tries to find a woman who will love him for who he is, not what he is.

The laughs come early and often in this film.  From the ridiculousness of Akeem’s life in the palace to the inevitable culture shock of being a poor black man in New York, Murphy adeptly brings laughs left and right.  For the most part many of the jokes in the film still hold up although modern audiences may find themselves feeling a little uncomfortable with some jokes.  So much of the humor in this reflective of Eddie’s life growing up and living in New York.  The scenes in the barber shop for example still ring true today even as we laugh at the arguments by the old men in the shop.  Much like vacation, the comedy works because there is real truth in the jokes.

We’ve been on a hot run with casts with these movies.  Eddie Murphy gets to show his versatility taking on four different characters in the film.  Not to be outdone, Arsenio Hall plays Semmi as well as three unique characters all his own, who doesn’t love Reverend Brown?  From there you have an A list of talent rounding out the cast: James Earl Jones, Madge Sinclair, Eriq La Salle, John Amos, and Louie Anderson.  There are even cameos by then little known actors Samuel L. Jackson and Cuba Gooding Jr.  At a time when a cast dominated by people of color at the heart a mainstream film was a rarity, the casting here was well ahead of it’s time.  And in the end that’s where I rank Coming to America.  This film was funny then, yes.  But as you can see by the Metacritic score, the media didn’t get it.  Maybe they weren’t ready.  More likely, they just couldn’t relate because the humor at the root of the film would have been alien to them.  Today, much of Coming to America doesn’t feel irrelevant or dated.  In fact, outside of the dated fashion this film feels like one that could debut tomorrow and it would have be HUGE.  There’s rumors a sequel is coming to theaters eventually.  Here’s hoping Akeem is back sooner rather than later

Patrick’s Rating:  4.5/5

Dave:   In the 1980’s one man stood above just about all others as the king of comedy. That man was Eddie Murphy. Murphy had transitioned from a centerpiece of Saturday Night Live to the star of two of the most popular stand up comedy specials of the 80’s in Delirious and Raw, to the star of a steady stream of tremendous films such as 48 Hours, Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop. As great as all those films were, and still are, Murphy may have saved his best work for 1988’s classic, Coming To America.

Coming to America tells the story of Prince Akeem, crown prince and heir to the Kingdom of Zamunda. We join Akeem on his 21^st birthday and he has grown tired of being pampered, taken care of, and relatively not in control of his own life, or even the ability to wipe his own backside. It appears royalty has a price that Akeem has grown weary of paying and when he is introduced to his soon to be wife, Akeem arranges a deal with his father, King Joffer (played by the incomparable James Earl Jones), to go to the USA with his friend and trusted advisor, Semmi (played brilliantly by Arsenio Hall), for several weeks prior to his wedding. The King believes Akeem is going to America to sew his royal oats. Semmi believes they are going to America for “40 days of fornication”. In reality, as Akeem confides to Semmi, he is going to America to find a bride that he can truly love and who will truly love him back. It is actually an old-fashioned love story wrapped around tremendous acting and magnificent comedy.

Murphy is beyond awesome in this movie because he not only plays Akeem, but he also plays three other roles including: soul singer Randy Watson; an old, white, Jewish barbershop patron; and one of the barbers in the barber shop. Hall pulls off multiple roles as well including a reverend, one of the barbers at the barber shop, and a rather unattractive patron at a bar that Akeem and Semmi go to who promises to tear both men apart. It is all fantastic fun and represented the crowning achievement of Murphy’s early acting career. In the end, Akeem meets Lisa McDowell, daughter of Cleo McDowell, who owns and runs a fast food restaurant that bears a striking resemblance to McDonalds. Akeem and Semmi get jobs at McDowells, foil a robbery by a young Samuel L Jackson, and never really let on who they really are….at least not until Lisa’s sister figures a few things out. Meanwhile, Lisa and Akeem genuinely fall in love with each other and all seems great…until King Joffer shows up and blows Akeem’s cover. Lisa cannot understand why Akeem did not tell her the truth and it seems as though Akeem has lost his true love….until the twist at the very end which results in a super happy ending.

There is nothing to complain about with this movie. It is equal parts heart-warming and hilarious. The performances of everyone involved, especially Murphy and Hall, are some of the best in any comedy of the 80’s. There is a bit of a “hero’s journey” going on in this movie and it is impossible not to root for Akeem to get the girl, which he does. Akeem’s transition into manhood is something that will cause you a couple of hours of enjoyment and if you aren’t laughing out loud as Akeem and Semmi meet several women in a local bar, all of them with “severe emotional problems”, then your taste in humor is clearly different than mine. Coming to America is another movie I simply cannot recommend enough. With a sequel coming out in December (subject, of course, to COVID-19 screwing that up too), the time has never been better than now to return to Zamunda and get reacquainted with Akeem, Semmi, Lisa, and the rest of the gang.

Dave’s Rating: 5/5

Overall Nerds Rating for Coming to America (1988):  4.5/5