*duck face* Looka hea, I do NOT apologize for being crunk about this movie!
The original dropped in 1989. I was like 10 maybe 11years old and going on grown. Nooooope, I don’t remember going to the movies or anything like that to watch it either. What I can tell you is that every time I see it on TNT or something like that, I stop channel surfing and watch it. I can tell you that my Queen and I are both big on quotes from this movie. My whole TRIBE is bout this movie. When it was announced, I kept up with release dates, trailers and watched whoever was on daytime TV talking about it. Arsenio Hall is my favorite talk show host of all time. I LOVE this film already. I became of Eddie Murphy, the King, well after I started my own family because I learned he demanded Black people were hired during his movie productions. YAAAAS. If Eddie was headlining your movie, be prepared to hire Black make-up artists, Black costume designers, Black cameramen, just bring in the Black folks to Hollywood. *nodding head* Yeah. Bet y’all didn’t know that nugget about ol’ Eddie M. huh? Like I was saying, when it was released, ready to watch, I was locked and loaded. Let the thang begin.
Noooooo, I’m not spoiling anything. Y’all know how I operate by now. *tsk tsk*
Women’s Power at the forefront.
At its heart, Coming 2 America is a comedy, true, but it is has a women’s power theme. When you think about it, the original was kinda chauvinistic (It was 1989 and the world is slowly progressing as a whole.) and this took off from THAT perspective. That theme is bigger now and makes the movie better to me. Hey, I’m a blogger and dude rocking an incurable illness that brings everyday discomfort and consistent, high levels of pain. I pride myself on mindset and attitude. As a kid, I was big into this equal rights, civil rights, gay rights, all rights type of stuff. Now, at this age, this level of life, this diagnosis, stuff like this makes my very day. The characters have their base traits set from the original and this allowed the writers to accelerate pieces and authentically advance the storyline. I didn’t try to make sense of EVERYTHING because it is a comedy but even watching it in real-time; I began liking it more and more as I realized what was playing out. I’m impressed.
Theeeeeeen, comes the love story…
The original is about a Prince that leaves his homeland to find his own Queen. His father has arranged a marriage and the Prince just ain’t with it. He and his best friend go to America to find true love. In part 2, producers couldn’t leave that out. No sir, they better not leave that out. In fact, they bumped it up a level and made this mug into something you might find in a Disney playbook of love and triumph. I couldn’t find a single thing that I loved from the original, missing in this one. It was all there. Everything and everybody. Acting? Everybody in this mug was on point, nobody out of character or a stretch of the imagination. The storyline had no apparent holes to me, just parts that I didn’t like BUT couldn’t think of a better way to do it. Eddie and Arsenio did a great job of playing backseat to other actors and actresses. The love extended beyond the typical Daddy/Son, fiancees, besties/homies and lit up the plot with feel-good moments. Will I watch it again? Damn right. I will watch it again, and again and again… I really, REALLY dig this movie.
Final Grade: solid A, (93 of 100)
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