Brief Story Line
Set around 30 years after the event of Coming to America, Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy - Shrek movies, Beverly Hills Cop movies etc) celebrated his anniversary with Lisa (Shari Headley - The Preacher's Wife, Johnson Family Vacation etc) together with their 3 daughters Princess Meeka (Kiki Layne - The Old Guard etc), Omma (Bella Murphy) and Tinashey (Akiley Love). Akeem's aide Semmi (Arsenio Hall - Martial Law TV series etc) was still accompanying him.
When General Izzi (Wesley Snipes - Demolition Man, Blade trilogy etc) threatened the peace of Zamunda country, Akeem together with Semmi decided to go to America to look for a person who might be the solution. His name was Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler - Superior Donuts TV series etc) who was still living with his mother Mary (Leslie Jones - The Angry Birds Movie 2 etc) and was raised by his uncle Reem (Tracy Morgan - What Men Want, 30 Rock TV series etc).
So what would happen to Akeem and would Lavelle be the solution Zamunda country seek for? Find them all in this comedy movie.
End of Brief Story Line
After watching the first movie which reminded me of how good Eddie Murphy was, who together with Arsenio Hall were amazing and gave some hilarious performances, I was expecting this one to be better or at least at par with the original movie, considering how much experience they had gained in almost 30 years. Unfortunately though, this time around the movie was not as good as I had hoped for. I thought the problem might lie on the story plus the crowded additional cast who might have been funny for some, but not so much for me.
I understand how they would have to make the characters evolved from the first film and obviously putting the younger cast as lead cast. However, I was a bit disappointed when they put Lavelle as the main focus as I felt it might have been better if the spot light was on Princess Meeka instead. Not that I had any personal disliking to Jermaine Fowler as he tried his best to match with Eddie Murphy (though personally to me not that successfully). Btw, I was also quite confused with the 30 years calculation which bothered me and even gave me some crazy idea of a surprising twist relating to one of the character. So did I calculate wrongly or the writers did that?
Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall still gave some funny moments, in particular when they were portraying other people and reprising their roles in the original movie. They even added one more new character in this movie (see if you can guess which one). Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan who were added to give few laughs were OK in few scenes but their characters were just not that interesting to me (again to my personal opinion). Wesley Snipes was also given a role that I thought could have been given to anyone else and he was a bit under utilized.
There were a lot of Hip Hop songs playing in the background of this sequel and there were many well known singers performing either in starring capacity or as themselves. Likely to give the film a fresh and updated feel. Oh there was also a surprise appearance of famous singer in the closing credit which also showed some bloopers from the movie. Some of the original cast also appeared albeit briefly in this movie though there were few who were unable to join due to scheduling conflict.
In the end, I felt the movie was quite inferior compared to its predecessor. At least the original has a compelling enough story and Eddie Murphy with Arsenio Hall gave wonderful performances, while in here the story was not that interesting and the new cast could not really do what Murphy and Hall did. However, I was still quite entertained by it, but the one that made my Saturday night eventful was when I watched the original movie.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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