Coming to America (1988)

This is Eddie Murphy at his absolute best and is one of his very best movies. He plays an African prince who comes to America (NYC) to find the girl of his dreams, but plays down his wealth and extravagance by posing as a lowly janitor at a McDonald's type fast food joint in order to find a woman who truly loves him and not his money and power. Arsenio tags along as his bodyguard and friend, though he finds it much harder to move from a palace into a squalid apartment. The cast is great and there's a lot of very funny jokes in this one. It's a very good story as well.

Continuing my plan to watch every Eddie Murphy movie in order, I come to Coming To America (1988) Plot In A Paragraph: An extremely pampered African Prince (Murphy) travels to Queens, New York, and goes undercover to find a wife whom he can respect for her intelligence and mind.Despite Murphy picking director John Landis (Trading Places) himself, they did not get on during filming, Landis said Murphy had turned in to an egotistical monster, with a ridiculous list of demands. He vowed never to work with Murphy again. "The guy on Trading Places was young and full of energy and curious and funny and fresh and great. The guy on Coming To America was the biggest pig of the world" Murphy also slated Landis in public saying his career was hanging by a thread, when he "threw him a bone" and hired him to direct this movie. He added he wished he had left him and his career where it was, instead of gifting him a hit movie. It is impossible to dislike this charming movie!! This film marks the first time Eddie Murphy played multiple characters in the same film. I loved that the homeless men that receive the money from Prince Akeem are the Duke brothers from Trading Places.All the supporting cast are great, in fact there is not a weak link in the cast. Definitely one to revisit every now and again. One of Murphy's best. It seemed liked audiences could not get enough of Eddie Murphy as they again turned out in droves as Coming To America grossed $128 million at the domestic box office (only Rain Man and Who Framed RogerbRabbit grossed more) to finish 1987 the 3rd highest grossing movie of the year.

Prince Akeem Joffer (Eddie Murphy) is the pampered heir to the throne of Zamunda. He is restless especially with his parents arranging his marriage. He wants to meet someone with a mind of her own. King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) assumes he wants to sow his wild oats and sends him off for a 40 day trip. He chooses to go to Queens with his best friend Semmi (Arsenio Hall). They pretend to be African students and get fast food jobs.It is simple fun. The characters are fun. It's the first time Murphy is doing his multiple character thing in a movie and it feels fresh. He and Arsenio have great chemistry together. The romance isn't quite as compelling. This is a simple story which follows a very standard formula. It's not breaking any rules and everybody has a good time.

Even though I'm not a big big fan of Eddie Murphy, I think this one he did, was actually pretty good. Now what put me off with this movie was the fact, at the beginning, breasts were shown even when they were needed to. I know I'm a woman and proud to have breasts, however, I just wouldn't consider showing them off in PG. I just think it's rather pointless since its not all to do with porn! That's why it lost 2 stars from me.Anyways I really liked the way the story went. It's different and looks refreshing, I mean like c'mon this was 1980's and it's now 2016, to me it just looks like a fresh new movie! It's one of the movies that makes me felt that way for no absolute reason!Shari Headley was such an amazing actress. I really liked her beautiful pink dress in the end. I reckon, it does really make you feel like a princess when wearing it, it is so long! Seriously, it is stunning on her, I'm jealous!It's a good movie with a few laughs and I think it's fair that I give this a 8/10 rating....