Coming to America | Teen Ink

Coming to America

January 24, 2020
By Anonymous

 Coming to America proves to be a delightfully charming and surprisingly enjoyable adventure that combines together romance, drama, and plenty of comedy to provide an earnestly hilarious tale. The movie revolves around Prince Akeem, who is the only child of a king and queen of an enormously wealthy African country. Prince Akeem has practically nothing to do in his entire life, with no need to work, feed himself, or really have any responsibilities but enjoy the fruitfulness of life. All Prince Akeem wants however is one of the few things he cannot obtain. Akeem wants to have a wife that will love him for who he is, not what he is. Prince Akeem doesn't want to be seen as a prince when it comes to falling in love, but instead be seen as the funny, charming, and responsible young adult that he views himself as. Because of this, Akeem has a strong desire to avoid being trapped into an arranged marriage that his parents expect him to partake in. While his king father expects him to marry what he believes to be the perfect wife for Prince Akeem, especially since she has been trained since birth to meet Akeem's every desire, this isn't what Akeem wants. Instead, Akeem convinces his parents to let him flee to America in an attempt to rediscover himself before he gets married. What Akeem doesn't tell his parents is that he actually plans to find a wife that will fall in love with him. This means that Prince Akeem travels to America with his lovable, likable, and funny sidekick, Semmi, and together the duo attempts to go into one of the most ordinary cities in the entire country. This results in Akeem and Semmi traveling to a beat-down area in Queens, New York, and they find themselves trying to live into the worst apartment available. With Prince Akeem set on living an ordinary life and trying to convince all that he meets that he is just a regular person from Africa, not a prince, he decides to live in a truly awful apartment and he decides to get a low-paying job in order to impress a girl, Lisa, that he likes. As Prince Akeem tries to get Lisa to fall in love with him for who he truly is as a person, and not just because of all the wealth and resources that he has as the future king of a large nation, Akeem tries his hardest to adjust to a typical life and become used to traditional America ways. In the process, Prince Akeem struggles to find the right opportunity to tell Lisa about the truth of who he is and convince his father and mother what his true intentions are when it comes to marriage. 
 Coming to America proves to be a surprisingly enjoyable and charming adventure that infuses together hilarious comedy, silly situations, and plenty of crowd-pleasing skits that will be sure to widen a few smiles. The movie understands how it isn't meant to be that serious or invigorating of a work of cinema, but instead the film tries its hardest to provide humor, drama, and appeal to the viewer. This allows the film to have some brilliantly-composed jokes and well-timed snippets of crafty dialogue, as well as plenty of outstanding one-liners, and this humorous source of reliable comedy becomes the bedrock upon which the rest of the film is layered upon. There are plenty of inside jokes within the movie itself, with the creators understanding the raw joy of poking fun at itself and other forms of comedy as well. This involves the movie sometimes feeling like one gigantic comedy stint, and this is wholeheartedly enjoyable, light in tone, and relentlessly funny.
 Coming to America may not be that serious of a film, but it doesn't ever try to be. The movie doesn't care how there are predictable and expected aspects included on nearly every level, including having a lack of thrilling drama or emotion to boast, but the movie instead tries to do its own original, unorthodox thing and succeeds at accomplishing exactly that. The jokes of the movie are infused together to compose a well-written and unexpectedly complex adventure that brings fan-favorite comedy into a movie that needs it. The film relies on the crude comedic genius of Eddie Murphy and lets him steal the spotlight and do his own thing. This results in Murphy gifting plenty of roles that are hard not to like, and not only does he showcase his diverse skill set by portaying a wide variety of different characters all within this one film, but the real beauty of Murphy's talent is that he performs these actions within characters that are involved with one another. This means that Eddie Murphy often portrays characters that talk and interact with other characters played by himself. While the fictional characters themselves don't know this, this further allows audiences to be captivated by the compelling presence of the shear greatness of Eddie Murphy as a comedic legend. 
 Coming to America may not be remembered for completely reinventing the genre of comedy or what it means to be a great work of cinema, but it should be remembered for all of the laughs that it can produce with such effective ease. The movie doesn't need special effects or lots of money to compose its jokes, but the film instead utilizes the implementation of Eddie Murphy's creativity and ability to spark humor into any situation. Eddie Murphy shines amongst the crowd for being his usual excellent self, and as one of his greatest comedic works ever, Murphy ensures that he creates a lasting impression through the uncanny sense of triumph achieved from watching him perform. The creation of an entire African nation that is slightly distant from the rest of the world is certainly way ahead of its time, and might also be sited as a possible source of inspiration for some modern-day films, and this sense of originality and imagination brings vibrant freshness and life into this adventure. It's not perfect, especially when considering some of its quirkier aspects and how some jokes on race and sexism have not aged terrifically, but this is still considered a must-see by many and the movie proves to be exactly that. 


The author's comments:

"When you think of garbage think of Akeem." - Prince Akeem


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