Coming 2 America: Will Gompertz reviews sequel starring Eddie Murphy ★★☆☆☆ bbc.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bbc.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Like “Zoolander 2,” “Blues Brother 2000” and “Independence Day: Resurgence” before it, “Coming 2 America” revisits a classic movie with a failed sequel that took way too long to come out.
Eddie Murphy rediscovered some of his old magic with director Craig Brewer with Netflix’s “Dolemite Is My Name” in 2019, but
their teaming on “Coming 2 America” (★★ out of four; rated PG-13; streaming on Amazon Prime Friday) is a much more disappointing outing. While the excellent 1988 original still holds up as both raucous romantic comedy and Black fairy tale – as well as a multifaceted showcase for Murphy and co-star Arsenio Hall – the follow-up is a toothless, fleetingly funny revisit with some moments of greatness yet too much of the same old story to feel fresh.
The Eddie Murphy film Coming to America busted some clichés about the continent. But, as a sequel comes out, David Jesudason asks if Western cinema will more fully change its attitude.
Rating:
At what point does an overdue sequel become an ill-starred sequel? It doesn’t seem to be simply a matter of years.
More than half a century after the original, Mary Poppins Returns (2018) yielded box-office numbers to please everyone at the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank and beyond. But after a mere 35-year gap, and despite being pretty darned good, Blade Runner 2049 stumbled.
The success of long-delayed sequels is not always determined by quality, nor by appetite. I don’t recall a clamour for a new Mary Poppins and it was a film I didn’t greatly care for, but it still worked £250 million worth of magic.