Coming to America

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: A charming, polished and original comedy featuring a great performance from Murphy and some memorable laughs. Some of my favorite scenes are:

- when they all get up from the leather couch and there is soul glow grease all over it from where their heads were ("Just let your Soul GLLLOOOWW!!").

- when Samuel L. Jackson robs the McDowell's restaurant that Murphy and Hall are working at. The ensuing scene between Jackson and Murphy is classic.

- when Murphy gets his hair cut off in the barbershop (Snip. "that'll be 10 dollars").

- that "She's Your Queen to Be" song.

There are so many more scenes that I love that I could mention. A must-see!

Rating:
Summary: Yet another Eddie Murphy winner, with tons of cameos.
Review: Prince Akeem has his every need, and I mean every need, cared for by dozens of hand maidens, all extremely sexy godesses. He also finds that his wife has been selected from a neighboring country. As Prince, and future King, he decides that he should be able to have a bride of his choosing.

He embarks on quest to find a wife, and takes Semmi his best friend, along for the ride. He chooses New York City, and even better Queens. He finds a seedy apartment, job at a fast food emporium. He quietly assumes the role of a commoner, totally dropping his Prince status.

They go to clubs to find women, which include other roles by both Murphy and Hall. The Ugly woman? played by Arsenio is one of the best scenes. Some of the women they get are great characters. One who worships the devil, one who wants 5 hours, seperated twins, the re-incanation of Joan Of Arc, twin rappers, video queen talking machine. They go to a Black Awareness rally hosted by Arsenio.

The restaurant scene is priceless, with the battle between McDowells, and McDonalds. "They have the Golden Arches, Mine is the Golden Arks. They have the Big Mac, we have the Big Mics!" Priceless.

Finally he sets his eyes on the daughter of the owner of the restaurant that they work in, played amiably by Shari Headley.

He has to compete with the arrogant airhead that she's already with. Akeem takes her to a museum and recoils at his own picture on a display of Zamunda. They go to a basketball game, and this drink vendor lies prostate in front of him, his beloved Prince Akeem, and manages to get a picture with him.

Finally, King Jaffe Joffer, well played by James Earl Jones, comes to New York City after a call for pocket change by Semmi. The rest is up to you to see.

Watch for the countless dual roles played by both Eddie and Arsenio. The barbershop, the dates at the club, and others are al well played by both. Samuel L. Jackson is downright convincing as the would-be armed robber. Louie Anderson is delightful as the employee who started off in clean-up, then went to lettuce, and is looking forward to fries. In a year or two he could be assistant manager, classic Louie.

The best cameo, to me, was when Prince Akeem hands a wad of money to two homeless guys in a park. It turns out that the bums are Randolph and Mortimer Duke in a classic tie-in to another Eddie Murphy winner. "Mortimer, we're back!" Don Ameche, and Ralph Belamy reprise their great roles.

Rating:
Summary: Eddie Murphy churns out the same stuff over & over
Review: The two Shrek movies so far are the only movies I've really liked him in - and it's only his voice then! I tend to avoid his movies for no particular reason - I think he just annoys me in general! However you do have to see Trading Places before you see this, as you'll miss out on a rather smart joke. The bums that pick up the money that Eddie Murphy drops are the "Duke Brothers" from Trading Places (also directed by John Landis). In that movie, Billy Ray Valentine was responsible for The Dukes losing their fortune. It's not technically a sequel, although it's written by the same people.

I was regretting watching this movie within the first few minutes of it starting. Of course it was completely necessary for two girls to appear topless in the bath (more like a swimming pool) with the Prince, and have all sorts of innuendos about his relationship with them. And the innuendos with his wife-to-be, doing anything he wants, bring images to mind that you wouldn't really want there. I have to admit, though, once you got past that bit, it was better than Trading Places.

I also loved the credits at the end, as it shows shots of the actors, with their names, and it's amazing the amount of people who play two or more characters - particularly the characters in the barber shop!!! I can't believe that Eddie Murphy played the old man! All characters in the barber shop (including the Caucasians) are played by Murphy, Hall, Clint Smith, and Cuba Gooding Jr. (Samuel L Jackson also appears, in a funny scene)

Most of the dance that's performed by the royal dancers before presenting Prince Akeem's queen-to-be is a high-tempo rendition of the dance from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video (also directed by John Landis).

The "thanks" list contains a thank you to the Zamundan film authority.
Zamunda is the fictional country from which Eddie Murphy's character comes.
Face on Cutting Room Floor ... Jim Abrahams
Eddie Murphy - as the old white man in the barber shop - says: "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait stop right there! Listen: Stop right there, man. A man goes into a restaurant. You listenin'? A man goes into a restaurant, and he sits down, he's having a bowl of soup and he says to the waiter, waiter come taste the soup. Waiter says: Is something wrong with the soup? He says: Taste the soup. He says: Is there something wrong
with the soup? Is the soup too hot? He says: Will you taste the soup? What's wrong, is the soup too cold? Will you just taste the soup?! Alright, I'll taste the soup - where's the spoon?? Aha. Aha! ... Whadaya know from funny, you b*****ds?" (No, I didn't get it either.)

I'm not sure what exactly to think this, particularly as I'm clouded by my judgement of Eddie Murphy. But it's better than Trading Places, even though you have to see that first!

Rating:
Summary: "Frank Sinatra came down and sat in this chair...
Review: ...and I asked him "Frank, just between you and me, you good friends with Joe, how old Joe Louis is? Frank Sinatra said just between you and me Joe Louis 137 years old."

The funniest movie of all time? Would you go that far? Has to be top three, EVER, emphasis on ever. It does not matter how many times you have seen this movie, every time it is on you watch it, and every time you watch it, you laugh.

Coming to America is directed by John Landis (Beverly Hills Cop III, Three Amigos, Spies Like Us, Trading Places, and Animal house), who, indeed, has a very impressive resume. You should watch his movie based on that alone. However, he does have a pretty impressive cast he worked with. Notice Landis may have directed two of the funniest movies ever made in Animal House and Coming to America, and maybe three of the top ten comedies of all time when you throw in Trading Places.

Coming to America stars Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Samuel L. Jackson, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Louie Anderson. I could go into the movie and the story, but I don't believe that is needed, unless you have been in a tent, on the dark side of the moon, you have seen this movie.

The story and plot are great. The theme, subplots, background, and storyline are developed to perfection. Even with this crazy story, it almost seems like a believable scenario (though a woman falling in love with a broke goat hurder mopping floors at McDonalds/McDowells seems hard to believe).

You must, I repeat must have this movie in your DVD collection. One of the great movies of all time, and should be one of the first five DVD's you own. Hint: buy this movie.

Grade: A+


Rating:
Summary: To qamar_al_ghameq, Zamunda is a real country in African
Review: At Home in Zamunda

Zamunda is one of those places that have seduced travelers for years. Its name evokes images of an idyllic island trapped in another century, where time moves to ancient rhythms. Zamunda has many faces, however, which is something I realized only with time.

The boat ride from Equatorial Guinea was hot and crowded, in line with African mentality - where you can fit twenty, you can fit forty - and then we had to board a ferry to reach the island. As we got closer I stepped over people to get to the edge of the boat, where I could see the wide waterfront street lined with tourist shops and restaurants and people absorbed in their daily dramas. White houses with roofs of dried palm leaves baked under the sun, with flowering vines creeping up the walls showing off their scandalous colors. I meant to stay a week. A month later I was working and couldn't imagine leaving; I knew where to buy the cheapest goat meat and which place made the best Zamunda pizza.

Waking up every morning in Zamunda, especially the capital Tattoine, was like reaching a high. It is a magical place, charged with mysterious energy. Dawn arrived swiftly, with light filling the sky over the sea, lending everything a dusty gray-blue film until the sun rose and sharpened all the corners.

By eight a.m., hours after the town had awoken, I would be sweating under my mosquito net. The narrow streets were full of sounds that wafted up to me through my open windows. There are no glass windows in Tattoine, nothing to keep the outside from intruding up the bougainvillea into the cooler interiors of the houses. Cats' meowing and donkeys' braying became the unconscious background to which I fell asleep and woke up.

The waterfront was always alive with activity. Sweating men filled and emptied dhows, those beautiful sailing boats, carried sacks of cement, pulled at ropes, shouting and joking and fighting with each other in their colorful language. Donkeys congregated outside the post office, their owner's initials branded into their necks. They were never tied up; they knew their way home, although the rebel ones, I was told, would disappear for weeks at a time in the coconut fields in the center of the island.

The main street wound its way from one side of town to the other, and everyone walked through it several times a day, sometimes single file to give donkeys the right of way, as their owners clicked and whistled instructions to them. There were cheap places to eat and have a fruit shake: Coconut Juice Garden, New Star Restaurant, Bosnia Café, and that dark nameless hole-in-the-wall whose owner used scraps of newspaper to add up what you had bought.

The main street opened into the square, the heart of Tattoine, where two huge trees circled by cement benches provided respite for old and young. Here people bumped into to each other and stopped to talk, children ran around in the shade, and men pushed wheelbarrows in every direction.

Zamunda is about 95% Muslim, and five times a day the mournful singing from the mosques calls the faithful to drop what they're doing and reassert their faith. You always know what time it is when you see the slippers in a messy heap on the mosque steps, and you can have a brief glimpse inside of the kofia- and kanzu-clad men praying and kneeling. The women float gracefully in their buibuis, traditional black robes that cover them from head to toe, sometimes even their faces, depending on their mood. At first I thought that a pair of eyes peering out of all that black cloth represented a more conservative girl, or one with a stricter husband, but everyone assured me it was purely their own decision. I soon realized that most of the women who covered their faces were the younger ones, often using special buibuis with lace and glittery beads. In a society where no skin is allowed, girls invent ways to flirt by surrounding their eyes in tantalizing shimmery clo

From the rooftop of of my hotel, I would watch the little boys dressed in white on their way to school, teenage girls gossiping, and women hanging clothes to dry on the neighboring roofs. The rest of is Christian, mostly Zamundans from up-country. From time to time the sleepy square fills with the singing and dancing of a Christian revival, giving the place the feel of an outdoor Broadway musical, with coconut sellers and barefoot kids part of the scenery.

Zamunda's most endearing characteristic might be its lack of cars; its streets are much too narrow and winding to accommodate for anything but donkeys and people. The one car on the island belongs to the District Commissioner and is only used for unnecessarily driving up and down the waterfront. Donkeys and dhows remain the preferred mode of transport. Children play on the streets with their medieval toys, rolling metal rings with wires among the human traffic. The lack of cars gives Zamunda its time-warp atmosphere; there are no paved roads, no traffic lights. It is a town built on top of sand and dirt.

Sometimes when I had to rush to the polytechnic school where I had started teaching, the men resting in the shade of doorways and trees would call out to me: "Mtaba! Lahakuta Mpenzi!" - "Slow down! There's no hurry in Zamunda!" And for them there never was any hurry: women would stand in the market all day waiting to sell their fruits and vegetables, while their dirt-smudged children would climb over and under the tables; the old men in the plaza would chat under the trees until it was time to pray again; the beach boys would idly smoke their singly-bought cigarettes, moving only when the sight of mzungu skin woke them from their trance; and the waiters at New Star would take your order and then disappear into the kitchen for several hours.

This laid-back attitude caused me many frustrations and it pervaded every aspect of life. But gradually I fell into the rhythm and accepted it, the way I accepted the occasional electricity failures, the water shortages, and the violent downpours during rainy season. After a while I realized I had stopped counting time in hours and minutes, but by the sun and moon and when mango season would start again.

look-up the facts before you start saying stuff you know nothing about...

Rating:
Summary: Maybe the best of Eddie Murphy
Review: This is one freaking hysterical movie,from start to finish. The plot may be sort of tired; a bored prince leaves his family and money behind to try to find a true bride for himself (and where else would a prince find his future bride--in Queens.) Nobody is buying this movie for the plot, this movie is all about Eddie, and the one and only time when Arsenio is funny. I can't even write down most of the jokes from this movie, as the censors would ****** out every other word. How about a few reminders of the funny scenes; McDowell's hamburgers, the three putzes in the barbershop, everything about the first time they see their apartment, any scene with James Earl Jones OR John Amos, and my personal favorite--won't you please put your hands together for Mr Randy Watson and his band SEXUAL CHOCOLATE. (tastes so fine, don't you agree...) Buy the DVD, you'll love it. I'd buy it on Amazon for certain, as practically no retailers carry it.

Rating:
Summary: YOU MUST WATCH TRADING PLACES FIRST OR MISS A GREAT JOKE!
Review: I first saw Coming to America when I was 15. I didn't think much of it then. Seeing it again at 31 I've come to appreciate how wonderful this movie is. However, before you watch this film you must watch "Trading Places" or you'll miss the best joke in the film.
What makes Coming to America work aren't the big laughs, it's the small moments. In one sequence later in the film, Eddie Murphy cleverly references his early film "Trading Places" In the scene where Akeem gives the money to the homeless people; we think nothing of it. But if you look closely at the men you'll notice the two millionaires from "Trading Places." Hilarious and smart! This made the movie for me. I'm sure there are a ton of other jokes in the film most people missed as clever as this.
The story about an African prince who goes to Queens New York to well, find a queen is well written and flows beautifully. The 16-year-old jokes are very funny and smart. (The Soul Glo ad and jokes about jerricurls were so spot on it's not funny!) Eddie Murphy puts together an amazing cast of African-American performers that all give great performances here. James Earl Jones is great as the African King, and John Amos steals scenes as the Father of Lisa McDowell, (a great Shari Headley) the woman Eddie Murphy wants to marry. Murphy's chemistry with Arsenio Hall is perfect and their comic timing is right in every scene. Comparing Coming to America to the current crop of horrid unwatchable African-American films produced today (The Cookout, Never Die Alone, She Hate Me, Breakin' All The Rules) they don't make them this GOOD anymore. This film has gotten better with age. I wish the studios would make African-American films smart, positive and funny as this.
In this film there are a ton of future stars in small parts. Look closely and you'll see Garcelle Beauvais (Jaime Foxx, NYPD Blue) Louie Anderson (Life with Louie, Family Feud) Samuel L. Jackson (Too many credits to list) Eriq la Salle (ER, Drop Squad) If you look in the crowd at the Black rally, you'll see extras Shawn Wayans and Reggie Hayes (Girlfriends). Each give their all working with what they have to make the film the best it could be.
I love this movie! Buy this NOW. You won't be disappointed.


Rating:
Summary: The funniest movie EVER!!!
Review: This is the funniest movie that I have ever seen in all my twenty-something years!!!! I have to buy this movie because it is a classic. Watch it on Thanksgiving with the family (minus the kids), it's better with alot of people. My family and I know this movie line-by-line and still keep cracking up! Eddie Murphy is stupid!!! How did he do the Jewish guy??!!!! And what was the punchline to the soup joke?

Rating:
Summary: Great movie
Review: I have seen this movie about 10 times.Prince Akeem from Zumunda plays like a poor worker at McDowells resturant to get a girl named Lisa and his friend Semi also works there.They end up together in the end and like I said it is a great flick.
Acting 10/10 Story 10/10 Action 8/10 Directing 9/10 Entertaining 10/10 Toatal=9.5 out of 10 Fingers