Average Rating: 5.7/10
Reviews Counted: 37
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 13
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 2.5/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 245,568
Coming to America casts comedian Eddie Murphy as pampered African prince Akeem, who rebels against an arranged marriage and heads to America to find a new bride. Murphy's regal father (James Earl Jones) agrees to allow the prince 40 days to roam the U.S., sending the prince's faithful retainer Semmi (Arsenio Hall) along to make sure nothing untoward happens. To avoid fortune hunters, Prince Akeem conceals his true identity and gets a "Joe job" at a fast-food restaurant. Murphy and Hall play
Jun 29, 1988 Wide
Mar 9, 1999
Paramount Pictures
All Critics (37) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (13) | DVD (19)
The director is ... rather distracted; John Landis seems to be browsing through the scenes rather than gobbling them down.
Starts on a bathroom joke, quickly followed by a gag about private parts, then wanders in search of something equally original for Eddie Murphy to do for another couple of hours.
A screenplay that seems to have escaped its doctors before it was entirely well.
The main pleasure in America comes in the romancing of prince and pauper. But the comedy is a mere handmaiden.
In Landis' hands, the film doesn't live up to even the meagerest of expectations.
Silly, curse-happy '80s Eddie Murphy vehicle.
Murphy gives his sweetest, most touching, and most genuinely likable performance to date, playing a character who embraces society instead of holding it in contempt.
The winning combination of Landis and Murphy redeems the very predictable storyline, which is chock-full of snappy one-liners and impressive caricatures by Murphy and Hall.
very funny and shows Eddie Murphy in his prime
Coming to America was re-released on DVD as part of Paramount's "I love the '80s" collection.
Not only a great comedic effort but Eddie Murphy's best romantic film as well.
[Landis] takes a very specific joy in the act of moviemaking and calls attention to it, placing it at a level above the romantic story.
so brilliant, it almost makes up for The Golden Child.
Superb comic timing, a satirical edge, and Murphy's extraordinary gift for mimicry lift it right out of the trough of mediocrity to which it is all but consigned by its utterly predictable storyline.
Eddie Murphy does everything in this movie successfully, which was probably a bad idea because it made him think that he could write and direct Harlem Nights...
Murphy's last enjoyable film before a long slump
It was an ok film, nothing great.
June 23, 2011Super Reviewer
This movie is hilarious. I think it's the first time Murphey attempted to play more than one character, and I didn't even notice it was him at first. The story is a romantic comedy and a fish out of water tale as well. It's a great movie, and I highly recommend it.
September 6, 2010Super Reviewer
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