Movie of the Day – Coming to America

Some people will argue that Eddie Murphy’s best work came from Beverly Hills Cop, a fine mix of comedy and action with his biting attitude and general charisma.  I agree that it is a fine piece of work and makes yearn for the old Eddie Murphy to come back to the screen, I still think that there is one movie that eclipses all others.  Coming to America is probably my favorite Murphy movie out of his entire collection.  It incorporates just about every aspect of his personality, comedic timing and acting abilities in the comedy world into one movie with a funny script and great directing from John Landis.

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 multiple roles, and there are innumerable celebrity cameos peppered throughout the proceedings — including the Duke Brothers (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) from Trading Places. Coming to America made further headlines when humorist Art Buchwald sued the film’s producers for plagiarizing one of his works. Buchwald carried the case to trial, where he won a sizeable judgement against the film’s producers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

They don’t make comedies like this anymore and if you have never seen Coming to America, then I would seriously contemplate your life at this moment.  Eddie Murphy is razor sharp in this comedy that only boosted by the inclusion of such incredible black actors that round out this comedy.  Arsenio Hall, John Amos, Sam Jackson, James Earl Jones, Shari Headley and Madge Sinclair all play their roles perfectly, but also lend a little something to proceedings.

The real reason for this movies success is from Murphy and the directing.  Eddie plays multiple roles, deftly going between personalities and making every sentence and scene memorable with that vulgar charm that he has when he does standup.  But Landis also gives us some funny scenes from Soul Glo parody to this little scenes that stand on their own from the movie.

I want to go on and on about this movie, but I would rather just show you why this is funny.  Check out some of the clips below and go watch this movie.