Coming 2 America features a conversation about unnecessary sequels, which is a trait of unnecessary sequels that was amusing the first time I heard it but has long since gone stale. By the point of the conversation I had already reached the conclusion that this sequel was indeed unnecessary and not a patch on the first film.
The premise of the film is that Akheem is now King of Zamunda but only has daughters who cannot take the throne. It is revealed he has a child from his first visit to America so Akheem heads off to find him and whisks him back to Zamunda to ensure his lineage and stop General Izzi (Wesley Snipes), the leader of Nexdoria, from attempting to take over the country. Things don't go to plan though as his son Lavelle isn't keen on an arranged marriage and Akheem's family are upset over him not being progressive and allowing his eldest daughter to take the throne.
The film essentially mirrors the plot of the original with the fish out of water element being the young American in Zamunda. Whilst I didn't mind the idea the whole plot relies on Akheem being a very different character from the first film and less progressive which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
The biggest problem the film has is being to reliant on nostalgia and callbacks. It tries to repeat the same jokes from the first film and few of them are executed as well and you already know the punchline too. The heavily made up characters like the barbers and Randy Watson just felt really stale here. They opted to bring back every character they could possibly get which is lovely and everything but trying to do justice to the original characters and insert some new ones is impossible. It means really only Akheem stands out as doing anything especially memorable here and the new characters are not particularly amusing, with the exception of Wesley Snipes being wonderful as General Izzi.
When the film does some different things. The opening of the film is actually lovely and a lot of fun. King Jaffe's funeral is full of cameos which is a lot of fun and later on there are some fun ideas for what Princely Tests consist of in Zamunda. The tone of the film really works and it's more modern with a bit of a swing at the patriarchy. It's just a shame it leans so heavily on the first film and doesn't do more of the original stuff.
I certainly didn't hate this film and found things to enjoy but it leans to heavily on the past and this means it fails to live up to it's potential.
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