Retrospective Film Review

Coming to America (1988) • 33 Years Later

A pampered African Prince travels to Queens, New York City, going undercover to find a wife that he can respect for her intelligence and will.

Eddie Murphy was the King of Comedy by the late-1980s, following a string of box office hits: 48 Hrs. (1982), Trading Places (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), The Golden Child (1986), and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). And that’s without mentioning his tenure on Saturday Night Live (1980–84) and stand-up comedy, which led to the influential HBO special Eddie Murphy Delirious (1983) and culminated in Eddie Murphy Raw (1987) — which remains the highest-grossing stand-up comedy concert film to this day. Who else was going to play African royalty in 1988?

Prince Akeem Joffer (Murphy) is the pampered heir to the throne of Zamunda, a fictional African country from a Richard Pryor routine. He’s lived for 21 years with rose petals scattered at his feet wherever he walks, beautiful women bathing him each morning (“the royal penis is clean, your Highness”), and even has servants to wipe his…