Coming to America

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Coming to America
Directed by John Landis
Produced by Leslie Belzberg
George Folsey Jr.
Mark Lipsky
Written by Eddie Murphy (story)
David Sheffield (screenplay)
Barry W. Blaustein (screenplay)
Starring Eddie Murphy
Arsenio Hall
Shari Headley
James Earl Jones
John Amos
Eriq La Salle
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) June 29, 1988 (USA)
Running time 116 minutes
Language English
Budget $28,000,000
IMDb profile

Coming to America is a 1988 comedy film directed by John Landis. The screenplay was written by David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, and Eddie Murphy, based on an idea and an original script by Art Buchwald. Murphy joined James Earl Jones, Arsenio Hall and Madge Sinclair in starring roles. [1]

Contents

[edit] Plot Summary

Akeem Joffer (Eddie Murphy), The Prince of the fictional African country of Zamunda, is discontent with having a betrothed bride-to-be who only desires to do everything he commands and being pampered even as an adult, so he concocts a plan to venture to America to find a bride he can both love and respect. He and servant, Semmi (Arsenio Hall) go to Queens, New York, and after several scrapes find an apartment and begin working at a local restaurant called McDowell's, a successful copy of McDonalds, where Akeem falls in love with owner Mr. McDowell's (John Amos) daughter, Lisa (Shari Headley). The rest of the film centers on Akeem's hilarious adventures to finally attain the hand of Lisa in marriage, while adjusting to life in America and dodging his royal prerogatives.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Lawsuit

The film was the subject of the Buchwald v. Paramount civil suit, filed by Art Buchwald in 1990 against the film's producers on the grounds that the film's idea was stolen from a 1982 script that Paramount had optioned from Buchwald. Buchwald won the breach of contract action and the court ordered money damages. The parties later settled the case before an appeal.

[edit] Quotes

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Audio samples:
  • "She's your queeeeeeeeeen to be..." (Sung at the first marriage ceremony)
  • "Tell me you did not love me when you thought I was a goat herder, and I will never bother you again." (Akeem to Lisa, attempting to persuade her to marry him after she finds out his secret)
  • "Listen....REAL Americans!" (Akeem, excitedly, hearing the guys in the My-T Sharp barber shop screaming and cursing at each other)

(conversation about boxing the barbers had before they cut Akeem's hair)

  • "You must be out yo damn mind! Joe Louis is the greatest boxer that ever lived. I'll be with you boys in a minute. He was better than Cassius Clay, he was better than Sugar Ray, and that new dude, what's his name, Mike Tyson, looks like a bulldog, he was better than him too."
  • "What about Rocky Marciano?"
  • "Oh there they go. There they go, every time I start talkin 'bout boxing, a white man got to pull Rocky Marciano out their ass. That's their one, that's their one. Rocky Marciano. Rocky Marciano. Let me tell you something once and for all. Rocky Marciano was good, but compared to Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano ain't shit."
  • "He beat Joe Louis."
  • "That's right he did whoop Joe Louis' ass."
  • "Joe Louis was seventy five years old when they fought..."
  • "I don't know how old he was, but he got his ass whooped."
  • "Joe Louis had come out of retirement to fight Rocky Marciano and he was seventy six years old. Joe Louis is always lying about his age. He lie about his age all the time. One time Frank Sinatra came in here and sat in this chair. I said Frank 'you hang out with Joe Louis, just between me and you, how old is Joe Louis.' You know what Frank told me, he said 'hey,Joe Louis is 137 years old.' 137 years old!!!"
  • "Oh Man you ain't never meet no Frank Sinatra."
  • "Fuck You! Fuck You! and Fuck you! Who's next?"
  • "The man wants to call himself 'Muhammad Ali', goddamn it, this is a free country, you should respect his wishes and call him 'Muhammad Ali'."
  • "His mama named him Clay, ah mo' call him Clay."

(Akeem to the landlord of the housing project while still dressed up in royal attire)

  • "We seek meager accommodations."

(Cleo McDowell to the King during argument after Lisa leaves)

  • "This is America, Jack...you say something about my daughter again and I'm gonna break my foot off in your royal ass."

(Akeem to arranged wife after marriage ceremony is halted; she proceeds to do exactly as he says)

  • "Bark like a dog...a big dog...hop on one leg...make a noise like an orangutan..."

(Bathers to Akeem)

  • "The royal penis is clean, your highness."
  • Akeem: "Oha, it is my 21st birthday, do you think just for once I could go to the bathroom by myself?" Oha: "Most amusing, sir. Wipers!!!"

(evoking James Earl Jones' Star Wars persona, Darth Vader, at the McDowell house)

  • King Joffe: "Do not alert him to my presence. I will deal with him myself."

(Akeem to Lisa at their first meeting)

  • "I have recently been placed in charge of garbage... When you think of garbage, think of Akeem!"

(Interlude before final marriage ceremony)

  • King (smiling): "You're still not talking to me". Queen: "I only want our son to be happy". King: "So do I. Come now, it is out of our hands, she told him no". Queen: "Well after the way you treated her who could blame her". King: "Even if she agreed, they still could not marry, it is against the tradition". Queen: "Well, it is a stupid tradition". King: "Who am I to change it?". Queen: "I thought you were the King!".

(Responses of various women interviewed as bridal candidates by Akeem and Semmi)

  • Women in Bar: "I have a secret. *pause* I worship the devil."
  • "That's the problem. I can't find a man that can satisfy me. Some men go an hour, hour an' a half, that's it...but a man's gotta put in overtime if they're gonna get me off."
  • "Well you know baby I'm almost single,my husband's on death row."
  • "I was Joan of Arc in my former life." (While holding a flame to her hand)
  • "*rapped* My name is Peaches and I'm the best; all the DJ's want to feel my breasts"
  • "I hope you don't mind me coming over here. I've been watching you all night, and I wanna tear you apart...and your friend too." (Woman played by Arsenio Hall, while seated next to Akeem)

(Randy Watson, as played by Murphy, at Black Awareness Rally)

  • "Just let your soul glo---feelin' oh so silky smooth. Just let it shine through. Just let your soooooooooooul glo, baby. Soul Glo."*~ (The Soul Glo song, repeated throughout the film)

(While Akeem and Lisa kiss at their wedding)

  • "Your highness, we have not come to that part yet."
  • Akeem: "Good morning my neighbors!" Man: "Hey, fuck you!" (screaming) Akeem: "Yes! Yes! FUCK YOU TOO!"
  • (Reacting to the delightful surprise that a wealthy prince is pursuing his daughter) Mr. McDowell: Oh Baby, you hit the jackpot!!
  • "Hey, Stu! Don't be pullin' that goddamn fallin'-down-the-stairs shit. The rent's due, motherfucker!"
  • "What does "Dumb Fuck" mean?"
  • "While we're askin', why don't we go for a cool million?" "You do not think that will be too much?" "Nahhh..."

[edit] Trivia

  • This film includes a cameo of two characters from the movie Trading Places, another Eddie Murphy/John Landis film. At the end of Trading Places, the Duke brothers, Randolph (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer (Don Ameche), had lost their entire fortunes at the hands of Murphy's character. In this film, the brothers are now homeless and living on the streets. Prince Akeem gives them a paper bag filled with a large sum of money, enough to get them off the streets again.
  • Like many of Eddie Murphy's films, Coming to America features Murphy in several different roles, this time paired with Arsenio Hall. For example, Hall plays Reverend Brown, who introduces Randy Watson (Murphy) and his band Sexual Chocolate, who perform a terrible rendition of Whitney Houston's song "Greatest Love of All" at the "Black Awareness Rally." In the famous barbershop scenes, Murphy and Hall (in heavy makeup) play the elderly barbers Clarence and Morris, who engage in furious debate with Sweets (Clint Smith) about the boxing skills of Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano rather than attending to Akeem's hair. The barber scene is especially notable because Murphy plays both Akeem and Clarence simultaneously, effectively giving himself a haircut. Murphy also plays the Jewish old man in the barbershop, displaying his marvelous talent for the Yiddish impersonation.
  • When Akeem and Lisa go on their first date, they walk from Akeem's apartment to the restaurant, which is ostensibly also in Queens. The road they are walking down, however, (where they encounter the Duke brothers) is the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, which is several miles away.
  • Eriq La Salle, as Darryl, briefly breaks the fourth wall in the scene where Patrice lets him come through the window of her room. Prince Akeem also briefly breaks the fourth wall when he commands his wife-to-be to "bark like a dog." Although actors are frequently told not to look at the camera, director John Landis has his actors do it frequently. Eddie Murphy does it in Trading Places when the Duke Brothers explain a purpose for bacon; John Belushi does it in Animal House on a ladder outside a sorority during a pillow fight.
  • Musician Karl Denson appears as a saxophonist in the group Sexual Chocolate.
  • Actor John Amos was in a McDonald's commercial in the 1970s, which inspired McDowell's in the film. Because of the obvious name similarity, the film's producers had to obtain permission from McDonald's before using the name McDowell's. The scenes of McDowell's were actually filmed at a Wendy's restaurant, located at 85-07 Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, Queens. When he first meets Akeem and Semmi, McDowell explains all the differences between his place and McDonald's, ending with the line, "They use the sesame seed bun. My buns have no seeds."
  • Cuba Gooding Jr. made his motion picture debut as the boy getting his hair trimmed at the barber shop.
  • Actors James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair performed as king and queen again in Disney's Lion King. That role was also Sinclair's last, before she died of leukemia.
  • Soul Glo has entered the English and American vernacular as a name for any jheri curl product.
  • Future actors on the Jamie Foxx Show met in this movie. Garcelle Beauvais was one of the three "rose bearers". Actor Jamie Foxx played the soldier who opened the door to the back room in the engagement scene.
  • On 2006's World Series of Pop Culture on VH-1, one of the pop culture-obsessed teams competing named themselves Sexual Chocolate as an homage to this film.
  • WWE wrestler Mark Henry was nicknamed 'Sexual Chocolate' in a reference to the film.
  • One of James Earl Jones' lines is similar to Darth Vader's line (a role which Jones provided the voice for) "No! Do not alert him to my presence! I will deal with him myself." This is a combination of two lines that Darth Vader says in the Star Wars series. In Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader says "No. Leave them to me. I will deal with them myself. In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader angrily says "The Rebels are alerted to our presence"
  • There is a Bulgarian band, called "Zamunda Banana Band" that performs covers of evergreens with humorous Bulgarian lyrics. It is a duo of two Bulgarians from Plovdiv that pretend to be Africans and speak broken Bulgarian with a funny accent.
  • The Diplomats released a song called "What's Really Good", featuring DMX. The beat is sampled from the song that plays when the King arrives to America.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Thane Rosenbaum wrote, "In 1995, the syndicated columnist Art Buchwald prevailed after a seven-year legal battle against Paramount Pictures, claiming that he had submitted the idea, and the original script, for the Eddie Murphy film, Coming to America, without ever being properly compensated or acknowledged for his efforts. The trial court eventually agreed with Buchwald, although the damage award that he received was considerably less than what he had sought, and even less than what he eventually had to pay out in legal fees. The Myth of Moral Justice, page 182.

[edit] External links

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