Coming 2 America
Amazon Studios | Release Date (Streaming): March 5, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
28
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
UproxxVince ManciniMar 4, 2021
Overall, there’s very little to complain about in Coming 2 America, a worthy sequel that does justice to the original without trying to recreate everything about it. It’s a winning, maximalist musical extravaganza. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 4, 2021
After all these years, the land of Zamunda is still the world capital of comedy. Read full review
83
Paste MagazineAdesola ThomasMar 4, 2021
Coming 2 America achieves exactly what an effective sequel should: It reinforces themes from the original film while offering new, intriguing points of tension, nodding to old gags in a way that rewards fluent fans without alienating newbies. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Simran HansMar 7, 2021
The comedy doesn’t work quite as well this way around, though Fowler is extremely likable as a sweet-natured slacker, channelling the endearing guilelessness of Murphy’s original Prince Akeem. Still, there are enough in-jokes and returning characters to keep fans happy. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 4, 2021
It’s silly of mind and open of heart, full of visual and sonic eye candy while telling a predictable story with pleasurable generosity. The laughs are pitched right over the plate with the skill and enjoyment of a team of vaudeville pros. As reunions go, it’s a success. Read full review
75
ConsequenceBlake GobleMar 4, 2021
For a 33 years-late follow up to a fan favorite? This isn’t terrible, not even close. Will it split the royal underlings that vaunt Landis’s ’88 effort? Maybe. For now, Coming 2 America deserves to be enjoyed as one of Murphy’s better follow-ups. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 4, 2021
It’s not great cinema. It’s good at what it sets out to do. Which makes it great fun. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 4, 2021
By the end, “Coming 2 America” has us. It’s strange, these movies that create a warm feeling. It’s hard to say why or how. But when Murphy sits on the throne watching a bad lounge singer (also played by Murphy) perform “We Are Family,” it feels like the summation of the three decades of virtuosic silliness that Murphy has brought to the screen, and of all that has meant to us. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyKristen BaldwinMar 4, 2021
Coming 2 America is cute and fun, a lovingly made exercise in nostalgia that delivers several genuine laughs, even if it never achieves the comedic excellence of its predecessor. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnMar 4, 2021
Those who adore the original, however, will feel like they’ve been revisited by an old friend, or perhaps the dirty uncle, whose jokes are a bit frayed but still pointed enough. Produced at a time when big, brash studio comedies rarely crack the zeitgeist, Coming 2 America works far better than the market standard, in part because it does right by its roots. Read full review
70
VoxAlissa WilkinsonMar 11, 2021
Coming 2 America is really just a movie about how fun and great Coming to America was. It gives us another way to dance to the prior movie’s beat. Read full review
67
Original-CinLiam LaceyMar 5, 2021
You couldn’t call Coming 2 America a good movie or even a so-bad-its-good, but just puffed-up mediocre concoction with a few pockets of delight. Read full review
65
PolygonRobert DanielsMar 4, 2021
Murphy’s charm, his close chemistry with Hall, Snipes’ wily performance, and the resplendent costumes uplift this nostalgia trip. Read full review
65
CNNBrian LowryMar 4, 2021
This very nostalgic, mildly entertaining movie possesses a rather timely undercurrent, even if its delivery via Amazon -- like most issues facing Zamunda's royal family -- amounts to a high-class problem. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 5, 2021
Coming 2 America still provides enough smiles to make up for the lack of belly-laughs. And if you want to hear Murphy’s famous “heh-heh-heh” laugh, stay through the credits. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenMar 4, 2021
Murphy is committed, bringing back the same low-key charm he showcased in the original, while also undercutting Akeem by showing how he has come to represent the repressive Zamundan traditions he once rebelled against. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyMar 9, 2021
Coming 2 America understands its relationship with nostalgia and by golly, it wrings every last warm feeling for the end of cultural history. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt MaytumMar 5, 2021
Coming 2 America has arrived at just the right time: its eminent watchability and pleasing lack of drama (things never get too dangerous or dicey) mean it should go down well as a cheering antidote to stressful times. But it's hard to imagine anyone opting to watch it over the original in years to come. Ultimately, it’s more fawning subject than rightful heir. Read full review
60
Time OutZach LongMar 5, 2021
Staying true to Murphy’s sense of humor, Coming 2 America embraces its goofy ’80s comedy roots, delivering a film that’s a little more self-aware and often pretty damn funny. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekMar 5, 2021
There’s plenty of spectacle in Coming 2 America, and a few laughs. But its chief value may lie in reminding us how good its 1988 predecessor really is. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 4, 2021
A genial, mostly inoffensive, sometimes quite funny sequel. Read full review
60
IGNZaki HasanMar 4, 2021
Coming 2 America retreads a lot of familiar material, relying on the charm of its cast and pure nostalgia to save it. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsMar 4, 2021
Coming 2 America is a good time — even more, it’s evidence that this actor-director pair are on the verge of something great. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 4, 2021
Coming 2 America is both figuratively and literally a nostalgia tour. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMar 4, 2021
This long-overdue sequel to the 1980s hit romcom is no masterpiece, but it’s full of slick cameos, zany set-pieces and eye-popping style. Read full review
60
EmpireWhelan BarzeyMar 4, 2021
If it’s missing the charm and Murphy’s magnetism from the first film, Coming 2 America delivers a broad, serviceable return to Zamunda. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 4, 2021
Ultimately Coming 2 America isn’t a sequel that ruins the original. But it doesn’t improve upon it, either. Read full review
58
The Film StageGlenn Heath Jr.Mar 4, 2021
Coming 2 America takes too long a road to get to a simplistic lesson: be kind to the person who threatens you the most and everything will work out. Only in Hollywoodland (and their version of Zamunda) does this feel remotely possible. Read full review
55
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMar 4, 2021
This feels less like a movie and more like one of those reunion specials where the cast of a beloved old TV show returns to play their characters again, recreating their pratfalls and repeating their catchphrases. Read full review
50
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiMar 12, 2021
Despite some genuinely funny and endearingly nostalgic moments, Coming 2 America attempts to do way too much with its plot rather than keep it simple. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonMar 5, 2021
Coming 2 America is like attending your high school reunion: You’ll enjoy seeing the familiar faces of those with whom you once shared such fond experiences, but then you’ll realize that the nostalgia of that past is far more fulfilling than the harsher realities of the present. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 5, 2021
The film isn’t funny enough to warrant a recommendation and, although it doesn’t desecrate the less-than-sacred image of the earlier film, it proves itself to be superfluous. However, Coming 2 America will disappoint only those who believed Murphy could do something amazing or hilarious with this dubious property. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckMar 5, 2021
Again, it all feels like a 30th reunion — maybe because it IS one — where the liquor flows, old stories are rehashed, the men haven’t aged quite as well as the women, the kids steal the show, and by the end you’re happy to have gone but feel no need to be at the next one. Read full review
50
ABC NewsPeter TraversMar 5, 2021
It’s good to see Eddie Murphy again as Zumundan royalty, but the laughs in this tame, PG-13 sequel to the raucous, R-rated 1988 original feel predictable and played out as they strain to slide by on nostalgia. Your call. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittMar 4, 2021
The follow-up is a toothless, fleetingly funny revisit with some moments of greatness yet too much of the same old story to feel fresh. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiMar 4, 2021
But a happy reunion can’t re-create the original’s spark, innocence and masterful comedy. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubShannon MillerMar 4, 2021
Coming 2 America—with its endless callbacks and Easter eggs—seems all too ready to rely on nostalgia. It’s clearly meant to function as a celebration of the original film’s enduring legacy. Fans should just watch that movie again instead. Read full review
42
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezMar 4, 2021
[A] benign, only marginally-amusing-at-best nostalgia cash grab. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 9, 2021
If there’s a knock on the first Coming to America, it’s that its two-hour running time often felt a touch padded. But that’s better than the entirely forgettable Coming 2 America, which is pretty much all padding. Read full review
40
The New YorkerRichard BrodyMar 4, 2021
The new film finds a few of its most inspired moments where it revises the plot to reflect current sensibilities, but its strained efforts at reviving the characters and situations of the original make it feel both hollow and leaden. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 4, 2021
For the most part, Coming 2 America falls back on familiar punchlines, serving up nearly word-for-word repeats of amusing bits from the original, but they don’t necessarily play the same in this context. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMar 4, 2021
Less a sequel than a remake featuring a younger actor going through the same narrative paces as Murphy in the original, Coming 2 America includes so many nods to its predecessor that it feels like a feature-length Easter Egg in search of a movie. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 4, 2021
This new edition feels less inspired, missing not just the superstar’s quick wit but the 1988 film’s fecund fish-out-of-water premise. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 4, 2021
The movie is as tired and middle-aged as Akeem himself; Murphy is oddly waxy and stately, and has no authority figures he can really play off. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMar 4, 2021
Coming 2 America is the rare sequel whose title sounds identical to the original, which may be the cleverest thing about it. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 4, 2021
Norbit was memorably offensive. Coming 2 America is merely offensively forgettable. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMar 4, 2021
Even by the woeful standards of decades-too-late comedy sequels, Coming 2 America is desperate, belabored, and thin. Read full review
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