Category Archives: Reviews

‘Coming 2 America:’ Skip the Trip

Eddie Murphy is back in Coming 2 America (AP)

Here’s an easy way to tell whether you’re going to like Eddie Murphy’s latest sequel, Coming 2 America.

Did you like the first? If so, you’re in luck. Director Craig Brewer not only retreads jokes from the first film: He includes a video reel from the 23-year-old original.

If you weren’t won over the first time, you’re in less luck this go round.

Once upon a time, dear children, before you were born, they made a fairytale movie about a kingdom called Zamunda. Coming to America, starring Eddie Murphy at the height of his popularity and charisma, became a huge hit and a cult classic.

In this film, dear children, Murphy played Prince Akeem — he didn’t need to be called Prince Charming, because he was already so darned charming. We met him on the morning of his 21st birthday, awakening in his palace bedroom to a full orchestra, servants tossing rose petals at his feet, and gorgeous naked women servicing him in the bathtub until his royal appendage was deemed clean.

Oops! Sorry, kids. Some parts of “Coming To America” didn’t age very well. Including most of the stuff about women.

But 33 years and one #MeToo movement later, it’s time for a reboot. The good news about America is that things have gotten better for women in Zamunda. Yes, it’s still a patriarchy (more on that soon) and yes, there are still obedient royal bathers. But we don’t see their naked breasts or backsides. There’s also a bathtub gag involving the great Leslie Jones that flips the gender dynamic entirely and gratifyingly (especially for her).

And now, Prince Akeem is not a randy young heir but an established family man. Happily married for 30 years to Princess Lisa — the bride he found in Queens in the last film — he has three daughters, brave and feisty. The eldest wants to be his heir. A female heir? That’s not done, in Zamunda. But the times, they are — or might be — a-changin’.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that this sequel, despite (or perhaps because of) its nod to modern sensibilities, isn’t nearly as funny or edgy as the original. It has seemingly everything — the original cast, some well-known newcomers, high-profile cameos — and eye-popping costumes by the great Ruth E. Carter (an Oscar winner for “Black Panther”). It has set pieces and choreography and de-aging technology and overlaying plot lines. What it has less of, is fun.

Still, just like we go to college reunions 30 years later to recapture the magic, fans of the first will flock to it on Amazon Prime. They likely won’t be too disappointed. Especially because, despite the knowing references to urban gentrification, transgender offspring, Teslas and even unnecessary movie sequels, little has really changed.

Obviously Murphy is back, as producer and star. So is Arsenio Hall, as trusty sidekick Semmi (and a bunch of other roles). Also back: the stately James Earl Jones as King Jaffe Joffer; Shari Headley as Lisa (a seriously underwritten role); and Louie Anderson as Maurice. John Amos is back as Lisa’s dad, still ripping off McDonald’s.

A new presence is the casually appealing Jermaine Fowler as Lavelle, Akeem’s previously unknown son. Celebrity guests include a highly amusing Wesley Snipes as flamboyant General Izzi, leader of Nexdoria (next door); Tracy Morgan as Lavelle’s uncle; and Jones as his uninhibited mother. Another Saturday Night Live face, Colin Jost, makes the most of a brief cameo. Among notable musical appearances, Gladys Knight sings “Midnight Train From Zamunda.”

The plot follows a familiar trajectory, beginning in Zamunda and traveling to Queens to solve a major need. In this case, the need is not a bride, but a male heir. Akeem, who becomes king upon his father’s death, learns he unknowingly sired a son during that Queens trip three decades ago (it was Semmi’s fault!) He needs a male heir to cement his power. So he brings Lavelle, a ticket scalper who aspires to much more, back to Zamunda, along with Mom.

But Lavelle needs to learn royal ways, and pass a “princely test” which includes facing down a lion. There’s also the matter of Akeem’s daughter, Meeka (a luminous KiKi Layne, not given enough screen time), who rightly deserves to be queen one day. Complicating matters entirely, Lavelle falls not for his intended bride, Izzi’s daughter, but for his royal barber, Mirembe, who aspires to her own shop one day (women don’t own businesses in Zamunda).

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.

Paws for Effect…

The year is young and the upcoming Oscars are voting on last year’s movies. But The HollywoodBowles is ready to announce this year’s winner of the Coughy, which goes to the funniest viral video of the year.

While ‘21 will surely offer some worthy contenders, it’s hard to see how you could beat Cat Lawyer, which captured a Zoom call this week in a Texas courthouse.

The 48-second video has it all: The kitten filter works seamlessly, and kitty’s panicked, darting eyes out-animate anything South Park ever drew. The panicked gasp at :13 is Simpsonesque voice work. And the corner geezers are straight out of a Coen comedy, particularly when Gibbs Bauer puts on his glasses to make sure he’s seeing what he thinks he’s seeing. Rod Ponton’s “I’m not a cat” is the best feline punchline since Joe Exotic.

The icing: The recording of this hearing or live stream is prohibited. So the filmmaker had to risk legal prosecution to get the movie made.

This Coughy’s for you.

Television in the Time of COVID

Tiger King, The Queen’s Gambit

The pandemic put the movie industry on ice. But it has set TV on fire.

From Tiger King to The Queen’s Gambit, COVID has treated the small screen like royalty. Television viewing nationwide increased for the first time in nine years in 2020. Warner Bros. announced it was turning its 2021 film slate into movies of the week airing on HBO Max (though Warners will still toss flicks to the few theater chains still dog paddling).

That doesn’t mean all was right on the boob tube last year. Sports have lost their competitive zeal, and some game shows simply don’t translate without a live audience.

Here, then, are the TV lab reports from from some iconic shows facing pandemic programming.

Sports Athletics saw some truly dramatic storylines in 2020, including LeBron James becoming the first NBA player to win championships with three teams and the Cleveland Browns winning their first football playoff game since, well, maybe leather.

Baltimore Ravens: Overreaction Monday - Browns Got Lucky, Actually...

But there’s no getting around it: Pro sports are just glamorous scrimmages without crowds. Part of every athletes’ measure is the ability to perform the craft in public. Otherwise, you’re just a musician with agoraphobia; the talent may be there, but you gotta show the guts.

Scripted television Screenplays — particularly dramatic ones — felt as rare as toilet paper last year. Most series simply weren’t (aren’t) ready to reflect a society forced to wear a mask (after all, COVID hides your dimples). The upside is that those who did venture out, like Fargo and Better Call Saul, felt like oases in ash.

Rhea Seehorn and Bob Odenkirk in “Better Call Saul,” the “Breaking Bad” prequel series.
Better Call Saul

Game shows Here’s where TV went manic.

For the sake of reporting I swear! I looked up the opening minuts of The Bachelor on Comcast’s On-Demand. I know it’s been ABC’s (thus Disney’s) shinier mantle piece for a quarter-century, where it has hovered about the top 10.

I don’t know who the bachelor is, I don’t know who Miss Etiquette is. But the series begins with Sweet Polly Purebread announcing to the bachelor, with her hand behind her back: “The pandemic was really hard on me, but I got through the tough times with this,” producing a dildo.

Where to begin? Howbout: Was? Is the pandemic over if you find true love? And what did you want him to do with that? Wouldn’t you have been concerned if, instead of laughing, he’d said, “Oh, thanks! Mine broke!”

Clearly, some shows need to be put into a medically-induced coma until the storm passes.

Bachelor' Premiere: Matt James on Being Distracted by a 'Big Dildo'  (Exclusive) | Entertainment Tonight
Miss Etiquette and The Bachelor

You have to feel for The Price is Right. Sure, Drew Carey looks like he’s about to mail bombs from a woodshed, but they’re trying. But it doesn’t feel the same without your second-cousin Terry shouting at you that you’re paying too much for sandwich bags.

The Price Is Right At Night's Drew Carey Talks COVID-19 Changes, Including  His New Beard - CINEMABLEND
Drew Carey

Some TV hosts seem utterly unfazed by a worldwide plague. Judge Judy may be better in a pandemic. She looks a lot like the New York city judge featured on 60 Minutes because of her straight talk to lawyers and laymen alike. And the show benefits without a courtroom to ooh and ahh at courtroom antics, which Judith Sheindlin always detested, anyway.

Judith Sheindlin and her bailiff, Petri Hawkins Byrd, in 1997, during the first season of ‘‘Judge Judy.’’
Judge Judy and Officer Byrd

Some shows are not only pandemic-proof; they’re people-proof. Battlebots may be a peek into an AI future. If anything, the show drags to a near-standstill when the humans cackle about what’s at stake in the pursuit of the show’s “Giant Nut” championship.

BattleBots crowns a new champion - Nerd Reactor
The Giant Nut

So what does that mean for viewing in ’21? At least on the news front, things are going to get pretty boring. Already, the 24/7s are replaying footage from the Capitol insurrection as if they were seeing Charlie Bit My Finger for the first time. As much as they bitch about inciting unrest, CNN and MSNBC need to examine their stoking insistence to highlight lowlifes. Saul is entering its final season, and Fargo has no plans in place for a fifth season.

But COVID, which has proved to be a pandemic that teaches us what we can live without, has also improved some of the things we hold dear. Phone calls now really are a way to reach out and touch someone. Zoom has strengthened enumerable family relationships. Drive-ins are back. Dog shelters aren’t teeming with the abandoned and abused. Imagine what a hug is going to feel like again.

From surface to soul, COVID has been a human cleansing. If TV is a reflection of — or reaction to — that profound metamorphosis, it will see a new heyday. Just pass on the dildos.