Coming to America, really just a 1988 masterpiece of a film with the notoriously foul-mouthed Eddie Murphy playing a simple sweetheart just looking for love in the big city, documents one African prince's (Akeem, played by Eddie Murphy) journey to find a wife, a queen for his kingdom, in the ever-appropriately named city of Queens, New York. Rather than settling for his parent's choice for a wife, Akeem decides to travel to Queens, New York, because clearly, in his mind, a place named Queens must have only queens living in it. Unbeknownst to Akeem, Queens is just a sub-par borough of New York, with no affiliation with royal queens of any type, however, he continues on his merry way, looking for "true love" as opposed to what he would find in an arranged marriaged by his parents. Accompanied by his trusty sidekick, Semmi, Akeem makes the trip to the Big Apple, both men fabricating their identities and traveling incognito. Almost as soon as they arrive in New York, Akeem falls in love with the daughter of a hamburger franchiser, Lisa McDowell, whom he meets at a church, a place he heard is good for meeting "nice girls" from an elderly man. He really only falls in love with her because she is one of the only people that is actually nice to him in the big city of New York and is one of the first people he meets.
The movie continues on it's comic route as Lisa's father disapproves of their interest in eachother because he beleives Akeem to be nothing more than a dead-end immigrant with no future or money to offer his daughter, little does he know Akeem is exactly the opposite of that. Akeem's parents come to New York to see what exaclty their son is up to after Semmi repeatedly asks them to send money. This, of course, turns into quite a disaster. It is here that Semmi and Akeem's identities are revealed, a whole hodge-podge of disaster ensues, and Cleo McDowell, Lisa's father, does a complete 360 in terms of his view of Akeem. Cleo now approves of the relationship, however, it is Akeem's parents who wish to bring their son back to their native land so he can marry their chosen wife for him. At the end it comes down to what Akeem and Lisa want to do, not their parents.
This is an entertaining movie that showcases Eddie Murphy's talents as more than just a explicitive-ridden funny-man. Here he is a sensitive man who just wants to be loved.
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