Coming 2 America followed the recent trend of films utilizing CGI age-altering technology, but it also missed a great opportunity for a callback to the original cult smash hit. As Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) and Semmi (Arsenio Hall) once again make their way through New York City, references to the original are everywhere, from an incredibly similar opening sequence, to another barbershop scene, to an appearance by Sexual Chocolate's Randy Watson.
Another notable callback was the continuation of the 1988 original's club scene, a hilarious few minutes where Akeem and Semmi listen to women – in what's seen as almost interview fashion – freely talk about themselves and their lives. And, in the sequel, Akeem and Semmi pick right up where they left off, literally. It's written in as a flashback, which is meant to look like it was salvaged from the first film's cutting room floor. Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall are deaged so that Akeem and Semmi look 33 years younger using CGI special effects. The two meet Mary (Leslie Jones) and end up back at her apartment, where she and Akeem have sex. And the technology is impressive; the Murphy and Hall truly do look years younger.
It's certainly a great callback to the original, but this sequence could have really benefitted from adding in more of Arsenio Hall once again in drag, playing the aggressively flirty woman who he briefly portrayed in the first movie. Though every woman in the original scene was funny in her own way, Hall's female character, as well as how Murphy seemed to be visibly stifling his laughter and how it all ends with Semmi dramatically spitting out his drink easily made it one of the most iconic sequences that stick out to this day. So, though the Coming to America sequel's callback-continuation is funny (especially with help from the introductory dialogue of Leslie Jones' Mary) and pays homage to the original well, Hall's clubber woman should have been more prominently featured. It was certainly one of Coming to America's best gags.
Certainly, more could have been done with the character. It also could have driven the scene home even more if Hall's woman character had successfully seduced the two young men after all, or at least gone after Semmi. Effectively, Hall would have been sleeping with a drag version of himself. It would have been extra work effects-wise, of course. In the first film, the woman and Semmi were never in the same frame--the camera cut back and forth. But, over the years, actors playing two (or more) people in the same film has become increasingly commonplace, such as Jake Gyllenhaal's roles in Enemy (2013), Tom Hardy's roles in Legend (2015), and even Eddie Murphy plays multiple characters in movies like 1996's The Nutty Professor. Plus, the shots would have only been for a short span of time.
Though funny, nostalgic, and a viable option to watch during the lingering societal effects of COVID-19, Coming 2 America does fall a bit flat in many ways. Of course, this is the chance that's always taken when following up a beloved film that holds a special position in pop culture. Had the movie included more of a callback to Hall's classic club gag, and added other moments in a similar vein, it might have come together a little coherently.