Saw Coming 2 America, a mostly winning and funny sequel to the 1988 film of nearly the same name (Coming To America.) It follows the main character from the first film, the Prince of Zamunda, trying to find and reconnect with his illegitimate son who is now heir to the throne. This film is a sort of reverse of the first one - whereas they are both fish-out-of-water comedies, in the first film the prince is an African prince in Queens and this time it's a boy from Queens in the fictional land of Zamunda. In addition to the fish-out-of-water hijinks, there's also many many many callbacks to the previous film.
I enjoyed the movie alright, and laughed at several times. I also liked the overnight rags-to-riches story of the son who is scooped up from unemployment lines into palatial excess. It was some nice, vicarious wish-fulfillment. Also the son looks very cute after the palace make-over. Leslie Jones is also brought on board for some old-fashioned, scheming, opportunistic, poor-lady business. It's all pretty funny.
I'm generally harsh on comedies. In order to work properly, they have to be a little glib, and I want to think out this glibness and to point out any harmful clichés it perpetuates, but that sort of harshes the vibe. It was not a particularly profound movie and had a bit too many references to the old movie for me (even including a digitally de-aged Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall) but it was funny and solid entertainment. I don't think it made a big impression on me, but it was a good waste of two hours.
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