Coming to America Review
At the height of his critical and commercial success, Coming to America was a fabulous spin on the romantic comedy genre, highlighting Eddie Murphy's multi-role versatility, and earning a gorgeous UHD release with native 4K and Dolby Vision.
48 Hours may have been a tremendous debut, Trading Places a near-perfect follow-up, and Beverly Hills Cop a career-defining solo effort whose success launched him into superstardom, but many think of 1988's Coming to America as the zenith of Eddie Murphy's filmography. At the height of his career, Murphy produced, wrote and very nearly directed this epic ensemble extravaganza, which cleverly blended some of the fish-out-of-water sensibilities that worked so well for him in Beverly Hills Cop with fairly formulaic romantic comedy tropes to genre-defying effect.
When Crown Prince Akeem of Zamunda decides he doesn't want an arranged marriage to some subservient girl pre-groomed to be an obedient princess, his father reluctantly allows him one last romp to see the world, travelling to New York, where Akeem secretly hopes to find his true love, and decides that the only way to do so would be to discard his riches and live like anybody else... in Queens.
Reuniting with Trading Places' John Landis, this feels much more of a Murphy film than a Landis one
Reportedly Murphy's ego and attitude would see him being increasingly difficult to work with, and would inform some of his less well-regarded performances (Beverly Hills Cop III) but whatever diva he may have been at the time - and he was the biggest star in Hollywood after all - somehow the ingredients just worked in Coming to America. The man was utterly assured in his surprisingly reserved central role, and completely unleashed for the barbershop characters he also plays (the first of several movies where Murphy enjoys multiple roles, but never to such delirious effect as here). He'd be perfectly partnered by Arsenio Hall (who was also infinitely funnier in his other roles) and supported by a succession of predominantly African-American actors, many of whom credit this movie with being their launchpad into bigger roles (Cuba Gooding Jr., Vondie Curtis-Hall, Castle's Ruben Santiago, ER's Eriq la Salle and even Samuel L. Jackson), with the likes of James Earl Jones, Die Hard 2's John Amos, and The Wire's Frankie Faison.
Reuniting with Trading Places's John Landis, this feels much more of a Murphy film than a Landis one, enjoying some overindulgence during its extended African 'prologue' (although the Paula Abdul-choreographed dance sequence is impressive) as well as a few moments where the laughs don't quite come that easily, and still ultimately boiling down to a wholesome family romantic comedy - for good and bad - only with some barbershop swearing and early nudity thrown into the mix to earn it that R-rating. Unfortunately, from here on out it was all downhill for him but, fingers crossed, Murphy's recent luck with Netflix's Dolemite Is My Name and new partnering director Craig Brewer gives the upcoming Coming to America 2 a shot at being halfway decent, and maybe even Beverly Hills Cop 4 too...
Coming to America 4K Video
Coming to America comes to UK 4K courtesy of Paramount, day and date with the preceding Murphy classic Beverly Hills Cop's UK 4K release. This Ultra HD Blu-ray release boasts a similarly excellent Native 4K presentation with Dolby Vision as the cherry on top.
The disc presents a 3840 x 2160p resolution image in the film's original aspect ratio of widescreen 1.85:1, and uses 10-bit video depth, a Wide Colour Gamut (WCG), High Dynamic Range, as well as Dolby Vision, and is encoded using the HEVC (H.265) codec for HDR10.
We reviewed the UK 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Coming to America on an LG 55B7 Dolby Vision 4K Ultra HD OLED TV with a Panasonic DP-UB450 Dolby Vision HDR10+ 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player.
An excellent Native 4K presentation with Dolby Vision as the cherry on top
Coming to America clearly enjoys a not insubstantial budgetary upgrade courtesy of the successive intervening years between this and Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop, and the presentation enjoys a commensurate - albeit more incremental - upgrade visually on its predecessor, with a grander, more epic feel to the proceedings (mostly courtesy of that African intro) and a sharper picture for the most part, although there is a hint of sharpening in a couple of fleeting instance.
Grain is finely textured, giving it a suitably filmic look, whilst skin detail, finer make-up (which still stands up) and background nuances and costumes (wow!) are given superb observation. It's still an '88 movie, no doubt, but it's never looked this good, and the colour representation is superb, with WCG, HDR and Dolby Vision working to make those reds pop, gifting skin tones more health and vibrance and popping those vivid tones where necessary (the re-done apartment). It may be a generally low key winter setting, dominated by browns and greys, but it still has some nice representation here, with strong black levels rounding out a lovely native 4K remaster.
Coming to America 4K Audio
Coming to America's 4K Blu-ray release doesn't upgrade to any High Definition 3D object-based immersive audio track, but does upgrade to a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which bests the lossy tracks available on the preceding Blu-ray.
A very good track
Dialogue is delivered clearly and coherently throughout, afforded priority across the frontal array for the most part, whilst the score - kinda quintessential to this period of 80s Murphy flicks - gets some excellent service and representation too, with nominal and largely incidental effects (there's maybe a gunshot or two) are lovingly handled. The early dance routine is particularly intoxicating, and whilst it's hardly obvious demo material, it's a very good track nonetheless.
Coming to America 4K Extras
Paramount's 4K Blu-ray release of Coming to America ports over all of the legacy extra features already available onto the 4K disc itself (handy because there's no Blu-ray in this set) and, despite the lack of anything new, it's still a strong supplementals package.
A strong supplementals package
A quartet of Featurettes take you through the production, from an overview to the costumes, the make-up (very impressive), and score, with a further vintage chat with Eddie Murphy and co-star Arsenio Hall a welcome addition, and the disc rounded out by a Trailer and Gallery.
It's worth noting that this film is currently only available (in the UK) in Steelbook form, for a slight premium pricing bump, and as a single-disc 4K set.
Conclusion
Coming to America 4K Blu-ray Review
Murphy would follow this up by finally making his directorial debut, with about the same impact on his career as Seagal had on his own when he directed On Deadly Ground, but the 80s run-up was phenomenal nonetheless, and Coming to America a defining entry.
At the height of his career, Murphy produced, wrote and very nearly directed this epic ensemble extravaganza
Paramount's UK 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Coming to America lands at the same time as Murphy's excellent Beverly Hills Cop 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and affords similarly impressive results - native 4K with Dolby Vision as the cherry on top. Fans really need to pick up both, even if - currently - Coming to America is only available in the UK as a Zavvi Exclusive 4K Steelbook release.
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