For two or three generations of people born between the 1960s and late 1990s, Eddie Murphy was the biggest star in the world – he could do absolutely no wrong, and even his most reviled from produced during his heyday have some passionate supporters. Unfortunately, some of his career choices after that were questionable (but it seems that he is back on track, having once again circled back to the very top of the general public’s esteem), even if they do show what a workhorse comedic actor he was. Revisiting some of his earlier work is always a wonderful experience, since there is quite simply no one that could do it like Murphy – he may not have been as consistent as some of his contemporaries, or have the most voluminous mass of classics, but he hit the higher highs with more frequency than anyone else in his generation – and while they may be remnants of a bygone era, they still stand as some of the funniest films ever made, and with an actor at the centre who could barely be beaten down by anything, whether it be bad reviews, personal issues or, quite simply, the fact that he peaked so early, much of his career was defined by a group of naysayers waiting for him to fail. However, all of this is thrown away when it comes to Coming to America, which may just be his crowning achievement and the film that best encapsulates everything that was so fascinating and enduring about the incredible entity that Eddie Murphy, an actor who occupies such a niche position in our culture, while being just as simultaneously impossible to define, which are all part of the timeless charm of watching his films and seeing him assert his talents on screen.

Coming to America was a reunion between Murphy and director John Landis, after their collaboration on Trading Places, another very notable film that made use of Murphy’s impeccable gifts. In many ways, the two films have always existed in dialogue, being vaguely similar in subject matter (they’re both fish-out-of-water comedies set in New York City), while being just different enough for the later film to narrowly avoid any sense of criticism that it was simply rehashing previous themes in an attempt to recapture the original spark of brilliance. Their collaborations are always very compelling, and they both brought out certain gifts in the other and gave them the platform to really shine. Talking of a film like Coming to America in such hallowed terms is so strange, since this is a work that has become ingrained in the collective cinematic culture – it’s an unimpeachable classic, but like every film of its stature, it sometimes helps to look beyond its reputation and try and understand exactly what it is about the film that made it so compelling in the first place. Looking at it from a place of academic discernment isn’t always optimal either, since in the end, Coming to America is nothing more than just an incredibly funny film built on the charms of its lead actor, who was given free rein to do whatever he needed to make audiences laugh, which was never something that Murphy necessarily struggled with, especially when he was at his peak as an actor.

A major aspect of Coming to America that really helps it flourish is how the director is able to reign in the madness and make something productive out of the raw , delirious insanity that Murphy inspires when he is in front of a camera. Landis, for all his troublesome behaviour, was a profoundly gifted filmmaker when it came to bringing the more intricate talents of comedic actors to the screen, with the comedy landscape of the 1980s being his dominion for the most part with several classics. Coming to America, in comparison, seems like an absolute breeze – not only is Landis working with an actor who comes pre-packaged with a reputation for being extremely entertaining regardless of the material, but also it’s not a film complex enough in theory to qualify anything too strenuous going into the process of bringing it to the screen. However, Coming to America is so much more high-concept than most would expect, especially in how it gradually unveils a set of deeper ideas surrounding social order and cultural differences. It’s a familiar story – an outsider finds their way into a culture other than their own, and has to adapt to this new world, with hilarity waiting around every corner. Where this film differs is that the comedic notes are liberally peppered throughout the film, but aren’t struck to their full potential every time. Not every scene has to be gut-bustlingly hilarious, and both Landis and Murphy realize that keeping the audience entertained isn’t inciting furious laughter in them continuously, but keeping us mildly amused, since it is so much more engaging to be subtly entertained, rather than being constantly provoked into unhinged laughter – everything in Coming to America is measured and straightforward, which only helps lend the film more gravitas as a comedic classic, since so much of the humour becomes timeless through this slightly more restrained approach.

It’s often easy to conflate Murphy as an entertainment entity with Murphy as an actor – part of this comes from the fact that he rose to the top so fast, he became a personality long before he was someone known to give very intricate performances. His dramatic work in the 1980s was remarkably sparse, normally being restricted to brief sojourns into serious subject matter in his otherwise broadly comedic films (done to give gravitas to the humour), so it’s often redundant to try and mine for some complexity beneath his performances. Yet, they do come together beautifully at some points, with his most hilarious performances also having some valuable depth, even when he’s going for broke, comedically at least. Murphy is a comedian who could go broad without playing to the rafters, and Coming to America does well to play to all of his strengths, as both a very funny character actor (represented in both his central role as Prince Akeem, and the sojourns where we see him play a variety of other characters, this being the first instance of his tendency to play multiple roles in his films), and as a dashing leading man. After all, despite its outlandish premise, Coming to America is a romantic comedy at heart, and Murphy doesn’t only need to make us laugh, but also convince us that he’s a great romantic lead. In all areas, he’s helped by an impeccable cast, with Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones (who has rarely been more sophisticated and intimidating) and Shari Hedley all playing a considerable part in setting the foundation for this hilariously offbeat film that depends almost entirely on the performances being given by its central actors and their ability to find the pathos in an otherwise incredibly broad comedy that benefits from their impeccable work.

Breaking it down, it’s not difficult to see why Coming to America struck such a strident chord with audiences at the time, which it has maintained to all subsequent generations that encounter it – after all, this film dares to be exactly what it needs to be: undeniably funny, filled with great jokes, strong performances and a really compelling story. It’s not necessarily the height of Murphy as a comedian or a romantic lead, but it does show why he flourished when it came to both sides of his career as an actor, since everything that made him great overall can be found embedded in this film. Hilarious, but in a way that is effective and restrained, Coming to America is an absolute delight, a rollicking and enthralling comedy with a lot of compelling humour and an even more potent combination of heart and soul, all proving that Landis had a masterful control over the genre that hasn’t aged better than it has in this film. Wonderfully upbeat and exuding a warmth that we simply don’t encounter all that often in modern films, they just don’t make movies like Coming to America anymore, where a simple concept can be executed with precision and genuine fondness for the material, which ultimately speaks not only to audiences at the time, but works its way into the cinematic culture, which benefits from earnest and deeply insightful glimpses into society from the perspective of fearlessly entertaining comedy, which is pretty much what Murphy and his cohorts did better than anyone when they were at their peak.