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kjpepperMy mood was substantially bettered by catching Coming to America on Encore this evening. I keep meaning to buy that movie each time I see it and somehow keep either forgetting to or wind up not being able to afford it, but this is one of those movies I need to own because no matter how many times I see it, it just amazes me. And it makes me giggle. A lot.
When you really think about it, that movie, paired with a substantial force-feeding of episodes of The Cosby Show, just perfectly encapsulates an almost forgotten and not historically noted era in human history. That era is The Black 80s. Big hair had a whooooooooole different spin on it on the darker side of the color line. Not to mention tight tasteless clothing than managed to capture two horrendous trends in one garment, these being floresence and animal prints. And of course, the movie hit the Jheri Curl problem da folk were having back in The Black 80s right on the head. Just let your Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooul Glow! hee hee hee.
Aside from it being a time capsule, the movie makes me happy in so many ways. The jokes are all silly, but they work, and you can definately see why the costume department nearly won an Oscar. And while the central love story is okay, the movie's supporting cast works really well. I love the chemistry between Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy, and the fact that they play about half of the bite sized speaking roles, up to and including Eddie Murphy playing an old white guy in the barber shop. And James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair worked so well as the King and Queen of Zamunda that they were invited to play another royal couple years later: Simba's parents in The Lion King. I'd love to see them again in a movie sometime - something about that pair just works. And there are bitsy parts of the movie starring some black actors before they got big in the 90s, my favorites being a gun wielding Samuel L. Jackson and a bite sized Cuba Gooding Jr.
I kinda wished, after the movie was over, that they did something more with the fictional country of Zamunda. All you get to see of it is the Palace, but the costuming and the way the royal family are portrayed hints at a bigger story to be told. What kind of country would it be? Where did it get all of its money? Oil? Gold mines? It kinda looks like from the movie that it's an African version of Monaco or Bahrain or that teensy Indonesian country whose population consists seemingly of one disgustingly rich Sultan which I can't remember the name of currently - a place just big enough for its obscenely wealthy extended royal family, and then only after you've covered the space in all of it's money, after which you'd have to put the royal family on top of a one story, country wide pile of US hundred dollar bills. I think my favorite thing that hints at the bigger Zamundan story is when James Earl Jones gets out of his limosine in New York for the first time and he's got the complete skin of a lion draped over his coat, with obscenely large jewels set in the lion's eyes. Most people would think, hmm, complete animal pelt, hey I know, a rug! But a fashion accessory? How royally hardcore is that?
Maybe there's some fanfic or something out there? might have to go looking after posting this.
When you really think about it, that movie, paired with a substantial force-feeding of episodes of The Cosby Show, just perfectly encapsulates an almost forgotten and not historically noted era in human history. That era is The Black 80s. Big hair had a whooooooooole different spin on it on the darker side of the color line. Not to mention tight tasteless clothing than managed to capture two horrendous trends in one garment, these being floresence and animal prints. And of course, the movie hit the Jheri Curl problem da folk were having back in The Black 80s right on the head. Just let your Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooul Glow! hee hee hee.
Aside from it being a time capsule, the movie makes me happy in so many ways. The jokes are all silly, but they work, and you can definately see why the costume department nearly won an Oscar. And while the central love story is okay, the movie's supporting cast works really well. I love the chemistry between Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy, and the fact that they play about half of the bite sized speaking roles, up to and including Eddie Murphy playing an old white guy in the barber shop. And James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair worked so well as the King and Queen of Zamunda that they were invited to play another royal couple years later: Simba's parents in The Lion King. I'd love to see them again in a movie sometime - something about that pair just works. And there are bitsy parts of the movie starring some black actors before they got big in the 90s, my favorites being a gun wielding Samuel L. Jackson and a bite sized Cuba Gooding Jr.
I kinda wished, after the movie was over, that they did something more with the fictional country of Zamunda. All you get to see of it is the Palace, but the costuming and the way the royal family are portrayed hints at a bigger story to be told. What kind of country would it be? Where did it get all of its money? Oil? Gold mines? It kinda looks like from the movie that it's an African version of Monaco or Bahrain or that teensy Indonesian country whose population consists seemingly of one disgustingly rich Sultan which I can't remember the name of currently - a place just big enough for its obscenely wealthy extended royal family, and then only after you've covered the space in all of it's money, after which you'd have to put the royal family on top of a one story, country wide pile of US hundred dollar bills. I think my favorite thing that hints at the bigger Zamundan story is when James Earl Jones gets out of his limosine in New York for the first time and he's got the complete skin of a lion draped over his coat, with obscenely large jewels set in the lion's eyes. Most people would think, hmm, complete animal pelt, hey I know, a rug! But a fashion accessory? How royally hardcore is that?
Maybe there's some fanfic or something out there? might have to go looking after posting this.
