Word: akeem
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...Akeem, Crown Prince of mythical Zamunda, is in most respects a splendid young fellow: nice looking, well-spoken, equable and compassionate in spirit. His only deficiency is a certain literalness when it comes to geography: he thinks the logical place to look for a future queen is a place named Queens. You know -- the New York City borough you try to drive through without stopping on the way into Manhattan from the airport...
...gags come fast and furiously, not as frenetically as in Airplane!, but almost. The breakfast table in the Zamundan palace is so long that Akeem talks to his parents at the other end through an intercom. Hanging in a Black businessman's home is a copy of a famous Manet--only the girl in the picture is now Black. Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche appear briefly as the Duke brothers, the heartless business kingpins from Trading Places, but now, they're panhandlers. Most of the gags are hilarious, which is good because they are the meat of this film...
Everything above and beyond the gags and sketches is dressing. Even the characters are secondary. Sure, Akeem is the main role, but he is so nice that he's too saintly to be real. He is funny mostly for his ignorance. In one scene, happy Akeem offers a morning serenade to the city of Queens, which responds with a chorus of "Fuck you," to which Akeem, not understanding, offers his own joyous "Yes, fuck you!" This is about the only time Murphy swears in the film. Akeem is a departure for Murphy, and to his credit, he pulls...
Fortunately, Akeem has Semmi as a foil. Hall's Semmi is a smarmy, false opportunist, but like Akeem, he's a caricature. Together, Akeem and Semmi are like adult versions of Wally Cleaver and Eddie Haskell. Their squabbles are amusing, but Hall and Murphy's cameos are funnier and more interesting than their primary roles...
James Earl Jones shows an unexpected comic side as Akeem's royally out-of-touch father, who delivers such lines to his pampered son as, "I tied my own shoes once. It is an overrated experience." Shari Headley, as Akeem's dream queen, is pleasant, but her character is as upright as Akeem, which means that she is funny only because she is ignorant of Akeem's true identity...