SPOILERS BELOW
It's cool to see a bunch of actors come back, and it's nice that no one's phoning this in - there's lots of energy, Snipes is great, it feels sincere.
However, this movie is a mess. I did not expect it to make the original seem classy, restrained and well-considered in comparison. There's so much going on, so many musical numbers and action scenes and characters learning lessons, and yet not many laughs. Even though it's got more modern CG effects and whatnot, it still feels a bit cheaper than the original with smaller sets, fewer extras, and scenes that feel like they got less shooting time.
And it's kind of staggering that this is more offensive than an Eddie Murphy movie from 30 years ago: Akeem is now a domineering misogynist arsehole, under his and Lisa's rule women aren't allowed to own businesses, turns out during the events of the first movie he was raped by Mary, there's an implication that Lavelle isn't even his son anyway because Mary was "a ho" back then, and a big part of the happy ending is Akeem making a political alliance with a war lord. Oh, and they even reveal that the barking hopping fiancée from the first movie has been doing that non-stop for 30 years because Akeem has refused to tell her to stop.
Rating: Bad.
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