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The joke at our expense: "Discovering America 2" is a particularly bad and unnecessary pledge
More than thirty years after the original film and without anyone asking for it, the sequel to "Discovering America 2" came out this weekend.
Eddie Murphy stays, but the humor, style, romance and sting that were originally gone are gone.
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Eddie Murphy
Discovering America 2
Avner Shavit
Monday, 08 March 2021, 00:12 Updated: 02:27
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Trailer for the movie "Discovering America 2" (Amazon)
(Photo: Shai Librovsky)
Five years after smashing box office hits in "Mishne Makum, Mishne Mazal," director John Landis and star Eddie Murphy have teamed up to create an even bigger hit - "Discovering America."
The film, released in 1988, dealt with the prince of a fictional African kingdom, who sets out on an adventure in New York with the aim of finding a match and, no less importantly, taking the golden spoon out of his mouth and discovering for the first time the meaning of independence.
The film is available on Netflix, and a re-watch reveals that Miro did not perform a miracle.
It has a lot in it: humor and romance;
An excellent acting display by Eddie Murphy, who was at his peak at the time, and supported by an excellent sub-team as well;
Lots of style;
And above all, a satirical sting.
Usually, satire needs perspective, but "Discovering America" has managed to treat the eighties with honed irony already in real time.
And now, completely randomly, 33 years after the original film, the sequel - "Discovering America 2" - is rolling in front of us.
Like many cinematic productions this year, it was supposed to hit the big screen, but due to the circumstances was sold directly to streaming, and over the weekend went up on Amazon Prime Video and is also available with us.
The prince, again played by Murphy of course, had already become king, and returned to Africa with his New York partner, but contrary to his promises, did not change the face of the kingdom.
At an early stage it also turns out that he had a son born from his adventure in the Big Apple, who did not know of his existence, but is now required to contact him to secure himself an heir.
This, for all sorts of corny scripted reasons that we will not go into.
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A kingdom without a crown.
From "Discovering America 2" (Photo: Amazon Prime)
The prince's son, played by the rather anonymous comedian Jermaine Flower, is an unprivileged young man, devoid of royal manners, characterized by critical thinking.
In one scene, for example, he declares his contempt for Hollywood, explaining that all this industry produces nowadays is "a cruise of superheroes, remakes and pawns for old movies that no one asked for."
Fulfilled that the self-humor here is so blatant, it is also cheeky.
Butter is allowed to be smeared on the head like this, but only if there is no strong sun outside, and "Discover America 2" dares to laugh at unnecessary and bad movies when it itself is superfluous and particularly bad.
This quote, then, is a level to be discounted.
So come on, let's rest assured: the sheet is short of counting the failures of "Discovering America," by itself and compared to the original.
Although the first film is slow-paced today, it was very cinematic, and made good use of the New York scene.
The pledge is mostly filmed in the studio, and is muddy and ugly.
The script seems to have been written by an algorithm, and it may have one funny joke - and the gameplay views are weak.
Some of the stars of the original film are back to star here as well.
Not only Eddie Murphy, but also Arsinio Hall as his instrumentalist, and like last time, the two play a few other small roles.
Sherry Aquarius, who was featured in the previous episode as the Prince's New York lover and unfortunately her career has not erupted since, has returned to play her character as well, and all three are showing energy-free and effortless displays.
James Earl-Jones, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday, also emerges for a moment - and as a reinforcement player, Wesley Snipes joins the ranks of the rival kingdom's leader.
They do not save the situation.
Without energies.
Eddie Murphy in "Discovering America 2" (Photo: Amazon Prime)
The younger generation is even more problematic: Jermaine Flower, at least here, is very far from the charisma Murphy displayed at the time.
In fact, his performance is oppressive to unbearable.
In one scene, when he is required to cut a lion's mustache as a test of heroism on the way to his coronation, one of the characters wishes the lion would devour him, and it is hard for us not to identify with her feelings.
In the spirit of the times, this film has more significant female characters than before.
Numzmo Mabeta, a South African television woman who is in her first film role, plays the royal librarian in whom the protagonist falls in love, even though he is expected to marry a woman of higher status.
Kiki Lane, a very good actress who broke out in "The Story of Bill Street", plays his princess sister, who of course turns out to be the smartest and most resourceful character in the kingdom, and you can guess for yourself how the plot develops and to whom the crown will be awarded.
Like everything else in "Discovering America 2", its female empowerment is forced and opportunistic.
He is not really interested in the subject, but only marks on it V as well as on other squares.
Nostalgic winks?
there is.
Hints of current trends?
there is.
Attempts to ride on the success of "The Black Panther"?
There is that too, but nothing catches on.
It is said that time passes quickly when you have fun and slowly when you suffer, but as much as I did not enjoy the film, it is so pale and ordinary that the viewing time actually flew by.
Very low level.
From "Discovering America 2" (Photo: Amazon Prime)
My colleague David Jenkins summed it up well on Twitter - "all I can say," he wrote, "is that I hope the participants in 'Discover America 2' received a handsome fee for their participation in it, and beyond that, let's not say another word about the film." .
I, too, can only hope that Murphy and his friends were honored with a nice check.
Either way, the joke at our expense.
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