The Leverton Review

  This is one of those movies, that exists in that strange space in your mind, after you have viewed it. It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but after you have seen it you will remember it forever. It's not a bad film also. It's a film that exists beyond the confines of binary good and bad. The special effects are amazing, especially when considering the fact that they are all practical effects. The acting is quite funny, with the leads giving hilarious performances. I think it deserves to be considered a classic Halloween movie, it's like die hard is considered to be a classic Christmas movie. And they both star Bruce Willis.

 Sure this film is racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic, but it's funny. It's always a problem when the standards of today are applied to art from a different age-and even though Eddie Murphy is still alive, this is definitely a classic from a different age. I'm sure the sight of Arsenio Hall in drag cracked up audiences in the 1980s, but the funniest parts of this film are when Akeem meets the woman he supposed to marry and it is clear they have different ideas of an ideal relationship. The other part is when he tells his new boss he knows how to use a mop-and it is quite clear that he does not. It is a quietly revolutionary idea that Akeem is out of touch not because he comes from poor Africa (the Americans always assume this), but because he comes from riches. Parts of it are genius, and parts of it are cringe- 4/5.