Weekend Watch: Raya And The Last Dragon And Coming 2 America
One has to save her world, the other his bloodline...
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Disney animates a new adventure and Eddie Murphy returns to Zamunda.
Image Credit: Disney
Disney might have a long tradition of big animated movies, but it also has a playbook that it tends to follow each time. You generally know what to expect, with a few exceptions: a young woman who has a mission to complete or a need/want to fulfill, sings about their challenges and then overcomes them with the help of a wisecracking buddy. Raya And The Last Dragon hits most of these points (no singing), and does so with charming, pleasant gusto.
If that sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, I’m really not: there is a lot to like here. The basic story is about Raya (Kelly Marie Tran, on winning form in a well-deserved leading role, even if you never see her actual face) who lives in the divided land of Kumandra, a fantastical, based-on-South-East-Asian myth world where humans once lived peacefully alongside powerful, magical dragons. Battling a mysterious, malevolent threat ends with the dragons turned to stone and the various parts of the country split into different areas, where the people don’t get along. Looking to reunite the people, Raya heads off in search of the last dragon Sisu (Awkwafina), with the hope that she can restore order.
There, then is the quest, with the McGuffin this time the broken pieces of a dragon gem that must be reunited to stop the resurgent mystical threat (swirling purple energy clouds with the power of petrifaction) and solve the problem of ill-feeling between the various lands (all named after parts of a dragon). Raya is aided on this mission not just by Sisu (who she finds relatively easily), and a rag-tag bunch of comrades including Benedict Wong’s tough warrior Tong, Izaac Wang’s wannabe chef Boun and Little Noi (Thalia Tran) a toddler with a con artist’s wits and a troupe of monkey-like Ongis as backup.
Raya’s essential storyline isn’t really the big appeal here – it won’t win any awards for originality, and many of the jokes are something you could predict without seeing the film itself. Anachronisms in dialogue abound, which makes for awkward moments, but the real issue here is that the filmmakers (directors Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, plus screenwriters Adele Lim and Qui Nguyen), hired Awkwafina and then gave her little leash to be truly funny. She’s still entertaining, but she’s never quite as fun as you might hope. The others all get their moments, enough to drive the story along.
Thankfully, Raya is more than the sum of its parts, partly because it’s beautifully colorful and stylish, witty in places and is boosted by Tran’s adept vocal work, which lets the emotion flow. This latest Disney offering might not break the mold, but it fills it with aplomb.
Raya And The Last Dragon will be on limited theatrical release and Disney+ (with Premier Access, for an additional fee) from 5 March.
Image credit: Amazon
The sequel to 1988’s Coming To America might not have been seen as such a risk (or a decades-later cash-in on a recognizable name) had it not had to endure years of development. Yet, here it is, sold off by Paramount to Amazon in this era of closed cinemas and profit worries. Despite the long delay, Coming 2 America is a welcome return for Eddie Murphy’s Prince Akeem and the assorted characters (many played by Murphy and Arsenio Hall) who populated the original.
Set nowadays, where Akeem has been a Prince Of Zamunda for 30 years, happily settled into royal life with his wife, Lisa (Shari Headley), a father to three daughters, the eldest of whom (Kiki Layne’s Meeka) has one eye on the throne after her dad, even if that’s not allowed by Zamundan law. Then Akeem learns he has a son back in America, from one night with Mary Junson (Leslie Jones) and heads back to Queens to meet this new heir. Turns out, Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler), a likeable sort, might not be princely material, but the film wrings a lot of laughs from the culture clash.
Occasionally falling into the trap of rehashing the original film through clips or a sequence where a de-aged Murphy and Hall encounter Mary, which is odd since none of the men appear to have aged all that much anyway), much of the running time is devoted to Lavelle’s time in Zamunda, where he tries to fit in with the royal family. He and his father must also deal with the preening General Izzi (Wesley Snipes having a fine old time as the neighboring warlord), who intends to merge their nations through marriage. Sure, there is some repetition of themes and jokes here, but fortunately director Craig Brewer and writers David Sheffield and Kenya Barris are able to find more than repeat engagements.
Naturally, Murphy and hall have the chance to play several characters (we revisit the chatty barbershop and check-in with Randy Watson/Sexual Chocolate, among others) and they light up the screen when they show up. There is a worry that Murphy is a little sidelined when the focus switches back to Zamunda and it’s more Lavelle’s story, but he’s still excellent value, relishing the chance to reunite with the likes of John Amos and Paul Bates.
It might not quite have the same comic potency as the 1988 movie, but this is a sequel that more than justifies its existence.
Coming 2 America arrives on Amazon Prime Video now.