Continuity mistake: When Akeem and Semmi get their apartment, the landlord says that the room has only one window facing a brick wall. But when Akeem is out on the fire escape, he yells out to a street, not a wall. And there are two windows.
Coming to America (1988)
Plot summary
Directed by: John Landis
Starring: Eddie Murphy, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Arsenio Hall, Paul Bates, Shari Headley
Prince Akeem, future king of the happy and rich country Zamunda has reached the age when he should marry. There's a to-be-wife for him already chosen, but he doesn't want to marry her. He decides to go to the USA to find a wife for himself. His childhood friend and/or servant escorts him into the dephts of Queens in New York.
After some searching Akeem finds the woman he wants - Lisa. The next day both of them start to work at the girl's father's restaurant as porr univerity students from Africa, and Akeem spends a lot of time and effort on that that the girl even notice him. Finally he succeds, they both fall in love with each other.
Since Akeem gave all their money to a homeless, his friend sends a telegram to the royal coupla asking for some more -- the king and the queen immediately travel to New York, and when Lisa finds out he isn't poor at all, on the contrary, she dumps her and Akeem goes home with a broken heart.
More mistakes in Coming to America
Prince Akeem: Fascinating! Semmi, look at this! America is great indeed. Imagine a country so free, one can throw glass on the streets.
Trivia: The two bums who get the bag of money from Akeem are actually the rich men who were made bankrupt in the movie "Trading Places" (1983), starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd.
More questions & answers from Coming to America
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Answer: How would Akeem's parents know what they were up to? They think he's taking an American vacation, and in the pre social media days, it was hard to keep track of people. As for McDowell, what sort of background check did you expect him to do on a fast food employee in the 80s? McDowell seems like a guy who would cut corners anyway.
Brian Katcher
There aren't exactly a lot of people lining up to work at McDowell's, so Cleo gives the applications a once over and hires them on the spot. I'm in my 40's and I've had plenty of jobs that didn't even call my references, let alone perform a background check.