Wanna feel old? Coming to America was released in 1988. Wanna feel older? There’s a possible sequel to it in the works. Wanna feel oldest? Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert’s dad is in the movie.
The connection was made by The Undefeated, which discovered that Rudy Bourgarel was one of the Marist players on the court when Prince Akeem attends his first basketball game between St. John’s and Marist at Madison Square Garden.
“It’s a fun movie. It’s a classic. I always like Eddie Murphy movies,” Gobert said to The Undefeated. “My mom showed it to me when I was a kid and I was like, ‘Oh.’ That was fun seeing him. She was so proud.”
“Oh” doesn’t really sound like excitement over seeing your dad in a movie, does it? That’s what you say when your dentist office calls and tells you that your appointment needs to be pushed back an hour.
There are many other wonderful things about this movie, though. For instance, it features Samuel L. Jackson in one of his first movie roles as a guy robbing McDowell’s and, of course, swearing a whole bunch.
Then there is the scene when Akeem talks football with Lisa’s dad, and he ends up describing how the Giants beat the Packers almost 20 years later in the NFC title game.
It’s a good movie. There are sports. You should see it even though it’s really old. Like your grandmother in the home.
