Surprisingly incoherent and boring

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This movie is not a vampire movie. It's a movie about human behavior, religious hypocrisy, animal behavior, social issues, and difficult choices. I don't feel it will translate well to today's expectations. This is one of my favorite movies.

Continuing my plan to watch every Eddie Murphy movie in order, I come to Vampire In Brooklyn (1995)Plot In A Paragraph: Maximillian (Murphy) is the only surviving vampire, he must find a mate to keep the line from ending. He knows that a child had been born to a woman who had a vampire father, and he searches for her in Brooklyn. Playing a vampire worked for Cruise in 1994, why not Eddie Murphy a year later. This was Eddie Murphy's last movie for Paramount, and he is on record as saying he only made it, to get out of his contract with them. He also said the reason this movie failed, was because of the wig he wore.I had never seen this movie before, my local video store never even had a copy of it, and he got almost everything ("no demand for it son") in his store. Yet I know a few people who call this under rated. With comments ranging from "It's not bad" and "I liked it" to "It's actually a really good horror"It didn't really work for me on any level. The comedy is slapstick and out of place with the rest of the movie. Played 100% straight or as an outright comedy, I may have enjoyed it more. As it is, it's neither really scary or very funny. It had potential on both fronts, as it is, it settles in the middle and fails on all grounds!! I'm not even sure if I was meant to root for Murphy or not. We do get a first for a Murphy character here.30 mins in, I could have turned it off, but it did get more interesting as it went on. With the exception of the "Bad is Good" Preacher scene, I didn't really enjoy any of it though. Angela Basset was pretty solid and John Witherspoon (so great in Boomerang) brings a smile too. But they seem to be acting in different movies, and that's the problem.In an interview, Wes Craven stated that the movie was difficult to make because Murphy did not want to be funny, instead aiming to play his character straight. He also said in a different interview "Eddie didn't want to be really evil, which i think hampered it massively, because it really needed somebody who could be evil but he kind of wanted to do a horror film but he didn't want to be a bad guy and he wanted to look kind of buff all the time". If Murphy wanted to be taken seriously, playing multiple characters including his Guido character from RAW was the wrong way to go about it. Vampire In Brooklyn was the third Murphy movie in a row to lose money, as it only grossed $19 million (a few thousand more than Best Defence) to end the year the 82nd highest grossing movie of the year.

Released in 1995 and directed by Wes Craven, "Vampire in Brooklyn" stars Eddie Murphy as a Caribbean vampire who travels to Brooklyn seeking the daughter (Angela Bassett) of a vampire he once knew in order to keep his vampire line continuing. Allen Payne plays her detective partner and wannabe beau while Kadeem Hardison plays a streetwise dude whom the vampire enlists in his services. John Witherspoon and Zakes Mokae are also on hand.I can understand why this movie bombed at the box office seeing as how the main cast is all black and this would limit its appeal, but I can't figure out why it has such a low rating since Murphy is commanding in the titular role and the movie hits all the marks of an entertaining blockbuster horror flick. Furthermore, the two main protagonists (Bassett and Payne) are great and their characters have a compelling romantic thread, not to mention Hardison is amusingly effective as the vampire's ghoul; Witherspoon is also notable.Some people complain about the mixed tone, but the mixture of serious horror with comedy was done in 1990's "Arachnophobia" and it was a minor hit. It's a difficult thing to pull off but "Vampire in Brooklyn" does so absolutely convincingly. Yet the producers of "Vampire in Brooklyn" – e.g. Eddie Murphy – decided to go the extreme R-rated route with an overabundance of foul language. That, plus the primarily black cast, seriously limited the film's appeal. If you can handle the foul language, however, there's a lot to appreciate here, as noted above. Murphy is excellent in three different roles, as usual; and Payne is outstanding as the male protagonist, successfully engaging the viewer.The film runs 100 minutes and was shot in Brooklyn.GRADE: B

Maximillian is the only survivor from a race of vampires on a Caribbean Island, and as a vampire, he must find a mate to keep the line from ending.He knows that a child had been born to a woman who had a vampire father, and he searches for her in Brooklyn.Rita's mother, who has died in an asylum, was that woman, and Rita has nightmares that she does not understand.Not knowing that she is part vampire, Max woos her and attempts to bring her to her blood sucking destiny....The ironic thing about his dirge is that in the same year Craven and Murphy had the career resurgences that they both desperately needed.The big problem with this movie is that it cannot decide to be a horror,comedy or dark romance. And it fails on all three accounts. Murphy looks bored in his role, a cross between Blacula, Prince Akeem of Zamunda and a cachexic Barry White.The rest of the cast look wholly confused and put in risible performances. Hardison s the worse culprit, putting in a performance so hammy, you want to switch off wherever he appears (think Chris Tucker n anything, and your there).The first tn minutes, especially the boat heading toward the dock, is pure Craven and quite tense, but when Maximillian starts biting people, the whole movie fails on every account.It's a pity, because this movie had potential and it's aching to get out, but it's a dog of a movie, with only the beginning worth anything.Avoid.