Load of rubbish!!

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

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 (Eddie Murphy) 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.Some have said this film is the worst for Murphy and for Wes Craven, with Murphy saying the wig he had to wear was a big part of the problem. Now, looking back almost twenty years later, the wig does not look bad, and this was far from rock bottom for Murphy. For Craven, it may not be his strongest film, but it may also not be his worst ("Cursed" is pretty bad).Seriously, this is not that bad of a film, even if the humor never hits exactly right.

Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett, Allen Payne, Zakes Mokae, Kadeem Hardison, John Witherspoon and Joanna Cassidy star in Wes Craven's 1995 horror comedy. Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop) plays Caribbean vampire, Maximillian who arrives in Brooklyn searching for a woman who is half vampire. Bassett (Waiting to Exhale) plays his interest, Rita who is a cop and he tries to seduce her, Payne (House of Payne) plays her partner, Justice who she finds romance with, the late, Mokae (The Serpent and the Rainbow) plays Zeko, an expert on vampires, Hardison (A Different World) plays Julius, a loser who becomes Max's ghoul, Witherspoon (Friday) plays boat watchman/landlord, Silas and Cassidy (Blade Runner) plays police captain, Dewey. This basically pays tribute and pokes fun at vampire flicks like "Blacula." It's not bad, Murphy is great in it, he and Bassett have good chemistry, Rick Baker's make-up effects are terrific as usual and J. Peter Robinson's score is also great. I recommend this.

A Vampire in Brooklyn suffers primarily due to four main factors: 1. / It is directed by Wes Craven, a successful horror director who truth be told has a track record that is extremely hit and miss.2. / It stars Eddie Murphy, already on the downslope after a scintillating run of success in the 80s and early 90s.3. / It sucks… 4. / Apparently Wes and Ed wrestled for control of the film, arguing over whether it should be a horror with comedic elements, or a comedy with horror elements.Neither man won – or more accurately – both lost.The end result is a half-hearted (excuse the pun) effort with smatterings of everything and lots of nothing. A film that has no idea what it wants to be and how it might go about getting there. A film bereft of laughs, scares, and ultimately viewer interest.Murphy plays Maximillian, a smooth undead vampire from the West Indies who must come to Brooklyn for one reason, some vampire poontang that legend has it will help prolong his lifespan.Upon arriving in the city Maximillian enlists Julian (Kadeem Hardison) as his zombified yet still yappy go-fer ghoul. Their repartee is supposed to provide much of what passes as humour in the film, in truth it is merely a series of lamentable puns ("Put a little heart into it") and gross out sight gags that often seem out of place.Max's romantical target is an already half-vampire (due to some ancestral shenanigans) named Rita (Angela Bassett), a cop with a jealous partner named Justice (Allen Payne).Despite her instincts Rita finds herself drawn to this pimp looking pointy toothed sleaze merchant due to some unknown connection, but as the legend states that she must give herself to Max via dance the usual "Holla at ya' Boi" tactics aren't destined to work for Max.Cue the clumsy mix of bad horror, bad comedy and still more bad puns.The film uses the usual vampire rulebook of mirrors, sunlight, mist, crosses and garlic but awkwardly shoehorns jokes on the back of gore and vice versa.An overrated director and a fading comedian in a relationship doomed to failure, thankfully this genre confusing flop was their only offspring. A sequel was set up that thankfully never came, and Murphy fled back to more familiar territory of cop comedies (Metro) and fart gags (The Nutty Professor). Craven on the other hand started churning out Scream movies one after the other.Final Rating – 4 / 10. Too little of one thing or the other ends up culminating in not much of anything. A big budget smear on Murphy's resume.