Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Charlie Murphy, Michael Lucker, Chris Parker (Screenplay) Eddie Murphy, Vernon Lynch, Charlie Murphy (Story)
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett, Allen Payne, Kadeem Hardison, John Witherspoon, Zakes Mokae
Plot: 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.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Bland Horror Comedy
Story: Vampire in Brooklyn starts as the Caribbean based vampire Maximillian (Murphy) heads to Brooklyn to find a woman that can continue the race of vampires, a descendent of his family. Arriving in Brooklyn Julius Jones (Hardison) becomes his lackey and Detective Rita Veder (Bassett) and Justice (Payne) are investigating the sudden appearance of the ship Maximillian arrives on.
Maximillian believes Rita is the woman he is looking for and sets about spending the nights trying to win her over while keeping his identity secret.
Thoughts on Vampire in Brooklyn
Characters/Performance – Maximillian is a Caribbean vampire who needs to find a woman to keep his bloodline alive and Brooklyn is the place where she lives, he is eccentric throughout the film and always planning for things to happen as he has planned. Detective Rita Veder is one of the cops investigating the strange shop that crashed into the docks and soon finds herself crossing paths with Maximillian but getting answers about to her childhood and the nightmares she has been having. Detective Justice is Veder’s partner, he is a good cop and cares for her more than he should do. Julius becomes the goon of Maximillian slowly turned into death after being given blood of Maximillian’s.
Performance wise, Eddie Murphy has always struggled post 80’s in the comedy roles and this clearly shows he wasn’t the powerhouse he once was. Angela Bassett looks beautiful as always but her character is written poorly for how she seems to be performed as. The rest of the cast are all fine without doing anything great.
Story – The story here is vampire coming outside his comfort zone to search for other vampires. We get the whole crime situation with how the cops are investigating the killings that Maximillian is leaving behind him but otherwise this story just feels very flat.
Comedy/Fantasy/Horror – We don’t get many laughs in this film, we enter the idea of shape-shifting vampires for the fantasy and nothing comes off scary which makes this film feel very plain.
Settings – The film is set in Brooklyn, hey I guess the title gives that away here, this does make for a good setting because the crimes don’t get answered as quickly as other places.
Special Effects – The effects used are all fine and are used more for the comical tone of things.
Final Thoughts – Wes Craven is one of my favorite directors and we do have classic that he does, this isn’t going to be one of the classics in fact this could be his worst, the comedy doesn’t hit, Murphy mails in his performance and we are left with one of the most overly boring films of Murphy’s career.
Overall: Disappointing horror comedy.
Rating
