STARS : Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett, Allen Payne, Kadeem Hardison, Zakes Mokae

Eddie Murphy is Max, a several hundred year old Vampire who has come to Brooklyn in search of “The One” who happens to be a jaded cop named Rita (Bassett). Max needs to woo her in ORDER for her to become his life partner. Taking on the appearance of a wealthy businessman with money to burn makes this chore a little easier. To help him win over Rita Max recruits, Julius (Hardison) and turns him into his ghoul so that he can then do his dirty work for him and Max can then get his beauty sleep which all good vampires must have.

Rita is not aware of her destiny and has problems of her own that she’s struggling to overcome and in fact the last thing she wants in her life is a man. So, she turns down Max’s advances and continually rebuts him which apart from frustrating him, makes him more than just a little annoyed.

Whilst Rita is gradually being won over by Max, her cop partner Justice (Payne) suspects that Max isn’t everything he appears to be and starts investigating Max in more detail placing not only his life in danger, but that of Rita as well.

Whilst the film is not overly spectacular, it does have 3 roles in particular that stand out.

1) The first is Kadeem Hardison who plays Julius, who whilst literally falling apart throughout the duration scores the majority of the best lines.

2) Next is John Witherspoon who is Julius’ landlord Silas who hams it up to great effect. His lines consist primarily of stating the obvious but damn it’s funny.

3) However, without any doubt, my favourite Mitch Pileggi whom we all know best as Assistant Director Skinner from the X-Files. Whilst his role is rather brief, it is memorable and is far removed from the character he’s played for the past several years.

It always amuses me when a vampire movie doesn’t contain any real moments of horror. I mean isn’t that what any good vampire movie is supposed to do? Sure at the start of the film there is one scene but that’s about it. I really don’t know what Wes was trying to do with this film?

I’ve reviewed several Wes Craven films this year and it still amazes me that he can make films that vary in quality so randomly. One minute sheer brilliance (Nightmare on Elm Street or Scream) and then the complete rubbish (The People Under The Stairs or The Serpent & The Rainbow) and then there’s Vampire In Brooklyn which fits squarely in the neither here nor there category.

Verdict : So-So

THE EXTRAS

* Theatrical Trailer

Come on now, you didn’t really expect anything else from Paramount did you?

CONCLUSION

As far as Wes Craven films go, this is one of the better ones. Eddie certainly carries the film with some great support from sidekick Kadeem but the film’s weakness lies well and truly with the script.

With thanks to Paramount, Vampire In Brooklyn is available to buy from August 9