User Reviews

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.

I watched this movie thinking it would be like other eddie murphy movies- lots of humor and fun. I was wrong BUT I wasn't dissapointed. I mean, for once I enjoyed a horror movie. Usually I shy away from horror movies because of their incredibly stupid and repetitive plots and characters. This one was different however. I don't really know what it was that made me like this movie, but I have to say that Eddie Murphy makes a good vampire. His version of a vampire is cool but SO totally evil.And his sidekick Kadeem Hardison(also seen in the movie Drive) is funny. In all a good movie. I guarantee that once you start watching this movie you'll be hooked and wont want to finish watching it until the end. 8/10

I'm not sure exactly what Eddie Murphy was trying to accomplish with Vampire In Brooklyn. It has some humorous moments, but it seems mostly a drama. It satirizes those old Blacula movies from the 70s, but not so good.

Eddie is the sole survivor of an African race of vampires who made it to the Carribbean courtesy of slavers. There's a reputed daughter of a vampire in a place up north called Brooklyn. And it's a woman so Murphy is on a mission.

Vampire In Brooklyn sure opened up funny with that freighter crashing into the docks in Red Hook with nothing alive on board. But after a few gruesome type murders happen, wouldn't you know it. The lead detective on the case, Angela Bassett is our quarry and Murphy pulls out all the stops to bring her into the vampire fold.

I think Kadeem Hardison fares best in the cast playing a street numbers runner who Murphy turns into a Renfield like slave. In the end he makes out just fine.

Far from top drawer EddieMurphy.

I was seriously hoping that this would be that good, campy kind of bad. But,really, it's just the bad kind of bad.

The few jokes in it fall painfully, embarrassingly flat. The love story is incredibly shallow. Eddie has a jerri curl mullet, and Angela Basset realizes about half way through the movie that there is no Oscar to be had for this one and gives up. In fact, it seems like EVERYONE gives up at the halfway point, and the ending goes on for way, way to long. If you want a funny in that unintentional way vampire flick, watch Queen of the Damned.

I can't believe someone paid money to have this made.

I don't know why it is but I can't help but love pretty much the majority of movies from Eddie Murphy's career from the 80's onwards. Beverly Hills Cop, The Golden Child, Coming To America, Nutty Professor, Daddy Day Care, Shrek...you get the drift. Maybe I just have a soft spot for his humour and work. Even though he maybe a jerk in real life I just can't help but like his acting talents. Vampire In Brooklyn is certainly not his best work but I found myself enjoying watching it. It shows the beginning of his transformation as a multi-character actor and shows him slowly turning into the guy he is today.

So he's not going to win any awards for this movie but it was entertaining enough and a new take on the Vampire phenomenon that has been happening on and off for the last 30 or so years.

I really wanted to like this movie as Beverly Hills Cop is my all time favourite movie. Really bad acting, awful plot. There really is nothing to like in this movie. Eddie with his poor effort at different characters. You really can only consider any Eddie film from 82-88 anything else is just terrible.

I don't get the low rating for this film. The make up was great and Eddie played a few cool characters. Worth a watch if you like Eddie Murphy and vampires lol

This is reverse racism of the worst kind, a film where all the white people are the bad guys and the black people are the good guys. How come racially-biased films like this are "politically correct" even though they reek of prejudice? All the white people are killed, too. Does make things better? Does that help race relations?

Add to that bigotry and very boring love story between Murphy and Angela Bassett and you have a film that was very disappointing. Murphy is a funny guy and someone whose films I usually enjoy....but this was ridiculous. This was a movie that didn't really know what it wanted to be: comedy, romance or horror. A good mixture would have acceptable but none of the categories were represented well here.

As other people point out, this started off strong but quickly lost itself and was a mess from that point. Where was the direction of this film? This was a real low in Murphy's career, which did plummet until recently. The once-box office star seems to have made a comeback, almost like rising from the dead. In that case, maybe NOW he should have played the vampire!

"Vampire in Brooklyn" is probably one of Wes Craven's most underappreciated movies, and that for some weird reasons.

• Eddie Murphy and Angela Bassett are really great together and had a great chemistry (cf: the seduction scene)
• It got some chilling moments (Rita's dreams, Nikki's death, the final...)
• The musical score from Craven's old collaborator, J Peter Robinson, is great.

• The humor especially from John Witherspoon and Kadeem Hardison is hilarious.

• ANGELA BASSETT ! OH MY GOD ! ANGELA BASSETT ! She's the best on that movie.

I think the movie is entertaining. It's not Craven's best movie for sure but it's probably one of his most fun.

Say I have poor taste, call me an idiot, call me dumb, call me whatever, but I didn't find this movie that bad. If it were a pure horror, then it would've been atrocious, but because they inserted the humor in there I found it entertaining. I could watch Kadeem Hardison and the late John Witherspoon in almost anything. They were a riot. And Eddie Murphy was best as characters other than the vampire.

Eddie Murphy played three different characters with Maximillian the vampire being the main one. His goal: find the only other vampire in existence so that he could live on himself. The indication was that without a life partner he would cease to exist.

His mark: Rita (Angela Bassett). His tool to get his mark: (besides charm) Julius Jones (Kadeem Hardison), who he turned into a ghoul. His opposition: Det. Justice (Allen Payne), who had feelings for Rita.

For the most part, when it was funny it was good, and when it wasn't funny... well... good thing there were funny parts.

I got bad news for any one who thinks prior expectations are what make this movie seem like junk. I watched it on a big screen in the health club having no idea what I was watching until I saw the great Angela Bassett reduced to melodramatic mugging and the normally wickedly hilarious and talented Eddie Murphy spouting campy crap. What a sad waste of resources! This is not funny, not dramatic, just nauseating in every way.

In the 1980s, Eddie Murphy single-handedly recreated the Black Action hero, replacing the old murderous superstud of the 1970s with black characters who depended on their quick wits more than their big guns. That formula was quickly run dry, however, both by Murphy himself and the imitators he inspired.

So, Eddie intelligently decided that he needed to recreate a forgotten genre of comedy, one which Peter Sellars had mastered in the 60s, and which only Murphy could do today: he would make movies in which he played multiple characters. The Genesis began with "Coming to America", in which Murphy played not only the lead role, but also all the inhabitants of a Harlem barbershop. The sequences were short, but Murphy was building the road to becoming the most brilliant character actor of our day. Soon followed the "Nutty Professor" movies, "Bowfinger", and his animated TV series, "The PJ's." In all these Murphy played a multiplicity of roles, and played them all brilliantly (the Academy's disdain for streetwise comedies, and--well, lets just say it--their dismissal of black performers not playing slaves or pimps, are the only explanations possible for Murphy not owning an Oscar or two by now).

With these projects, Eddie was not only playing different characters, but also honing a new Eddie Murphy genre: raunchy, but intelligent; gross, but heartfelt; hilariously over the top in the particulars of plot, but firmly rooted in emotional reality. He has created or has been involved with, some of the arguably best comedies of the 1990's and onward--and has been responsible for inarguably the best comic performances of the era.

So, in this era, Eddie decided to push the envelope by mixing the new Eddie Genre with the Horror films he loved as a kid. The result, "A Vampire in Brooklyn", is unsettling to some because the lines between Eddie's wildly improvisational Black (or African American, if you insist) character comedy to straight vampire horror movie are so starkly drawn. There are very few instances where the comedy and horror overlap. This, I feel, is the brilliance of the film. There are no horror moments broken by a punchline or bad joke, and there are no comedy moments punctuated by some kind of sick horror gag (that has been done to death since John Landis' "American Werewolf in London". Now its being beated to death by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). The funny parts are funny and the scary parts are truly scary.

And Murphy also gets to shine in multiple well-defined character parts as well, as the shape-shifting African Vampire assumes the physical identity of several of his victims.

"Vampire" failed at the box office not because it was a bad film--its definitely is not. But because it was too unusual a film for the limited abilities of the studio's marketing department to sell. Those going expecting to see a comedy were disappointed it contained so much pure horror, and those going to see it based on the publicity that painted it as a horror film were dissapointed it contained so much hilarious Murphy style comedy.

It dies because of false expectations. Eddie's other films contained quick changes in tone as well--the shifts between bathroom comedy and pathos in the Nutty Professor films is no less abrupt than those between horror and comedy in "Vampire".

It's just that the choice of horror as the second element mixed with the comedy is a more daring and unusual one.

Years from now, "A Vampire in Brooklyn" will be viewed as one of the highpoints of the second phase of the Eddie Murphy Genre.

This is one Eddie Murphy movie that didn't get my goat. I've heard of "Blackula", this movie doesn't amuse me that well. You got some multiple characters there: There's this vampire from the Caribbean who was in a boat, that wiped out all the crew, and crashed somewhere in New York. This vampire goes to find a bride, who happens to be a cop(Angela Bassett). She's half-vampire. Kadeem Hardison from "A Different World" fame plays a servant, just like Dracula have only a little sillier. Some scenes in the movie were out of line, especially when the vampire came in form of a preacher. Just like all vampire lords, they go down the usual way, stake, sunlight, holy cross, or head cut off. Wes Craven gives this movie a try, since he's the horror master. However, this horror movie just didn't go for the jugular, it went for the funny bone. It didn't tickle mine though. Sorry! 1 out of 5 stars!

This movie is pretty bad...Eddie Murphy looks like Nick Ashford from Ashford and Simpson. Angela Bassett looks wonderful but she doesnt have a lot to work with. One comical moment is Eddie as the preacher possessed by the vampire

This film starts with a ship sailing into harbour then before you can say " Motherf***er " VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN quickly sinks . Did you say " Motherf***er " ? Good because that seems to be about the only word the characters in this film can say especially the black characters who are forever speaking sentences like " What the f*** is that motherf***ing sh*t motherf***er ? " Is this funky dialogue supposed to be funny or something ? I thought I`d never start laughing and I didn`t

I`m not politically correct or someone who agrees with the inverse fascism that is political correctness but I was greatly offended by the racial stereotypes portrayed in this film , blacks are jive talking dudes , Italians are gangsters and if there were any Arabs in it they`d no doubt be terrorists . Oh and everyone else has noticed VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN doesn`t work as a horror film , a comedy , or a romance . If you`ve got nothing better to do than watch this then maybe you should consider a whole new different lifestyle altogether

I love vampires - I do like Eddie Murphy films, but both doesn't match! If they just have decided to let the vampire be either cruel or funny. Even though he looked cute and it was most likely he wanted to have the beautiful heroine by his side, it was presented rather stereotypical. And on the other hand I could understand for the first time why the girl wanted to get rid of the vampire. What horror spending eternity with this silly character.

The story is basicly the same. Maybe I don't have the right feelings for the alternative background. I couldn't laugh and I never want to see it again! If you want to see a vampire/comedy watch subspecies, it wasn't meant this way, but it is for sure the most funniest series I have ever seen in the genre.

"Vampire In Brooklyn" tried to continue the formula of putting vampire films in modern times. Two movies did that successfully, 1987's "The Lost Boys" and 1996's "From Dusk Till Dawn". "Vampire In Brooklyn", unfortunately, does not do that formula successfully. Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett, and many other talented performers are wasted. This was a bad step for director Wes Craven, who has directed better movies than this. Murphy is much too smooth and funny to be cast as a vampire, and Bassett is too strong an actress to be cast in the role of a frightened detective.

BURY THIS BOMB!!!

I first saw this in the mid 90s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. A vampire from Caribbean island arrives in New York in search of the dhampir (an offspring of a vampire and a human). The vampire initiates a series of sinister methods to pull the dhampir into his thrall. The film lacks genuine scares n there is no suspense or tension. Murphy is effective and menacing as the vampire and Bassett is stunningly attractive.

Why oh why, oh why? This film is bad, very bad indeed with little to no redeeming features. I have read that Wes Craven had real problems with Eddie Murphy on set and am prepared to cut him some slack for the films he had previously and subsequently made, as for Mr. Murphy this man had had enough chances he should not be allowed near a screen again (even 'Donkey' in wearing thin). This 'urban' take on the classic Dracula story is lame with Murphy hogging the screen and showing the acting subtlety of a nuclear missile. One wonders what the very talented Angela Basset must have been thinking during the production of this movie. The supporting cast are such run of the mill black stereotypes with nothing to flesh out their characters and Murphy really does not understand his role. Avoid this like the plague.

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.

Sympathetic terrifying comedy that has been unfairly despised by many, who could not see the homage to the blaxploitation and the most classic horror film they tried to do in this film.

On the one hand the Blaxploitation is more than obvious. For vampire cinema has always been predominant for a white audience for obvious reasons, being a European legend, and on the other hand, its magnificent and gothic setting, which gives it a Halloween-like appearance, with a marginal urban atmosphere, Brooklyn neighborhood in this case, covered with thick mists and dark alleys.

Eddie Murphy is great. If you can not stand it, as many say, then why do you watch an Eddie Murphy movie? I'm bored with curlyng, but that's not why I give birth, I respect it, period. Well with this happens the same. If you like Murphy, as is my case, then you will see that his performance is quite correct, an elegant vampire, as seductive as cruel and bloodthirsty, with some comic points Murphy own. An acceptable role in its proper measure.

Of the rest of secondary highlights as not, the assistant of Maximilliam, the spawn, who does the funniest part of the film, Angela Basset, the best performance, and his partner, well, puts the heroic note of the function.

Obviously the script is improvable, but it is totally entertaining, technically it is very good, with a good sound, its setting is lovely as I said, and that it is in the hands of Wes Craven, enhances the quality of the film, which has it, as much as they always disqualify the smart guys.

Who thinks it's a mess, take a look at Dracula 3000 or Dracula 2001, for example and make comparisons.

Avoid this movie at all cost If you are still reading my review of this movie you are spending too much time, So STOP IT. You should be paid to watch this movie, even if you watch it on television and didn't pay anything for it. A stupid plot with mediocre acting (although the actors have proven in the past that they are quite capable of acting, they don't prove that they have ANY talent here.) Just avoid this movie and watch almost anything other than this. I know it would be time well spent. Enjoy your night.