Vampire in Brooklyn -

Eddie Murphy tries to play it straight and fails. Murphy plays the last remaining vampire, who comes to Brooklyn in search of the only hope for his line: a Brooklyn cop who, unaware, is a half-human, half-vampire, played by Angela Bassett. There are a few comic lines tossed away by Murphy (pretty much all were aired in the previews), but most of the time, he’s simply playing a fanged bad guy with a muddled foreign accent. Angela Bassett is along for the ride, and she does the best she can at depicting the conflicting sides of her dual nature. Unfortunately, the direction by Wes Craven is rather flat, and the script is very bad and full of holes. They try to lighten the mood a bit by allowing Murphy to play two other characters, a preacher (which sort of succeeds), and an Italian robber (which fails miserably). Both acts seem forced, and neither flow with nor add anything to the story. Kadeem Hardison is the best thing about this film, playing Maximillian’s slowly rotting ghoul henchman. However; one has to wonder about a film where Eddie Murphy needs comic relief.