THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 28, 1995 TAG: 9510270059
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
The newly released ``VAMPIRE IN Brooklyn'' is more a Wes Craven movie than it is an Eddie Murphy movie, which means it has more rotting body parts than it does rotten jokes.
The curious merging of the two film entities results in an occasionally diverting, sometimes even hilarious, addition to the vampire comedy genre.
Eschewing the overly melodramatic seriousness of ``Interview with a Vampire,'' this one gets right down to the bloodsucking comedy of ``Love at First Bite'' or Roman Polanski's oldie ``Fearless Vampire Killers.''
Wes Craven, the master of horror hoots from the ``Nightmare on Elm Street'' series, has been persuaded to direct Eddie Murphy. Craven has come out the dominant force.
Ticketbuyers may well be confused, if not irritated. The Murphy fans will want an outright comedy. The Craven fans will want even more gore. There's something for both but the balance is not likely to satisfy either side.
Murphy plays it seriously. He's Maxmillian, the vampire with the glassy eyes and a horny mood. He glares. He stares.
He's a threat more to our jugular vein than to our funny bone.
It's a curious choice, but once chosen, the filmmakers, admirably, stick with it.
Since Max is so serious, Murphy has given himself (in a script co-written by two of his brothers) two other roles. They are ostensibly comedy parts, although neither are very yuck-yuck old-time Eddie. The more humorous of the two is Preacher Pauly, for which Eddie puts on much poundage and delivers a sermon that would make it easy for vampires to invade the congregation.
The other Eddie character is Guido, a small-time Mafia hood. The star wears white makeup - and that's about the extent of the joke.
The surprising thing is that all the big laughs go to two supporting players. Quite hilarious is Kadeem Hardison as Julius, Max's self-appointed ``ghoul,'' the servant whose body parts keep falling off.
And more than a few scenes are stolen by John Witherspoon as a grumpy brownstone landlord who takes a dim view of vampires moving into his building. Witherspoon and Hardison easily steal the film.
Angela Bassett, Oscar nominated for playing Tina Turner, has the rather thankless task of playing a New York cop who is the subject of Max's lust. She is the only woman with the right blood type to carry on the race. Her part doesn't make a lot of sense but she manages to keep her dignity - even if dignity seems out of place in these surroundings.
Tragically, Bassett's stunt woman was killed during the filming. The scene, which involved a fall from atop a building, has been cut from the movie, even though the lead-up to it is still there. This tragedy has received practically no publicity, unlike other high-profile mishaps on the sets of action flicks. It is yet another call for legal regulation of movie sets and their degree of danger to participants.
``Vampire in Brooklyn'' has a little something for both its prospective customers - both the comedy hunters and the horror seekers. It's only a little something, though. by CNB