Okay, how many damn examples of overhype are moviemakers prepared to shove down our throats? I was mega-psyched for Eddie Murphy’s first cinematic venture since Boomerang, souped-up, of course, by all of the ads that paint it like some laugh riot. But you know those little clips they show in the commercials? Believe it or not, that’s the extent of the humor, I’m sorry to say.

Vampire in Brooklyn is narrated sporadically by Murphy himself, giving us the scoop on why a vampire named Maxmillian (himself) has that extra melanin: he’s from an island in the Bermuda Triangle, and he’s the only one of his kind left from that area.

He treks to Brooklyn to find his mate, the woman he’s fated to draw into darkness with him, who, incidentally, doesn’t know she’s destined to be his bride-of-doom (Angela Bassett). Add in an Igor-esque ghoul (Kadeem Hardison) whose body parts continually disintegrate, and you have Coming to America meets Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It’s an unpleasant union.

I’m sorry, but I can’t get the “Saturday Night Live” Murphy outta my head. I can’t stand it when he snags an articulate, foreign accent; I normally applaud people broadening their horizons, but I just wish he’d be Axel Foley or Marcus Graham in every movie. Call me old-fashioned.

Bassett is fabulous; she is strong and beautiful, and she stands up for herself. Woo hoo! But did I expect differently from the one-time Tina Turner? The real highlight, surprisingly, is Hardison. He is the only truly funny character in the film, and his antics with his Uncle Silas (John Witherspoon, who played David Allen Grier’s dad in Boomerang) are hysterical.

Oh, a little post script: while the makeup in some places is amazing — Murphy as a preacher and later as an Italian white guy named Guido, complete with accent — there’s a huge flaw. Halfway through the movie, I noticed the glaringly obvious makeup job on Murphy at his hairline. After that, I saw it in every scene. Doesn’t it suck that stuff like that holds your attention, while the story line doesn’t? I think it says something about this particular plot.

Century Cinemas, 7:10 & 9:20