My Best Friend Is a Vampire

For some strange reason, I've always liked a good vampire flick... especially when there's some humor thrown in.

This movie satisfied that need perfectly, although I shave a few points off because there's a better one of these 80's horror-comedies out there. (Once Bitten) At first this movie was hard for me to start. I kept wondering if this would turn out to be any good... especially considering the opening with the whole castration thing.

I learned to just move through the movie and give it a chance.

Granted that the other posters are correct; there are a few similarities between this movie and Once Bitten, (A teen slowly turning into one of the undead, teen's friend taking aforementioned teen out to get laid, etc.) but so what? Simalarities to Once Bitten aside, this movie is an alright watch.

8/10

In Houston, the teenager Jeremy Capello (Robert Sean Leonard) is a normal middle-class boy, who lives with his beloved parents and has Ralph as his best friend. He has a crush on Darla Blake (Cheryl Pollak), but he is shy and does not date her. He works making deliveries for a supermarket and is seduced by his sexy client Nora (Cecilia Peck). While having his first intercourse with her, Jeremy is transformed in a vampire. His friend Ralph is mistakenly chased by two weird vampire hunters, Prof. Leopold McCarthy (David Warner) and his assistant Grimsdyke (Paul Wilson), that believe he is a creature of the night. Meanwhile, Jeremy learns how to use his new powers with Modoc (Rene Auberjonois), and falls definitively in love for Darla.

"My Best Friend Is a Vampire" is a delightful teen comedy. Having a funny story with many jokes and a beautiful cast, this movie makes the viewer feels lighter and happier, being and excellent entertainment. The amazing beauty of Cheryl Pollak, and the chemistry with Robert Sean Leonard, is another attraction. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Meu Adorável Vampiro" ("My Adorable Vampire")

My Best Friend is a Vampire follows a long line of fun films about supernatural occurences disrupting an already awkward period of teenage development just as it did in My Mom's a Werewolf (teenager's mother turns into a werewolf), My Boyfriend's Back (girlfriend's dead boyfriend rises from the grave), and I Was a Teenaged Zombie (teenager's friends turns zombie to fight zombie drug dealer), and the list goes on.

This was surprisingly a very entertaining film about a young boy who, upon almost losing his virginity to a strange older woman is a strange old house, is given the bite that turns him into a vampire. Now a professor and his idiot assistant, vampire hunters, want to kill the vampire that is on the loose. The only problem is, they've mistaken his friend as their undead target.

The funniest parts of the movie involve a lot of great slapstick humor between Ralph, the vampire's best friend, and the vampire hunters who seem to follow him at every turn, although he can't figure out why. Even more amusing is the vampire teenager learning to cope with being a vampire thanks to the help of an older man, an English vampire mentor. With the help of dark glasses and a large stock of pigs blood, maybe life as a teenaged vampire won't be all that bad. It just makes shaving a little hard when you can't get your reflection in the bathroom mirror. And even more amusing than that is the misconception that the vampire's parents have about him. I would've guessed that they would have thought their little Johnny was on dope, but their mistake is actually much funnier.

Plus, you have a pretty good soundtrack to boot with the dominating song being Timbuk 3's "The Future's So Bright."

If this is your forte of films, the 80s horror/comedies, you should likely enjoy this one. It doesn't bite!

Granted I only know of one other movie that fits into this genre and that is the Jim Carrey movie "Once Bitten". This one though is better than that one as it is just a bit funnier and has a better and more likable plot to it. This one has a teen going to the house of a girl for what he thinks is going to be a one night stand kind of thing, as it turns out though the person he is seeing is a vampire and he is soon infected and must now feast on blood. Thankfully, it does not have to be human blood as a rather friendly vampire teaches him the ways of living a rather nice existence as a vampire without having to drink the blood of humans. Unfortuanately, a sort of Van Helsing type hunter of vampires who saw him and his friend at the girl's house where he was bitten, however, he thinks it is the guy's friend and not him that has been bitten and turned into a vampire. The guy also is having girl trouble as he even tries to use vampire hypnotism to get the girl he likes. All this makes for an very funny comedy that really is rather lighthearted. So while not perfect, it makes for a fun film to watch.

Jeremy Capello is a teenager who has dreams about the gawky Darla Blake. A girl who doesn't think that highly of him, but there's also a beautiful Barbie-like cheerleader named Candy who's actually keen on him. So his best friend Ralph suggests that he should seek out someone unknown for a one-night stand to get this get his mind thinking straight. While, doing his job he encounters the mysterious Nora, who invites him over for the night. So Jeremy with little help from Ralph meets her, only to be bitten by her and a crazed loon (possibly the husband) break in. The day after Jeremy goes through some minor changes and finds out that Nora's place has been burnt down. Through the course he learns that these are vampire hunters after them, but they seem to think that Ralph is the vampire.

The mid-to-late 80s was a time for vampire films (and even teenage monster themes too). This pleasant little romp is the standard mould of these monster comedies (maybe one of the lesser ones), but surprisingly it makes for a decently breezy time-waster if you're looking for a little 1980s nostalgia in your viewing. It has some generally amusing moments, especially from Rene Auberjonois' sneaky vampire mentor role as Modoc and you can see David Warner is having a ball in his ripe crack-ball role of Prof. Leopold McCarthy, vampire hunter.

Most of the performances are reasonably charming. Robert Sean Leonard ("Dead Poet's Society" and who would probably be best known for the recent TV series "House") is delightfully good as Jeremy and Evan Mirand turns in a joyful performance as the loutish Ralph. A fetching Cheryl Pollack is fair as the geeky Darla. Fannie Flagg and Kenneth Kimmins trump in with marvellously tuneful performances as Jeremy's overly worried parents. Paul Wilson makes solid of Prof. Leonard's bumbling assistant Grimsdyke. Let me not forget the minor role of the seductively alluring Cecilia Peck (Gregory Pecks' daughter) as Nora. Oh and look out for a slender Kathy Bates. The variable cast had a witty script to play along with and most of it was quite satisfying when it came to the punch.

Director Jimmy Huston does a competent job without doing anything overtly special, but he gets a lot spirit and odd developments running through some humorous situations. It can get corny in parts and extremely sappy when it comes to its closing moral. A trailblazing 80s pop soundtrack (notably Blondie and Oingo Boingo) features strongly in the film's make-up with the utterly hip and catchy title tune, "The future's so bright (I've got to wear shades)" by the TIMBUK 3. The stereotypically lucid premise (which shares similarities with the Jim Carrey vampire flick, "Once Bitten") is routine and derivative, but still it has some nice touches and diverting trivia on the vampire mythology. None of this should sideswipe your entertainment of it, unless you're looking for something with more aggression amongst its bite. I guess you'll know if you're going to like it after the first 15 minutes.

It might be far from revolutionary (just look at the title and you should know what to expect), but there's just something endearing about this campy lightweight piece.