What About the Other Big Movie Anniversary This Week?

By now, you're likely aware that Back to the Future celebrated its 25th anniversary this week. Unfortunately, because of all the attention that Robert Zemeckis's film is receiving, there's a number of overlooked films celebrating their own important milestones in the shadows this week. For example, I bet you didn't know that Wednesday is the 15th anniversary of one of Eddie Murphy's biggest disasters not called Norbit.

Yes, Vampire in Brooklyn -- the nail in the coffin (no pun) of Murphy's pre-family film career -- happened 15 years ago this week. No less than Wes Craven directed this tale of... well, it's about a vampire. In Brooklyn. I was thinking about rehashing some of the finer plot points, but while in the midst of a quick refresher course on Wikipedia, I couldn't help but succumb to an overwhelming sense of -- ugh, what's the point?

What's more important is the drastic change this movie made to Murphy's career. This wasn't the Eddie Murphy who was riding high (or, as Axl Foley would say, "Eddie Murphy is sitting on top of the world!") from the success of the first two Beverly Hills Cop movies. This was a Murphy trying to recover from Beverly Hills Cop III. Not to mention the disappointing box-office (for Murphy) of Harlem Nights and Boomerang and the total failure of The Distinguished Gentleman. So now, after Vampire in Brooklyn, with Murphy's comedic roles pretty much over, he turned generally to all-ages comedies.

So! Vampire in Brooklyn, without you we wouldn't have Murphy in classics like two Nutty Professor movies, two Dr. Doolittle movies and Daddy Day Care. (Seriously, it probably also did lead to Bowfinger, which was really good.) Happy 15th! I can't wait to see the cast reunited at the press conference tomorrow and attend the after party, Back to the Future-style.

Wait, what? Oh, man, Eddie is gonna be pissed.