`Rockula' Is A Fangless Vampire Musical

X ``Rockula,'' with Dean Cameron, Tawny Fere, Thomas Dolby. Directed by Luca Bercovici, from a script by Bercovici, Jefery Levy and Christopher Lerwiel. Aurora Village, Gateway, Grand Cinemas Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Totem Lake. ``PG-13'' - Parental guidance advised, due to language.

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Dean Cameron, the star of ``Rockula,'' plays a vampire named Ralphie who looks like a teenager - he has braces on his fangs - although he's actually centuries old.

Every time he falls in love with the merely mortal Mona, she is murdered on the Halloween after her 22nd birthday, then reincarnated, and they're forced to go through the entire ordeal again. This has been going on since the 16th century, and he tries to warn her as Halloween approaches.

``If you don't listen to me,'' he explains, ``we're going to have to do this all over again in 22 years.''

Does that mean we'll have to watch this movie again in 2012? Even with that time delay, it's a depressing thought. ``Rockula'' itself seems to be on a treadmill, repeating the same ideas every time the rock videos are interrupted by the, uh, plot.

Yes, this is another MTV movie: a collection of musical numbers strung together by a plot outline. Ralphie's frustration is established in the opening scenes, but there are no real complications, no second-act developments, not even much in the way of comic relief to stop the flow of soundalike songs.

Cameron made an appealing second-string comic in ``Bad Dreams'' and ``Summer School,'' but this movie downplays his goofiness and tries to turn him into a rock star. He does an Elvis impersonation in one number, and the supporting cast includes Thomas Dolby and Bo Diddley.

``Rockula'' is less like a feature-length film than a series of musical commercials for itself. Catch a piece on MTV and you won't have a vastly different experience than anyone who's paid $6 at the mall.

Movie notes: Several prominent documentary filmmakers, including Oscar winners Haskell Wexler and Deborah Shaffer, have signed a letter defending ``Roger & Me'' and calling for a change in the Academy Awards' documentary category. Although it appeared on more 10-best lists than any other film last year, it was passed over in the Oscar voting. The letter proposes a write-in vote for ``Roger & Me,'' and suggests that one member of the documentary nominating committee, Mitchell Block, has a conflict of interest. He is the owner of Direct Cinema, a distributor of documentaries, and three of this year's nominated documentaries are his.