Graffiti Bridge [1990] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

Everbody wants to find Graffiti Bridge..........2003-11-19

'Graffiti Bridge' is Prince's third and final feature film.

Written, directed and starring the purple one the film done terrible at the box-office and made very little money at all.
'Graffiti Bridge' is quite well known for its awfulness, and if i'm being honest; criticising it is a well known hobbie for Prince fans. Still the movie isn't half as bad as what people say it is...trust me.

The story basically revolves around 'The Kid' (Prince) and his rivalry with 'Morris Day' ('The Time' frontman), each of them own a club on 'Seven Corners' (a cheaply made set on Paisley Park to the rest of us) and battle out to see whose music reigns supreme. Morris ain't happy with the 'spiritual noise' that Prince is making and wants his share of the club.

Also thrown in the mix, is 'Aura' (Ingrid Chavez) an angel who The Kid becomes involved with when he see's her drifting in and out of scenes whispering her new-age poetry (which can become insanely annoying by the end of the film).

As you've probably worked out: the film bears alot of similarities to 'Purple Rain', and it is, in essence, a sequel to Prince's hugely successful debut film.
The same characters are portrayed, but whereas 'Purple Rain' was a rock 'n ' roll movie, 'Graffiti Bridge' is more like a musical.

The movie has a spiritual undertone and this coupled with the dreamy set design makes for a more trippy film than 'Purple Rain', in fact one thing that is quite impressive about 'Graffiti Bridge' is how good it can sometimes look; the performance scenes are shot with pace and snappily edited, but the problem with 'Graffiti Bridge' is the acting for the most part.

Unlike some of his previous films none of the stars have any previous acting experience (barring their roles in previous Prince films) and the movie suffers as a result from that. Prince again plays the moody, troubled kid, whilst Morris reprises his familar role as the wise-cracking rival, but other than the two main stars, few of the actors stand out.

As with 'Purple Rain' Morris steals pretty much every scene he's in and he's one of the saving graces of the film, thus Prince rightly gives him more screen time.
The main attraction of the film, however, is the performances.

As with 'Purple Rain', Prince's antics onstange keep the momentum going and all the musical numbers impress, the undisputed highlights being his tightly choreographed performance of 'Elephants & Flowers' and his, ahem, energetic rendition of 'Tick, Tick, Bang!'.

I don't think 'Graffiti Bridge' is a must buy, even for a Prince fan, but it can be an highly enjoyable film.
The films soundtrack on the other hand, is essential, and remains one of Prince's strongest albums post-Lovesexy.

A long music video where the weapons are music.......2001-08-03

The Graffiti Bridge album was composed entirely of Prince compositions of which he sang just over half - other guests included Tevin Campbell, Mavis Staples and the Time. Both album and movie were critical and commercial failures, however. Graffiti Bridge was his first commercial letdown for some time, peaking at number 6 in the USA. As in the Purple Rain movie Prince (The Kid) is competing against Morris Day, only this time they both have their own music clubs, which competes for crowd. This is more of a long music video than a movie, but if you are fan you should enjoy this as I did. If you're not a fan this movie might be a bit to "Princy" so to speak.

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