Body of Review

Prince has been dominating the news media as of late. A platinum CD ("Musicology"), hit tour and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, has the purple one back in the limelight. Warner Bros. has now released three of his full length movies starting with the 20 year anniversary issue of "Purple Rain". "Purple Rain", both the movie and the album, catapulted Prince into stardom in the early 1980's. "Graffiti Bridge" was the not so successful 1990 sequel to that movie.

Prince is back, playing the role of "The Kid" with Morris Day reprising his role as the arch nemesis. Both musicians now operate separate nightclubs in the "Seven Corners" area. Morris owns all but one club, The Glam Slam which is co-owned by Morris and The Kid. Morris doesn't play nice and tries to intimidate The Kid into selling his half of the club.

Part of the appeal of "Purple Rain" was that Prince was playing the underdog. In "Graffiti Bridge", he continues to play second fiddle to Morris and his band "The Time". The Kid is having trouble consistently selling out his club and is starting to lose faith in himself. Enter Ingrid Chavez as Aura. Aura is an angel-like figure who speaks in poet dialogue. The Kid allows her into his heart as she tries to make him understand that good things will happen for him. Along the way Aura seems to be playing both Morris and The Kid against each other, and they both fall for her. This was Ingrid Chavez's first and only movie – watching it you'll understand why.

"Graffiti Bridge" really plays like one long music video, with performances by Prince, Morris Day and The Time, Mavis Staples, George Clinton and a young Tevin Campbell. The main issue with this movie is that the acting is horrible and the story is extremely silly. The climax is totally ridiculous and you really don't like any of the characters or care what happens to them. As a musician Prince is without peer, but since he wrote/directed/acted in this movie, the blame for this failure falls on his shoulders. "Graffiti Bridge" tanked at the box office and a lot of people came out of the theaters wondering what they just watched.

There are some redeeming qualities to this movie however, the main one being the music. Prince is a musical genius and "Graffiti Bridge" was one of his most underrated CD's. Morris Day and The Time are great on stage and their showmanship is awesome. Also the natural talent of Morris Day as a comic performer is present – too bad he never really did anything else. His back and forth banter with front man Jerome Benton is classic.

How Does it Look? - "Graffiti Bridge" looks like a 15 year old movie. The lighting is horrible and the images are very soft. The movie is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen format. Apparently the entire film was filmed on one big set and looks very cheesy, almost like a circus.

How Does it Sound? - I'm disappointed with Warner's 2.0 mix of this movie. The music is awesome and I would have loved to hear it in 5.1 sound. The mix between the dialogue and music scenes are completely off as well – dialogue comes from the center channel, but the vocals from the performances tend to sound more multi-channeled. This makes the music performances seems very fake.

Extras? - Supposedly Prince wouldn't take part in any of his DVD releases, so we get no commentary from him. There are four videos – "New Power Generation", "The Question of U", "Thieves in the Temple" and "Round and Round". These videos are all presented in full screen format with 2.0 sound. There is also a theatrical trailer.

Final Thoughts - I'm personally a huge Prince fan, but even I know his limitations. "Graffiti Bridge" is just simply a bad movie – no if ands or buts about it. The acting is bad, the sets are bad and plot is just silly. HOWEVER, most Prince fans will want this movie for their collection and should go ahead and add it. Since I have to write this review for the masses, I'd have to say that the casual fan should probably just rent it. Most everyone will enjoy the soundtrack!