Graffiti Bridge (1990) Reviews

• Yes, it's a mess, but I do like watching it on occasion.

  San Franciscan2003-02-24

  Okay, okay, it's a mess, but it makes me feel good and I like watching it, okay? ;) It's not bias, you understand: I am willing to admit that it's just as muddled as anyone else. And it took at least three viewings for me to understand what it was attempting to say. But I finally got the basic idea, and somehow it comforts me. I'll try to explain since so many have grown confused by it in hopes of helping understanding. The basic plot: Prince and Morris Day are co-owners of a club called Glam Slam. Prince represents good with flaws, Morris Day represents evil with potential good. It's a battle of good vs. evil for Glam Slam. Prince at first attempts to win with a wildly sexual song (after quite a few wildly sexual songs), but fails to do any good. But finally, he realizes that love and God's grace is the real way and wins with a heartfelt spiritual ballad called "Still Would Stand All Time". And he embraces Morris Day, who realizes the error of his ways, and everyone lives happily ever after. Seriously, that's the basic idea. It's botched in its attempt, but that's what Prince was attempting to do: make a musical pop parable. And somehow, even with all its muddled attempts, the movie makes me smile and feel good about myself, the world and life in general. So to that end, I'm pleased to own it. It's a mess and easily the weakest of the movies Prince made, and I don't watch it as much as his other ones by a long shot, but its good intentions and cheerful tone somehow entertain me. So hey, I like it, and I can think of a lot of other crummy films out there which I would diss any day to watch this instead.

• What exactly is going on in this movie?

  Vigilante-4072001-06-30

  That's the question I was asking myself as I watched it. Now, I know that it is a pseudo-sequel to the much-better and more coherent Purple Rain and it showed, especially with all the motorcycle trips out to the "graffiti bridge" (very similar in appearance to some of the lake sequences in the previous movie). And Morris Day and the Time are around again. That's really where any comparision ends. Prince's character is hyped-up on spirituality (which of course, isn't popular with the club crowds in the film). But ever other spiritually-themed song is followed by one that is much more sexually-charged and with little if no connection to the theme the character is trying to get past. The phrase "in the Temple" is used way too often in way too many of the songs, and is often the only religious link in any of the tunes. This movie seems to reflect the quagmire that was inside Prince himself at the time...He was trying new things but very disjointedly. The New Power Generation had replaced the Revolution, and there are many occurences of the symbol that would become his name (at least early forms of it). The highlights of the film for me were the performances of Morris Day and the Time, Mavis Staples, George Clinton (even though he seemed to be performing a Prince tune instead of his own work) and the short dance number by Tevin Campbell. If you like Prince, take a gander at the film...just don't expect Purple Rain. If you don't like Prince, don't bother.

• Pretty Bad and Offbeat

  gator11102008-04-07

  This was not a good idea to say the least. This was a pretty atrocious movie from start to finish. The major problem was Prince tried to have his hands in everything in this film and it doesn't work. He wrote, produced, directed, and starred in this movie. This was a bad move. Now the music in the movie was slamming because Prince is always on point when it comes to music, but the rest doesn't make a lot of sense. It's very offbeat. Many times in the movie for no apparent reason Prince would lift up his girl and they would just stare at each other for minutes at a time with no dialog. There's a lot of weird and pointless situations that happen like this throughout the movie. Because of this the movie crashes and burns. Now I'm a fan of Prince's music. He's definitely a brilliant artist but he honestly should have had someone else write the script. He's always gonna come correct with the music, but the rest he might not wanna work in. Purple Rain was cool and so was Under the Cherry Moon, but this one shouldn't of been given the green light. If there's anything good that comes from this movie it's the soundtrack.

• God, what in the hell was Prince thinking???

  2freaky4church-22000-08-21

  A mumbling, pandering piece of fluff. Touched by an angel before it was sheik. Great music wasted in bad plot about a spiritual rivalry. A spiritual movie is hard to make without being preachy, but this movie doesn't say a thing. Prince sleeps and mumbles. His acting is like he was reading from a teleprompter in his crotch. The stage bits are all right but the idea that people are all turned off by Princes' wonderful music is laughable at best. Morris Day is good as usual, but he doesn't have much of a script to work with. The angel plot point would make more sense if we actually knew why she was there in the first damn place. Was she trying to save Morris or Prince? Also, didn't realize that a wanton jeep could kill an angel, I thought they didn't die. The sets look like a game show backdrop and you don't feel like this is a movie with much brains. Prince gloated in an interview that the film didn't have sex or violence. Guess what Prince, it doesn't have brains either. A glam, throw away. Great music wasted..Once again, "why was this movie made"?

• Very underrated and misunderstood

  JonTMarin2004-08-17

  Coming off his commercially disappointing album "Lovesexy", Prince was into the whole spiritual thing. He conceived "Graffiti Bridge" sometime in 1989, planning to make it a film with him and his then girlfriend Kim Basinger. They broke up but "Graffiti Bridge" was still going to be made. He took time off to compose the "Batman" soundtrack and in late '89, he began filming "Graffiti Bridge". Many that got first dibs on the film forewarned a lot of people about it. "Graffiti Bridge" was released in the fall of 1990 with horrible reviews. It also bombed at the box office. People that didn't even see the film gave it negative reviews. What people fail to understand is that "Graffiti Bridge" is a musical. It is almost like a homage to the old 50's musicals that were filmed on studio lots. This was film on Prince's Paisley Park compound, giving it a cheap look. Perhaps Prince took himself a little bit too seriously when advertising it, and threw people off making them think it is a regular movie. "Graffiti Bridge" is like one long music video. And honestly, the acting is horrible. The highlight of the film has to be the music. That is the whole point. It is a musical and nothing else. So don't watch "Graffiti Bridge" expecting a real movie with drama and great acting. It's a good film but it has it's flaws. Graffiti Bridge- rated R **1/2 out of ****