GRAFFITI BRIDGE

1990 / Director. Prince.
Review by Glenn Cochrane.

Earlier this week I revisited PURPLE RAIN and wrote a glowing review of it. It was a hokey exercise in vanity but it had the music and aesthetic to hold it together. It was most definitely a product of the 80s with its shoulder-pads, permed hair-styles and daggy dancing. And then came GRAFFITI BRIDGE. This hugely misguided sequel takes away everything that was fun about PURPLE RAIN. The story catches up with the lead character, The Kid, who is now a nightclub owner (and the main attraction of his own club I might add), which is losing business fast. With his rival from the first film also his unwanted business partner, the two engage in a performance duel for sole ownership. Much of the film is a re-hash of the first one but done on an epically disastrous scale. Shot entirely on a soundstage with crappy lighting, styrofoam set pieces and some of the worst choreography committed to celluloid, this is a true contender for all time bad ideas. The film puts more emphasis on musical numbers (bad ones) with very little attention given to story and the whole things comes off like one long music video. Unlike the first film, Prince bursts into song at random moments while doing mundane things... rather than saving the music for on-stage only. Boy is GRAFFITI BRIDGE bad. Probably best left forgotten. 

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