Graffiti Bridge (DVD)

What time is it? Time for Prince to return as The Kid, the role that rendered 1984's film Purple Rain an Oscar and critical acclaim, unfortunately Graffiti Bridge didn't enjoy the critical praise Purple Rain did, but for a Prince fan this movie is great!

Making up for the debacle that was Under the Cherry Moon Prince packs Graffiti Bridge with an amazing musical cast including The Time, George Clinton, Mavis Staples and introduces Tevin Campbell to mass audiences with the hit song Round and Round.

Taking place in a fictional town where music rules all and keeping a club running depends on your level of competition and how far you are willing to go to get the attention needed from audiences. Graffiti Bridge would be laughable if it wasn't for the amazing soundtrack, which as a stand alone doesn't really work, however, inside the framework of the film it works brilliantly adding life to every scene.

Just as well, the acting may not be Oscar caliber but watching Morris Day and Jerome Benton acting foolish, and playing off one another is always fun, just as it was when they were tossing women into dumpsters in Purple Rain. Alternatively Ingrid Chavez's performance is extremely wooden and forced. Her presence in the film is only necessary for sex appeal and as a means to bring the competition between The Kid and Morris to a head as the fate of their individual clubs lay in the balance.

On a whole Graffiti Bridge, like Under the Cherry Moon, will be best enjoyed by Prince fans considering the music is the main character of the film, and the story wouldn't be anything without it.

Taking that into consideration the inclusion of the music videos New Power Generation, The Question of U and the smash hit Thieves in the Temple along with Tevin Campbell's Round and Round are certainly reason enough to buy this DVD for any Prince fan out there. However, I do wish Still Would Stand All Time was included seeing how it is Prince's new age compliment to the title track of Purple Rain.

Overall, while this film works far better than did Under the Cherry Moon, it still doesn't match Purple Rain as far as story and music goes and remains a DVD that will be most appreciated by the die-hard Prince fans world round.