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9 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Oh dear., 15 September 2004 Author: Dom Martin from Brighton, England
This is a hideously, embarrassingly bad film. Prince spends much of it sliming about attempting to look enticing, wearing a truly disgusting beard and what looks like some kind of toddler's romper suit which gives him the appearance of just having arrived from a special needs pageant. Finding a spider in your bed would be sexier.As for the story, what story? This was an extended pop video for some shockingly bad music made by someone whose talent seems to have melted away faster than the polar ice caps. The sets looked fake; the spiritual aspect of the babble spouted by the characters was utterly ridiculous and the in-jokes and the feel of vanity on show was suffocating.I watched until the end, yes, but I enjoy car crashes.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: What exactly is going on in this movie?, 30 June 2001 Author: Rich Meyer (muzik@ptd.net) from Saint Clair, Pennsylvania
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.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Purple Rain II; made me into a fan., 20 July 1999 Author: Robert Morgan from Indianapolis
My Prince-fan friend had to drag me to this film when it came out; I hated Prince, but was a fan of Elisa Fiorillo (the female vocalist for Love Machine), and hoped she'd be in the film. She wasn't, but the movie kind of got to me, and was instrumental in my getting over my phobic "hatred" of Prince. This movie, while a sequel to Purple Rain, is more a *fantasy* movie. It plays out like a dream, and if you have a hard time accepting a movie willing to suspend reality, then you're never really going to enjoy this film. The "romance" between Aura and the Kid develops oddly, just as one would expect anything with Prince to... the music is great, the dialogue throughout is very lyrical (almost like word jazz; the pacing, flow, and delivery is more important than the words uttered.), the sets and costumes are ethereal. Taken as a whole, and with an open mind, this movie works well.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Yes, it's a mess, but I do like watching it on occasion., 24 February 2003 Author: Craig Carrington from San Francisco, CA
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.
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful: "Awful" doesn't even BEGIN to describe this . . ., 18 April 2000 Author: BrianG from California
Where do you start? I would rather sit through a nonstop marathon of Madonna's movies; I would rather be chained to a stake and have to fight off a horde of ravenous crocodiles while watching Richard Simmons and 300 fat women sweating to the oldies; I would rather listen to a recording of Fran Drescher singing the aria from "The Barber of Seville" in SurroundSound than ever have to sit through this thing again. Absolutely everything about this film is absolutely awful. The ultimate vanity project. Even if you like his music, forcing yourself to submit to this boring, pretentious, disjointed tribute by an egomaniac to himself isn't worth it. Buy the album if you must. Avoid this steaming pile of offal at all costs.
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful: The beginning of a strange decade for +0, 26 August 1999 Author: A.Swerve from home of 2000 Olympics
As I am from Australia I'll tell you the story of how back in 1991, ONE! cinema in all of Australia had the guts to play this film for ONE! week only! The session I went to was full of Prince fans who were all united in anticipation in seeing our main man on the big screen. Little did we care that the script was bad, direction poor and the editing was performed by the janitor at Paisley Park. It's Prince for heavens sake. This one is definitely for the fans who are still putting up with his rapid fall from musical grace in recent years.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: from purple to blue !, 20 December 2006 Author: fayesbridegroom from United States
"graffiti bridge" follows on from "purple rain" prince's movie debut. It is quite a cult film and will only appeal to a limited audience. Visually it is very pleasant to the eye with more delicate choreography than in "purple rain" and musically its a real treat with a sound embraced in the technology of that era, but still lavished with prince's unique musical style. this movie expands on prince's spiritual ethos and retains a quirky mix of childlike innocence and adult sexuality. This movie is quite visionary for musicians as it offers some insight into the need for spiritual direction in music, as in all art. i enjoyed the movie and if you enjoyed movies such as "purple rain" or "interstella 5555" then i think you would probably enjoy this one.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: God, what in the hell was Prince thinking???, 21 August 2000 Author: (2freaky4church@my-deja.com) from Las Vegas Nevada
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"?
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Skip this, buy the soundtrack, 28 November 1999 Author: era-2 from U.S.
All I can say is YUCK! This movie is the worst thing that Prince (The Artist) has ever done, this makes the NEW POWER SOUL cd seem like 1999 in comparison. The music is decent, but the acting is pathetic. Reminds me of some crap that Yoko Ono would come up with.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: Pretty Bad and Offbeat, 7 April 2008 Author: gator1110 from United States
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.
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