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Mo' Better Blues, 1990, 129 minutes, Rated R
By Steven Fullwood
Okay, let me ask this: isn't Mo' Better Blues just a less-triumphant Purple Rain?
Check out the amazing similarities:
* Mo' Better is about a self-centered musician. So is Purple Rain!
* Mo' Better's Bleek (Denzel Washington) is similar to Purple Rain's the Kid (played by
Prince);
* Shadow (Wesley Snipes) mirrors Morris Day;
* Clarke (Cynda Williams) and Indigo (Joie Lee) both model Apollonia;
* Both films have disgruntled band members; and
* Spike, well, he's just Spike.
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Shadow tells Bleek "maybe you can't
you can't hear her [Clarke] over your music." In Purple Rain, the bar owner tells the
Kid, "Nobody digs your music but yourself." How funny is that? The main
difference is that the Kid got the right (or light) girl and kept his music!
Watching this film a decade after it was originally released is work - mainly to stay
awake. This story of Bleek, whose love affair with two women Clarke and Indigo, with
supporting players, his best friend/manager Giant and rival Shadow drones on for an
excruciating two hours - a great sleeping pill. |
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Every actor, with the exception of
Williams, turned in good performances, despite the one-note characterizations. Williams
probably was hired solely for her fair-skinned looks and to play off Lee's brown-down
sister. Snipes is the best thing in the film, and Washington's performance, although good,
was stiff and boring.
M
March 2000
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