The negative reviews were mainly scathing. "The New York Post" called the film "a mild, slow-moving drama that belatedly tries to argue that graffiti writers are political artists, not an urban blight". The "New York Daily News" called the film "brashly passionate in its desire to express the power and validity of graffiti art. But it's also preachy and single-minded, populated by a world of sympathetic heroes and hissable villains". Sean Axmaker in the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" likened the film to "tomcats spraying outside their yards."